Rian: Fabulous Beast makes dance a pleasure to watch (Dance Review)

It is good seeing dancers having fun on stage, as shown by dancers in the production Rian, meaning "mark" or "trace" in Irish.  Rian was by Irish dance company Fabulous Beast and presented under the Esplanade Dance Festival.

Director and choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan infused folk dance elements into this piece, and the 8 dancers, none of them from Ireland and from diverse dance backgrounds, performed to the music by Liam O Maonlai, who is aso the music director for this production.

The dancers were accompanied by 5 traditional music players  These musicians were also integrated into the piece, where they were put onto the centre stage and also involved in some dance segments.  In this way, the musicians also became part of the dance piece, which in this respect I think Keegan-Dolan did a good job

While earlier reviews found the 2-hour duration of performance long, I did not feel it that much. Possibly the creators had trimmed it to slightly over 1.5 hours for the Singapore run?

The mood of this piece was fun and the audience felt it.  At the end of the performance, the performers deserved a standing ovation from the appreciative audience.