Lord of the Dance star on returning home to perform in Cork Opera House
Gillian Monaghan, star of Lord of the Dance which will open at the Cork Opera House on August 9. Pic: Dan Linehan
Even to the untrained eye, it’s easy to pick a professional dancer out of a lineup.
There’s an elegance about a dancer; they sit with perfect posture and when they walk, it’s almost as if they are floating.
It is for that reason that it was easy for the Irish Examiner to spot Gillian Monaghan in the lobby of Cork Opera House – a Kildorrery native and cast member of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance (LOTD) which takes to the stage in the same venue with its 25th-anniversary tour from August 9 to 13.
For Monaghan, getting to dance as part of the LOTD cast has been a goal for her for as long as she can remember, a gig she describes as “the show you always want to get into” and “one of those things that I always felt like I was going to do”.
But the talent is something that was spotted and nurtured at home from a young age.
Her early interest in dance was nurtured at Farrelly School of Irish Dance, the dance school owned by her mum, Maureen, and her aunt, Eileen.
“I was about two-and-a-half, and I used to just go with my mam to herself and her sister, who used to have [dance] classes in Castletownroche, and I used to try and pick up the steps,” she says.
“There’s home videos and I’m there trying to do difficult heavy dance steps but falling over myself.”
From there, she bloomed as a dancer, getting into competitions from the age of about five.
Although she says getting into dancing “was always a choice” in her house, she explains that “when you get into the competition side of it, and you want to do it competitively and seriously, it is like a sport. There’s a lot of training and discipline that comes with it at a young age, I suppose."
But the training paid off and in no time Monaghan was a very decorated dancer, winning competitions right up until her Leaving Cert.
She humbly lists off her achievements: All-Ireland medals, runner-up in the Irish Dancing World Championships, and being top of the podium at the All-Scotland Championships.
She was also part of the Laochra 1916 centenary performance in Croke Park, a spectacle that would make the hairs on your neck stand on end.
Following her Leaving Cert, as “competitions fizzled out” for her, Monaghan went to the University of Limerick (UL) to study to become a science teacher. Here, she joined dancing societies and her dancing flame was reignited.
On graduating from UL, she decided to send off her CV to different dance shows around the world.
One company, Raglan Road Orlando, replied with a job offer quite different to those her classmates were receiving.
“Backstage at our graduation a lot of my friends had obviously gone straight into teaching, and they were like, ‘Have you got a school?’, and I was like, ‘I’m going to Disneyland Florida’.”
From there it was a whistlestop tour of the globe, with other tours including Irish Celtic, Celtic Legends, Murphy’s Celtic Legacy, Danceperados of Ireland, and Celtic Steps.
“I got experience with different shows that are touring around the world,” she explains, “and it wasn’t until I was dancing in Cyprus in 2018 that I sent my CV off to Lord of the Dance, and I got an email back saying there were auditions in Dublin if [I could] attend them.”
After a weekend of auditions, Monaghan went back on tour, and a few months later while living in Killarney, Co Kerry, she received an email.
“I was living with my friend at the time, and she was in the back room sorting out the meter or something, and I just let out a roar, and she was like, ‘What?! What’s after happening?’ and I was like, ‘Emm, I think I got asked to join the cast!’,” she recalls with a smile.
And so kicked off her journey with Michael Flatley’s tour – beginning first with the Feet of Flames show in Taiwan, then onto the Lord of the Dance Eastern European tour.
Although her love and passion for dancing is obvious, Monaghan, now aged 31, explains that touring can bring its ups and downs.
“It is quite intense, it’s a lot,” she says.
“You know, from the outside it can be that whole ‘glamourous, living on the road, touring the world’ – which is amazing and you get so many amazing experiences from it – but is also a lot of, you know, you get to your hotel; you need to get ready for the next day; you need to know your steps; you need to have all your stuff, your shoes, everything ready; you wake up; you have a bus call time – nobody is late for bus call time; you get bussed to the venue; you’d be doing lineup on stage – that could be the whole day.”
And that’s just the beginning. After the show, “you have to keep on top of staying healthy, being fit, making sure you’re trying to get as much sleep as you can. You don’t finish a show until maybe 10.30pm or 11.30pm, and by the time you ice, and stretch, and clear up, and get the bus back to the hotel, you could arrive at midnight. And you’re on such an adrenaline buzz, you’re in your room wide awake, so you might not get to bed until about 2am.”
Despite it all, she says: “I wouldn’t change it for the world, really. The whole thing is the experience itself.”
Returning home, Monaghan is part of a cast of 15 female dancers, 15 male dancers, two musicians, and a singer, spanning nationalities including Irish (one fellow Cork woman), English, American, Canadian, Hungarian, and Italian.
In total, she has travelled around 25 countries in her dancing career but says there’s something special about performing in her native Cork.
“Even driving in today, I was like, ‘Oh that’s mad, the poster’s up in Cork’ because a lot of our tours have been abroad,” she says adding that “when you know the venue it’s like ‘Oh! I’ve known this place my whole life’. It’s so mad coming back”.
Of course, with a family so entrenched in Irish dancing, she says this is a serendipitous time for them to come and see her perform.
“Luckily, we were [performing] in Dublin in February, so a good few friends and family came to that, but a few couldn’t make the journey, so they’re delighted it’s in Cork.”
However, Monaghan explains that, as her career progresses she is dealing with some injuries and niggles. "There is a time cap on a dancing career.” Couple that with a desire to get back into teaching and she hints that, “Cork, potentially, might be my last few shows.”
And will the man who started it all, Michael Flatley, be there?
“Hopefully, hopefully. I don’t know yet,” she says, “but you’d hope so because it’s bringing it back to Cork. I can’t wait for it.”
- LOTD was conceived and choreographed by Michael Flatley – he is listed in the Guinness World Book of Records as having the world’s fastest feet, achieving 35 taps per second, breaking his previous record of 28.
- LOTD has been the highest-grossing dance show in the world since it began in 1996.
- In 1997, LOTD was the highest-grossing tour of any kind in the world.
- It was conceptualised and staged in just 16 weeks.
- LOTD has now performed sold-out shows in 68 countries worldwide.
- The original LOTD soundtrack achieved gold and silver status in Australia, Canada, and in the UK.
- Over 600 costumes are used between all of the LOTD troupes.
- The average age of LOTD dancers is 22 years old.
- In 1997, 1.3 billion viewers watched a Lord of the Dance performance on the Oscar telecast.
- The cast members complete an estimated 151,200 taps per performance.
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