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
Mariquita (dancer) Mariquita (dancer) Mariquita, often referred to as Madame Mariquita, (1838–1922) was an Algerian-born dancer who became a successful choreographer and ballet mistress at various theatres in Paris from the 1870s until 1920. Mariquita is said to have been found by a female dancer as a small child beside a fountain near Aumale in Algeria. She learnt to dance even before she could read. She arrived in Paris in the 1840s and later became a choreographer and ballet mistress at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, the Folies Bergère and the Opéra Comique. She trained several show dancers of the period including