In front of a stunning North Carolina backdrop, an American Irish dancer performs a river dance as you've never seen before
Today Riverdance celebrates its 25th birthday but this is an Irish river dance like you’ve never seen it before. In front of a stunning backdrop in North Carolina, American Irish dancer Hannah Redlich performs her own very special version of river-themed Irish dancing and it's remarkably beautiful.
Choreographed to the song “River” by French-Cuban artists Ibeyi, a song that also has strong Nigerian influences, Redlich puts on her hard shoes and muddy and soaked we see her dancing on the stony banks as a fast-running river and waterfall crash down behind her.
Although far from a song generally associated with Irish dancing, the moves appear to fit in perfectly as Redlich keeps rhythm with her feet.
We then see the river’s water transform the dancer as she converts to soft show steps, just as elegant if not more so than before.
Read more: 23 years ago today Riverdance changed Irish dance forever (VIDEOS)
You may remember Redlich from her previous highly popular video in which she Irish danced to the music from Hamilton, a video that was even shared by Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit show himself.
Again choreographing Irish dance steps to a song not normally linked with the Irish tradition, Redlich performs “Guns and Ships” dressed up in old-timey garb and all.
“If Lin-Manuel Miranda can rap about Alexander Hamilton, I can Irish dance to rap about Alexander Hamilton!” Redlich wrote of the video.
“Talk about fusion!”
In the past month, she’s also taken on another Irish favorite Ed Sheeran, mashing up his hit “Shape of You” with the 90s classic “No Diggity” and providing her own backing track simply with the use of her feet.**
Is there any unusual song you'd like someone to attempt choreographing Irish dance to? Let us know your suggestions in the comments section, below.
* Originally published in 2017.
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