Amy-Mae Dolan: “‘Riverdance’ Makes Me Feel Like the Truest Form of Myself”

Taken from Issue 001 of The Irish Dance Globe. Purchase any remaining copies here while stocks last.

Amy-Mae Dolan is right at home backstage at Dublin’s iconic Gaiety Theatre. It’s August 2023, and Riverdance is mid-way through the final week of its summer run in the Irish capital. The city is enjoying a spell of scorching warm weather as the late afternoon sun beats down on Grafton Street, shoppers parading up and down one of the country’s most popular tourist spots. Principal dancer Amy-Mae has spent almost every day in and around this theatre since June, as part of the annual residency which affords the Riverdance cast the rare opportunity to perform in one venue for three months, following their 165-date, five-month long tour across the US earlier in the year.

I wait outside the theatre’s stage door until Amy-Mae comes out to collect me, emerging with an untamed mane of fiery red curls falling down past her shoulders as she flashes a warm, toothy smile. She’s dressed in her practice gear — a mint green cropped vest and flared black leggings, which she’ll wear for the cast warmup later in the evening. Even off the stage, she immediately exudes the charisma of a leading lady.

Amy-Mae navigates the various cosy backstage rooms with familiarity, guiding us up stairs and through the narrow corridors of the historic theatre. This space has become something of a spiritual second home to her, having spent hundreds of summer evenings here performing for countless audiences over the past six years.

We arrive in the wings of stage right, where Amy-Mae parks herself on a step to tie up her heavy shoes as we prepare to take some photos. I catch myself fondly remembering the first time I watched Riverdance in this very theatre 16 years ago, marking the beginning of a lifelong obsession.

This is the second photoshoot we’ve done with Amy-Mae this year. Back in January, she took to the streets of Orlando, Florida with our photographer around the Walt Disney Theater, where she twirled and leapt and posed in a white flowy dress before Riverdance performed there that evening. She was an effortless subject, I was told, owing to her naturally graceful movements and infectious smile. She rises to the occasion in front of the lens once again today, making even our casual shots look worthy of Riverdance promotional posters.

Everything about Amy-Mae (who’s now 26, she joined the show aged 18) points to the fact that she’s not only comfortable with the demands and responsibilities of the job that has been her life for the last seven years, but that Riverdance itself really is home to her. “A huge part of my identity is Riverdance, because I grew up in it,” she says. And it’s not just her who feels like that. To fans of the show, Amy-Mae is Riverdance — and Irish dancing — personified. From her curly ginger locks, to a magnetic stage presence that’s as dazzling and graceful as it is fierce and sensual, the strong reaction her performances elicit from audiences isn’t lost on her.

“I always get really emotional,” she tells me as we sit in the red velvet chairs of the theatre’s dress circle later in the afternoon. “I have gotten better at accepting compliments. At the start, when people would be like, ‘You’re made for this role’, I’d be like, ‘No I’m not! Not yet. I need to work on it.’ I just appreciate it so much that people enjoy my performance, and if I bring joy to them for even a split second, I just think that’s so beautiful.”

Riverdance has been bringing joy to audiences for nearly 30 years now. Starting out as an interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, 1994, Michael Flatley and Jean Butler’s sensational seven-minute performance was a turning point — a raw, elemental, and awe-inspiring cultural showcase that would change Irish dancing forever.

Ever since Jean opened the full-length version of the show at Dublin’s Point Theatre in 1995, the leading ladies of Riverdance have had big shoes to fill. Each dancer who has stepped into that role over the years has brought their own unique qualities that have helped the show to evolve, while also honouring its core blueprint. “You’re trying to keep the essence of it alive,” says Amy-Mae. “You never want to change it so much that people don’t love it. You want to make people feel comfortable and at ease and recognise it. But, if you’re telling the truth, you want them to be like, ‘That’s the best principal dancer I’ve ever seen.’”

Many would agree that Amy-Mae is precisely that. She was promoted to lead after just three months with the show, going on to tour all over the world and performing for important figures like Pope Francis and President Biden. Then, the moment arrived that her whole career had been leading up to: she was picked to open Riverdance’s 25th anniversary tour in 2020 at the 3Arena in Dublin — a defining moment in the show’s history that would solidify her legacy in a long line of legendary Irish dancers. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a role in my life again that lives up to how passionate I am for it,” says Amy-Mae. “I really believe that I was destined to do that.”

Amy-Mae was only 22 months old when her family discovered that she had a natural talent for Irish dancing. At least that’s how her mum, Siobhan, a former Irish dancer herself, tells it. As the story goes, Amy-Mae went missing as a toddler when accompanying her mum to pick up a cousin from Irish dancing class. After frantically searching the carpark and toilets they soon found a tiny Amy-Mae in the dance class with the older girls, trying her best to participate. “I think the teacher was like, ‘She could be a world champion with toes like that!’” Amy-Mae recalls.

There wasn’t much to do growing up in the Northern Irish countryside town of Aghyaran, County Tyrone. She’s the oldest of her three siblings, sisters Rylee, 21 — who danced until she was around seven — and nine-year-old Scarlett who still dances, and brother Alex, 19, who managed to avoid the Irish dancing world altogether. For Amy-Mae, Irish dancing — which she started learning properly from around age four — became a form of play. “When I was outside, my parents said that I was dancing. Or my school teachers remember me dancing to the toilet. People are like, ‘She never walked anywhere.’” She immediately fell in love with everything about Irish dancing, including the innumerable challenges that arose in the pursuit of mastering it. “I worked so hard at it because I loved it,” she says.

Amy-Mae would pass the time watching her VHS video tape of Riverdance on repeat, always skipping through the non-Irish dancing parts. “I was obsessed with it,” she says. She first saw the show live in 2007 in Letterkenny, County Donegal, where she watched the Irish dance numbers from her dad’s lap so she could see better. “I loved it, I wanted to touch them almost. I want to join them.”

In the meantime, her interest in feising grew and it quickly became apparent that Amy-Mae had a great deal of potential, especially after she won out of all her grades in one day. She went on to win the Ulster Championships in Under 10 and qualified for the World Championships in Belfast, 2008, where she placed runner-up, before securing her first major title that same year at the North American Nationals in Nashville. “I do feel like, from that year, I had kind of left a little bit of my mark within the scene,” she recalls.

A couple of years later, Amy-Mae won the highest title in competitive Irish dance: the World Championships. “I wish I could remember more,” she says, reflecting on that day in Glasgow, Scotland in 2010 where everything just went right. “I just remember being like—” she pauses, miming a scream, “and the tears flooding.”

It was the top result of Amy-Mae’s competitive career, but one she would never reach on the World stage again. In fact, Amy-Mae suspects she might be a contender for the record of the most second placements by a female Irish dancer ever in CLRG. Throughout her years competing at the Worlds from 2008-2017, during most of which she spent training with the Carson Kennedy Academy, her results went like this: second, second, first, second, fourth, second, second, second, third, fourth. “You know that everyone who’s below second would just love to be you. I wasn’t in denial of that,” she says. “But you constantly felt like you were pushing.”

While Amy-Mae was giving 100 per cent every time she competed, repeatedly finishing in the runner-up position meant that everyone in her corner was “constantly questioning” what more they could be doing. “You’re literally living and breathing [dancing], trying to improve. Which is a lot. It’s all consuming. And then you think that it’s worked. And then it’s like, ‘Second again.’”

A humble dancer by nature, the disappointment in falling short of the top spot was never about pride, but her innate drive to fulfil her potential. She may not have known it at the time, but those years spent standing next to the top of the podium were formative. It also pushed Amy-Mae to work on branding herself as the kind of elegant dancer that might one day be perfect for the stage. “It’s shaped so much of who I am. And if that maybe wasn’t happening to me, I don’t know if Riverdance would have happened,” she says.

In old competition videos of her dancing, you can spot the very qualities she brought to the stage — a poker straight posture, beautiful turned out feet, and graceful tippy toes that no doubt add a couple of inches onto her height. But watching Amy-Mae in Riverdance now, it’s hard to believe there was ever a part of her that doubted if she was ready. She participated in the Riverdance Summer School in 2016, a moment where she stopped hoping for a future with the show, and instead became determined to “make sure” she had one.

But Amy-Mae struggled to pick up the choreography, spending her nights in the Trinity College dorms running over the steps, making sure she had them down for the next day. By the end of the week, she had made an impression and was selected to perform in the matinee with the Riverdance cast. “I think it was hysteria almost,” Amy-Mae recalls, laughing. “And then it went so fast. I came off and I was like, ‘I want to do it again!’”

At the same time, Amy-Mae had just finished year 13 and was feeling the pressure to go to university like her schoolmates. She was planning to study medicine, having secured the required GCSE grades and passed the interviews; now she just needed her A-Levels. But, when results day came, a B grade in chemistry put her university place on the line. Then things took another twist. Exactly one day after receiving that disappointing exam result, her mum got a call from Riverdance offering Amy-Mae a spot on their upcoming tour of China. She took it in a heartbeat.

Still, a tour with Riverdance didn’t guarantee her a permanent spot in the troupe or a long-term career with the show — she still had to think about her future. But by the end of that three-month run, Amy-Mae was offered to join the North American troupe that was touring simultaneously, after a couple of spaces had opened up. “That’s probably one of the biggest accomplishments I’ve ever had, because I’d only done one tour, I was the youngest girl on that tour,” she says. “I had worked so hard, and they saw that in me enough to offer me to join that cast.”

However, the dates were cruelly due to overlap with her exam retake. She was agonising about whether she should do the test while the content was fresh, but was also fearful of closing the door on Riverdance. Amy-Mae, her mum, and the general manager of the show came to the conclusion that she should do the exam, then she could make herself available in the future. However, the timing that at first seemed painfully inconvenient, was actually the very reason that all her wildest dreams came true.

While she was home, Amy-Mae had decided to go back to dance class and compete in the World Championships. She placed fourth, her lowest Worlds result in five years. However, Riverdance’s executive producer, Padraic Moyles, was presenting the awards for her age group. When Amy-Mae walked onto the stage to collect her globe, Padraic whispered something in her ear as he put the medal around her neck. Amy-Mae frantically raised her hands to her face, her mouth falling open in shock and disbelief. They wanted to make her a principal dancer. Crucially, they needed someone soon, and Amy-Mae was available. “I just remember my legs, it felt like they left me,” Amy-Mae says. “[I was] really hoping I heard it right,” she adds, laughing. “I think that’s possibly one of the most exciting moments of my life.”

It was the last presentation she would ever have as a competitive dancer, yet she couldn’t wait to get off the stage to share the news with her parents. “It’s so poetic. It’s my last competition ever. I’m stood on the podium. And I’ve just been told that the biggest achievement you could have as a female Irish dancer, to me, was about to come true.” At that point, she had only done one tour. She was only 19. And yet, they saw that Amy-Mae was destined for something greater. She may have never clinched another Worlds win, but she earned an even better title: lead in Riverdance. Amy-Mae trained for the role while studying for her retake, dancing in Dublin nine-to-five before going back to the hotel to study. She did the exam the day before her first lead show in the same theatre we’re currently sitting in. She got the A.

“From the moment Amy-Mae entered into the Riverdance Summer School, everything about her informed us that she had the qualities to be a lead performer,” Padraic tells me over email in the autumn. “Aside from being a world-class dancer, Amy-Mae is an elite performer and she possesses a unique presence that is hard to put into words.” Padraic points to Amy-Mae’s “incredible” talent when it comes to displaying her “emotion, strength, regalness, confidence, and vulnerability”.

He continues: “She always displays an unyielding curiosity to learn and grow, which is why she continues to improve every time she takes to the stage. She is a natural leader within the wider Riverdance team, she is intelligent and cares about others. It’s Amy-Mae’s hunger to grow, in all aspects of life, that will keep her at the top of her game for years to come and allow her to leave a legacy that will continue to inspire dancers for generations.”

When the moment finally arrived for Amy-Mae to perform her first lead at the Gaiety in June 2017, she waited perhaps a little too anxiously side stage. “I was like, ‘All I know is that I’m never going to do this again. Why did I do this myself? This is so much pressure,’” she says. “And then, about five seconds into it, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is amazing.’” As soon as she emerged for ‘Countess Cathleen’, the female lead’s opening number, all of her fears melted away. “What I loved, and still love, is that you feel so safe. It’s such a weird way to describe it. You’re on the stage by yourself, but you feel so content and isolated in a really nice way,” she explains. “I came off and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to do it for forever!’ The adrenaline of it was just insane.”

Many of Amy-Mae’s personal highlights with Riverdance have been historic moments for the show itself, too. In 2018, she performed lead in front of Pope Francis with 63 cast members at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin’s Croke Park. “I had been lead for that full year. But when something as big as that comes up, you do get scared,” she says. Even in an 82,300-person capacity venue, she performed with as much intimacy and intensity as she would for the 1,145 seats in the Gaiety.

Her face was warm, inviting, and radiated passion in a performance that just seemed to hit all the right notes for the occasion. However, the showcase almost started with a major mishap. Amy-Mae was awaiting a cue to make her way onto the stage — but it never came. Suddenly, the opening notes of Bill Wheelan’s iconic score started playing and she ran through hundreds of people to make it just in time. “That was the thing that probably needed to happen, because the focus was just so insane,” she says. “Fight or flight kicked in, so I think that had a huge impact on the performance.”

In February 2020, the moment arrived that Amy-Mae’s entire life had been leading up to. Riverdance had gone “dark” the previous year and didn’t tour for some months — during which Amy-Mae and much of the cast performed with the West End show Heartbeat Of Home — but for about four months, she didn’t take on any other work. Amy-Mae instead treated her training like a full-time job, aware that the biggest opportunity of her life was within reach as Riverdance looked ahead to its revamped 25th anniversary tour. “I know at the time people were probably like, ‘Oh my god, she’s crazy’. But I actually don’t regret it at all,” she says. “It became my whole existence.”

As captured in the BBC documentary Born To Riverdance, one male and one female lead dancer were going to be chosen to open the 25th anniversary gala show at Dublin’s 3Arena — which stands on the hallowed site of the Point Theatre — where original leading lady Jean was going to be in attendance. “I really, really wanted it, I just knew it was going to be historic,” Amy-Mae says. It was also being filmed for a nationwide cinema release. “I watched those lead dancers on DVD my whole life. I want girls to watch me and hopefully be inspired by me.”

Amy-Mae ensured she was in the strongest shape of her life, while also analysing the special qualities of the other lead dancers who she looked up to. She would examine the show on a molecular level, going so far as to dissect ballet performances online. “I really went into detail. And I don’t regret that for a single second,” she says. It was only right given the significance of the milestone. “People hear ‘Riverdance’ and they think of culture and professionalism and spreading Ireland around the world,” she says. “I really wanted it so bad. So it wouldn’t have mattered what anyone threw at me. I was willing to take that responsibility on.”

Part of her preparations included eagerly interrogating her male partner Bobby Hodges about every minuscule detail of their performance, who very much noticed her efforts. “Amy-Mae will give 200 per cent every single show,” Bobby tells me over the phone from Sydney, Australia, where he now lives and teaches Irish dancing with his fiancée, former Riverdance lead Natasia Petracic. “She’s an incredible talent, she’s an amazing performer, but what people don’t realise is that she’s also a very conscientious person.” Bobby, who was born in Bristol, United Kingdom, was far more experienced professionally when Amy-Mae entered the show, but he insists that her meticulous approach helped him to bring out his best performance, too. “It wasn’t one way. I learned a lot from Amy-Mae,” he says. “She is one hell of a talent, but she’s an even better human being.”

The anniversary run at the 3Arena was a triumph. “Our five shows were simply everything I ever dreamed of as a little girl,” Amy-Mae shared to her Instagram followers at the time. Though the Covid-19 pandemic brought the rest of the tour to a pause, it’s plain to see that Amy-Mae’s unwavering devotion to Riverdance only intensified in the interim.

When I take my seat in the Gaiety’s parterre section that evening, I’m struck by how many different languages I hear swirling around in the intimate but electric pre-show atmosphere. Moments away from watching the show for the tenth-plus time, I’m reminded of the deeply visceral feeling that Riverdance evokes. The goosebumps, the breathlessness, the tears; it doesn’t require words or a common language. It’s a pretty big responsibility to carry audiences through that journey.

“I do feel like it’s still magical to me, the actual show, the music,” Amy-Mae says when I ask how she holds onto the wonder of it all. “It’s sensational, it’s spine-tingling, and it’s emotional.” Her eyes are pricked with tears at this point. “It makes me feel like the truest form of myself,” she concludes. “I’m the happiest, healthiest person when I’m performing Riverdance.”