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Dancing on Dangerous Ground is an Irish dance show created by and starring Jean Butler and Colin Dunne. It premiered in London at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1999. The show made its American debut in New York at Radio City Music Hall in 2000.
The ensemble and the three main characters are introduced during the surreal prologue: Finn McCool (a non-dancing role played by Tony Kemp), high king of Ireland; Diarmuid (Colin Dunne), captain of the Fianna—Finn's army; and Grania (Jean Butler), Finn's betrothed. The scene fades away and the prologue breaks open into the Court of Finn McCool, where Diarmuid is displayed as the best soldier at court and Finn's devoted and trusted servant. Soon afterwards Grania arrives and is introduced to her fiancé for the first time. Finn welcomes her and presents her with four bodyguards sworn to protect her.
Life at court continues as usual, Diarmuid and Grania unaware of each other. Diarmuid continues to drill the Fianna and Grania hosts pre-wedding celebrations for the ladies of the court. The two eventually meet in a late-night bar and their fate is sealed.
The second act opens with the wedding of Grania and Finn. Diarmuid attends the celebrations and leaves distraught. Grania realizes that her happiness lies with Diarmuid. She and her handmaidens slip a powerful sedative into the wine, drugging Finn and his soldiers. Diarmuid returns and discovers Grania over the unconscious Finn. The two escape the palace for the temporary safety of the wilderness.
The Fianna awaken from their stupor, bound and weak-kneed. They break free and an enraged Finn calls upon them and the women of the court to seek out the lovers. They comb the forest furiously and in the ensuing frenzy Diarmuid and Grania are separated. Finn's legion surrounds Diarmuid and kills him. Grania returns to the forest and finds the body of her beloved. Unable to cope with the loss of Diarmuid, she withers in despair. She awakens and finds herself in the company of the ghostly figures from the prologue. Diarmuid is among them and the two are reunited.
The story is based on the Fenian tale The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne (the original spelling of "Grania"), but many important details have been changed. Most importantly, the Fianna doesn't kill Diarmuid in the original version. Gráinne's father, Cormac, intercedes on her behalf and offers Fionn his other daughter in exchange for Gráinne's freedom. Fionn accepts the offer and gives up his pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne.
The show was not well received when it opened in London. It was dismissed as another Irish dance show in the Riverdance vein and critics felt it did not live up to its claim of dramatic storytelling through Irish dance. Changes were made to the order and execution of the dance numbers before the show opened in New York, where it received highly favorable reviews. Despite the good press and advance sales for the Canadian premiere in Toronto, the show was unable to continue touring due to debts generated in London.
Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era. In the early medieval era, some myths were transcribed by Christian monks, who heavily altered and Christianised the myths. Irish mythology is the best-preserved branch of Celtic mythology.
Fionn mac Cumhaill, often anglicized Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is the leader of the Fianna bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer and poet. He is said to have a magic thumb that bestows him with great wisdom. He is often depicted hunting with his hounds Bran and Sceólang, and fighting with his spear and sword. The tales of Fionn and his fiann form the Fianna Cycle or Fenian Cycle, much of it narrated by Fionn's son, the poet Oisín.
Cormac mac Airt, also known as Cormac ua Cuinn or Cormac Ulfada, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He is probably the most famous of the ancient High Kings, and may have been an authentic historical figure, although many legends have attached themselves to him, and his reign is variously dated as early as the 2nd century and as late as the 4th. He is said to have ruled from Tara, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland, for forty years, and under his rule, Tara flourished. He is credited for building many of the monuments at the Hill of Tara such as the Banqueting Hall, Cormac's house, and Gráinne's Enclosure, named after his daughter. He was famous for his wise, true, and generous judgments. In the Annals of Clonmacnoise, translated in 1627, he is described as:
"absolutely the best king that ever reigned in Ireland before himself...wise learned, valiant and mild, not given causelessly to be bloody as many of his ancestors were, he reigned majestically and magnificently".
Manannán or Manann, also known as Manannán mac Lir, is a warrior and king of the Otherworld in Irish and Manx mythology who is associated with the sea and often interpreted as a sea god, usually as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, also known as Diarmuid of the Love Spot, was a hero and demigod, son of Donn and one of the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is best known as the lover of Gráinne, the intended wife of Fianna leader Fionn mac Cumhaill in the legend The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne. Among his sons were Donnchadh, Iollann, Ruchladh and Ioruad.
Fianna were small warrior-hunter bands in Gaelic Ireland during the Iron Age and early Middle Ages. A fian was made up of freeborn young males, often from the Gaelic nobility of Ireland, "who had left fosterage but had not yet inherited the property needed to settle down as full landowning members of the túath". For most of the year they lived in the wild, hunting, cattle raiding other Irish clans, training, and fighting as mercenaries. Scholars believe the fian was a rite of passage into manhood, and have linked fianna with similar young warrior bands in other early European cultures.
Cumhall or Cumhall mac Trénmhoir is a figure in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, a leader of the fianna and the father of Fionn mac Cumhaill.
The Fenian Cycle, Fianna Cycle or Finn Cycle is a body of early Irish literature focusing on the exploits of the mythical hero Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warrior band the Fianna. Sometimes called the Ossianic Cycle after its narrator Oisín, it is one of the four groupings of Irish mythology along with the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, and the Kings' Cycles. Timewise, the Fenian cycle is the third, between the Ulster and Kings' cycles. The cycle also contains stories about other famous Fianna members, including Diarmuid, Caílte, Oisín's son Oscar, and Fionn's rival Goll mac Morna.
Gráinne, sometimes anglicised Grania, is the daughter of king Cormac mac Airt in the Fianna Cycle of Irish mythology. She is one of the central figures in the Middle Irish text Finn and Gráinne, as well as the 17th-century tale The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, which tells of her betrothal to Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Fianna, and her subsequent elopement with Fionn's warrior Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.
Oisín, Osian, Ossian, or anglicized as Osheen was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, a warrior of the Fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the demigod son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and of Sadhbh, and is the narrator of much of the cycle and composition of the poems are attributed to him.
Jean Butler is an American stepdancer, Irish dancer, choreographer, and actress. She is best known for originating the principal female role in the Irish dance theatrical production Riverdance. In January 2020 it was announced she is a member of the Irish America Hall of Fame, an honor presented by Irish America magazine.
The loathly lady, is a tale type commonly used in medieval literature, most famously in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale. The motif is that of a woman who appears unattractive but undergoes a transformation upon being approached by a man in spite of her unattractiveness, becoming extremely desirable. It is then revealed that her ugliness was the result of a curse which was broken by the hero's action.
Colin Dunne is an English-Irish dancer and choreographer who is a leading figure in the world of traditional Irish dance, as well as a theatre actor and contemporary dancer. Best known internationally for his performances and choreography in Riverdance and Dancing on Dangerous Ground, he transitioned to contemporary dance after earning an MA in that style as an artist-in-residence at the University of Limerick in 2002. In 2007, he was nominated for a UK Critics Circle National Dance Award for performances at The Barbican in Fabulous Beast's production of The Bull. His first solo show, Out of Time, premiered in 2008.
The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn is a medieval Irish narrative belonging to the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. As its title implies, it recounts the boyhood exploits of Fionn mac Cumhaill, the cycle's central figure.
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne is an Irish prose narrative surviving in many variants. A tale from the Fianna Cycle of Irish mythology, it concerns a love triangle between the great warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, the beautiful princess Gráinne, and her paramour Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. Surviving texts are all in Modern Irish and the earliest dates to the 16th century, but some elements of the material date as far back as the 10th century.
Diarmuid and Grania is a play in poetic prose co-written by George Moore and W. B. Yeats in 1901, with incidental music by the English composer Edward Elgar.
Irish Fairy Tales is a retelling of ten Irish folktales by the Irish author James Stephens. The English illustrator Arthur Rackham provided interior artwork, including numerous black and white illustrations and sixteen color plates. The stories are set in a wooded, Medieval Ireland filled with larger-than-life hunters, warriors, kings, and fairies. Many stories concern the Fianna and their captain, Fionn mac Uail, from the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.
The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool is a children's novel by Rosemary Sutcliff and was first published in 1967. It is a retelling of the stories of Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Fenian Cycle. According to her own statements in the introduction, these stories are closer to Folklore and Fairytale, being timeless and contradictory, having organically grown from generations of storytellers; she contrasts them to the Ulster Cycle stories of Cuchulainn, which belong to the Heroic Epic, and compare with the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Bran and Sceólang are the hounds of Fionn mac Cumhaill in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.