Riverdance from the packed theatre of 4,000 people. The performance is often considered the most well known interval act in Eurovision Song Contest history. Riverdance was later performed as an interval act at both the "" (2005) and "Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits" (2015) events. Lead dancers Michael Flatley and Jean Butler transformed the previously chaste and reserved traditional dance form into something else entirely. The song "Riverdance" was released as a single and entered the Irish Singles Chart at No. 1 right after the Eurovision debut, staying there for 18 weeks—the longest amount of time a song has ever topped
Richard Thomas (dancer) Richard Thomas (dancer) Richard Scott Thomas (December 3, 1925 – July 27, 2013) was an American dancer, educator, and co-founder of the New York School of Ballet along with his wife Barbara Fallis. He is known as a teacher of Eliot Feld and Twyla Tharp Thomas was born on December 3, 1925, in Kentucky. Following his first exposure to a performance by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo – while visiting relatives in Seattle, Washington – he entered the tutelage of Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Bronislava Nijinska in Los Angeles, and Vincenzo Celli and Anatole Vilzak in New York.