How a New Generation is Keeping Riverdance Fresh for Its 30th Anniversary Tour

For three decades, Riverdance has captivated audiences worldwide, blending the rich tradition of Irish dance with innovative theatrical spectacle. Few people understand the evolution of this global phenomenon better than Pádraic Moyles.

Born in Dublin and raised in New York, Moyles began his career at the age of 12, acting in Grandchild of Kings at the Irish Rep, under the direction of the legendary Harold Prince. He joined Riverdance in 1997, where he worked his way up the ranks to become dance captain and principal dancer. After a stint on Broadway in The Pirate Queen, he returned to Riverdance and eventually transitioned into leadership, helping to shape its future while preserving its storied past.

Today, Moyles oversees Riverdance as executive producer and associate director. His deep understanding of the production—from choreography to logistics, from mentoring dancers to staging global tours—makes him the perfect figure to discuss how Riverdance continues to evolve while staying true to its roots.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Take me through your Riverdance trajectory. Did you always have a long-term goal of steering the ship?
From the moment that I joined Riverdance, I wanted to learn everything there was to know about it. How do you run the business? How do the finances work? How do deals work with promoters?

As a dancer, I used to show up in each theater and go, “How do they have the same set here? How does that trucking and packing work?” I’m just curious about it. I’ve always been supported by the owners of the brand: the composer, Bill Whelan, John McColgan, our director, and Moya Doherty, our producer. They take great pride in watching people rise through the company and take on different roles.

My transition from dancer to the other side began around 2011, but I’ve been my current role, executive producer of Riverdance, for about 18 months now. I don’t know if it was ever a goal; the goal was just to learn.

When I think of Riverdance, I think of the old PBS special from the 1990s. How has the show evolved since then? How does it stay fresh?
First and foremost, it’s up to the creators and producers to put the little bells and whistles around things as technology changes. What we have today, we didn’t have 30 years ago. Bill re-recorded his entire Grammy-winning score to freshen it up. We can change the set and the contents of the screens, and the costumes.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to the people that we have on stage, what energy they bring, the discipline, their athleticism, their creative ability. They weren’t born when this started, so this has been their dream. That brings a different level of passion than we had 30 years ago.

And I imagine for Irish kids growing up these days, Riverdance is part of the culture in a way that it wasn’t when people like Michael Flatley were coming up.
We used to just call it Irish dancing back then. Now they call it Riverdancing. That’s how it’s kind of changed the culture. And the great thing is, it’s being done everywhere in the world. In the show today, we have Americans, Canadians, Australians. We’ve had Japanese dancers, Mexican, Moldovan, Ukrainian. Dancers from all over the world are joining Riverdance, which is incredible.

It’s important to allow the tradition to evolve. Riverdance was a break outside the norm, right? We were seen as untraditional because we used our arms. It’s important that we allow the art and the culture to evolve, while also understanding and respecting the history. It needs to evolve, or else you’re touring the same show for 30 years and no one wants to see that anymore. And if the artists aren’t allowed to create, they’re not going to feel a sense of ownership of what they do on stage. When you involve them and allow them to have a voice, the buy in is 10 times better.

How do you find dancers these days? What do you look for?
We have Riverdance academies in Boston and Dublin. Thousands of kids from all over the world come to those academies every year starting at the age of six.

Of course, you have to be a great dancer. We know that. But you also have to know the person you’re hiring. You have to get an idea of what they’re like. We also look for people that can add value in other areas. I love seeing young kids that are entrepreneurs coming into the show. They have a sense of grit and determination and they’re ok with experiencing failure. It’s not always about being perfect for them.

It’s a very hard industry; nobody comes into this industry and leaves unscathed in some way. It’s important for every producer or anybody that’s running an organization to look after the people. To try and educate them the best they can by the time they leave, and they always leave, because they only have a finite period of time. But we look at it as an infinite period of time in terms of education. If you’re here for four or five years, make sure you know how the lighting desk works, even if you don’t have an interest in it. Because you never know.

What goes into producing a show like Riverdance? How do you put together a tour route at this point?
A lot of that comes down to what theaters are available; distance, so you can fit eight shows into any given week; knowing the markets that you’ve done well in; knowing what you have to improve on. There’s the whole business side to it, too. You’re on weekly guarantees or profit splits. It’s fascinating. It’s a huge risk. Huge.

On a tour like this, you’re doing 22 weeks of eight shows a week, so recovery and preparation and maintenance is vitally important. There are also the crew guys who are loading the show in and out, up to three times a week in some cases. Their job is never easy. They don’t get the same applause as the actors, but they deserve it, because without them, it’s not possible either. And then you have a team in an office trying to do the marketing and press and coming up with a new piece of merch. You wish everybody got to meet each other, and that’s not always possible.

The most important part of it all is the audience and making them feel like what they’ve watched was worth every penny of their hard-earned money. The motto here is “Every night is opening night.” If you go out there and give it 100 percent, you have the opportunity to change how somebody’s day is. They come to the theater to forget about life for a moment. We can never, ever forget the importance of the audience.