'Riverdance' takes the stage in China's Tiananmen Square

BEIJING -- When the sequined dancers of the Irish musical sensation "Riverdance" perform this week in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, they won't merely be ushering in the biggest international production ever to hit China.

They'll also be bringing their flashing lights and thundering steps to a swath of hallowed political ground -- the enormous stage where Mao Zedong held forth, and where Communist Party leaders still gather for their public spectacles.

The arrival of the production -- about 100 dancers, musicians and crew members -- illustrates China's growing maturity as a cultural market, aided by the increasingly practical politics of recent years that are allowing more international artists and troupes to stage performances.

Beijing is promoting the show as the finale to its annual arts festival, part of an attempt by the capital to carve out its place on the global cultural stage ahead of another major international production -- the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.

While Western classical and pop culture have gained ground here since the end of Mao's xenophobic policies in the late 1970s, Beijing audiences have had little exposure to Irish performance. The show's director, John McColgan, said he didn't expect that to be a concern.

"When we've played in other cultures and other countries that have not been exposed to Irish music and dance, the response has been phenomenal," he said Wednesday.

"This is one of our best box office records ever," said Zhang Yu, president of China Performing Art Agents, the local promoter and the commercial division of China's Culture Ministry.

"Riverdance" opens today in the Great Hall, the seat of China's nominal legislature and the venue for major Communist Party meetings. Visiting Irish President Mary McAleese and Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a gala performance at the hall on Friday.

The production moves to Shanghai for five performances on Oct. 17-19 before heading to Japan.

The show almost didn't happen at all. Organizers delayed it indefinitely earlier this year during the outbreak of SARS in China, which also caused the postponement of many other events -- including the first-ever concerts here by the Rolling Stones.

But now "Riverdance" is here, and a lunchtime briefing Wednesday featuring brief performances illustrated the reason for the show's appeal.

Though it was performed in a hotel ballroom, meticulous attention was paid to lights, music and even the dry ice that pumped artificial smoke onto the set. Dancers and musicians showed snap, passion and, it appeared, real pleasure.

The show's success "very much lies with the performers who nightly keep the standards so high with such energy and such excellence," said longtime producer Moya Doherty.

Beijing will be the 206th city played by "Riverdance" in eight years of touring.

With two companies now touring, an estimated 12 million people have seen the live performance -- three times Ireland's population. Thousands of young dancers have been inspired to take up Irish dance.

That's not bad for a show that began as a six-minute interval act during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin.

"None of us would have imagined that it would have become the global success that it now is," Doherty said. The original star who helped choreograph the show, Michael Flatley, left it in 1996.

Producers say, if all goes well, they plan to bring "Riverdance" back to China next year for a lengthier tour. After all, the country has the largest potential audience in the world.

"China," said Zhang, the local promoter, "is a big place."