At the Pyramids

We went to Giza Egypt to perform with Riverdance in June 2010. The pyramids set an amazing backdrop to the stage we were performing on. We were delighted to be performing along with other artists including Mariah Carey. This photo was put together using two different photos of the cast jumping on front of the pyramids.

Riverdance Conquer Byblos!

The Cast and Crew of Riverdance were recently invited to perform at the prestigious International Festival of Byblos. This fascinating city is reported to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world; it has been conquered by at least nineteen different civilisations and boasts some of the world’s most fascinating ruins, which are literally part of the city. The architecture of the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, the Crusaders and so many more are woven in to the fabric of the city.

St John's Church

Shona Cobbe, Fiona McCabe, Deirdre Dowling, Sarah Lou, Damien Murphy, Rachel Mulvihill, Ben Devlin, Mairead Masuda, Ciara McGillan, Ryan MaCarthy, Niamh Eustace

Dancing the show in high temperatures over the sea with high winds was challenging. The odd gust of wind certainly kept everyone on their toes, and big smiles on our faces (even at more serious points of the show). Backstage was very hot, but luckily we had a couple of air conditioned cabins, which seemed freezing after coming off stage. There was a great troupe of Riverdancers in Byblos, who spent all their time together exploring the city, sunbathing and enjoying the vibrant nightlife.

Rotations and run through while looking at the Mediterranean Sea

It was humbling to know we were performing 100 yards away from ancient ruins including remarkable castles, fortifications, homes of these ancient civilisations and a Roman Amphitheatre. The crew and everyone backstage worked hard, on what were essentially ancient coastal caves and rocks, to produce a great set with quality sound and lighting in difficult conditions. It was an honour to perform the show in such a culturally and historically important city. We performed the show in the open air directly on the beach in front of over seven thousand-years of history to a capacity crowed and standing ovations from enthusiastic audiences.

The audiences’ view of Riverdance directly in front of fascinating ruins

Byblos is famous for the discovery of the oldest written alphabet dated around 1250 BC. An inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram, written by his son Ithobaal, warned of curses against any who disturb the final resting place of the King. The Phoenician alphabet, which contained 22 letters, inspired the Aramaic alphabet, which was the ancestor of the modern Arabic and Hebrew scripts. The Greek, Latin, and modern alphabets also include characters from the Phoenician alphabet. The name ‘Bible’ in fact comes from the city’s name Byblos.

A Roman road at the top of the picture, at the bottom are well preserved dwellings dating back to the earliest urbanized period in Byblos, around the 3rd Millennium B.C.

The people of Byblos are warm and welcoming and made every effort to make us as comfortable as possible. They are proud of their amazing and unique history and happy to tell the amazing stories that shaped this city. Our guide in the ancient ruins of the old town, Zahid, showed us artefacts that were over five thousand-years-old. The oldest part of these Phoenician ruins is an ancient eight thousand-year-old path, which is believed to be the main path to the beach from this ancient settlement of fishermen.

Inhabitants of Byblos have been fishing here for at least 8000 years and still do today

The manager of the Hotel Ahriam, Karim, generously gave me a personal gift of an authenticated two thousand-year-old small perfume pot, from his museum, which is under construction at the Hotel. The beauty of the architecture, history and location of Byblos is difficult to overestimate and it was a privilege to perform here. The Cast and Crew all enjoyed a fantastic week and want to sincerely thank everyone who was involved in bringing us to Byblos as well as every member of the audience.

Performing Distant Thunder in high winds felt amazing and the audience loved it Below, the boys and girls in the old town

The boys stand strong in high winds

Alan Kenefick, Ciara McGillan, Mark Gorman, Ryan MaCarthy, Deirdre Dowling and Michael Maguire, relaxing in the pool at Eden Sands Resort in beautiful sunshine

This Article can be seen on the Official Riverdance Website

Our first Feis

So we have set up the business now and since doing this we have set up at many Feis'. Some include the Maguire O'Shea Academy Class Feis and the European Oireachtas in Bremen. Class Feis' are great fun. I love taking action shots of the baby beginners, they are so entertaining! We drove to Bremen to do the European Oireachtas in November 2009. It took nearly 10 hours to get there. We got straight to work setting up all the equipment. We had a great weekend meeting lots of people. We were honoured to be asked back again to the Oireachtas in Stuttgart this year as the Official Photographer.

Finally set up a blog!

Hi everyone. I finally set up a blog. For those of you who don't know, Mike and I have set up our own Photography business called Time In Focus. We do all kinds of event photography but mainly Irish dance competitions. The idea came from being on the road traveling with Riverdance around the world where we took some amazing photographs. As Irish Dancers we understand the technique and the exact time needed to take that action shot. So after I graduated from University I took my hobby to a professional level and together we have built this business which I am very excited about! You can follow us on this blog where I will be updating my whereabouts with photographs and stories from our travels. Enjoy!