Dancing enriched whiteness: race and gender in commercial Irish dance performance from Riverdance to the Trump Inaugural Ball

ABSTRACTIn January 2017, Michael Flatley introduced male members of the cast of Lord of the Dance performing at President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Ball. Flatley’s decision for the cast to perform at the Inaugural Ball was widely criticised as showing support for a white nationalist president. In this article, I demonstrate how this performance – and the implicit aligning of Irish dance with white American nationalist rhetoric – were not aberrant but in fact followed a trend developed in commercial Irish dance stage shows of the late 20th century. Through an analysis of the early performances and rhetoric surrounding Riverdance and Lord of the Dance in the mid-late 1990s, I demonstrate how Irish American whiteness is performed in these shows and directly contributes to Irish American identity as a form of what Diane Negra calls “enriched whiteness.” I further argue that the Inaugural Ball performance built on this history, embodying white nationalist hypermasculinity through the use of Irish dance and American nationalist projections alongside the exclusion of women.KEYWORDS: Irish danceIrish Americawhitenessgenderrace Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. “Flatley ‘proud’ to introduce dancers at Trump inauguration,” RTÉ, January 21, 2017, https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2017/0119/846093-michael-flately-could-be-dancing-for-trump/.2. Ivie, “All the Musicians Who Have Reportedly Turned Down an Invitation.”3. Flatley, “Lord of the Dance Perform at Trump Inaugural Ball.”4. Negra, “The Irish in Us,” 1–2.5. Lennon, “Irish Orientalism,” 130.6. Mills, The Racial Contract, 80.7. Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White.8. Lloyd, “Black Irish, Irish Whiteness, and Atlantic State Formation,” 3–19; and O’Neill, Famine Irish and the American Racial State.9. O’Neill, Famine Irish and the American Racial State, 6.10. Ibid.11. Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence, 90.12. Ibid.13. Williams, ‘Twas Only an Irishman’s Dream, 238–39.14. Nugent Duffy, Who’s Your Paddy, 3.15. Keali’inohomoku, “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance”; Foster, “Worlding Dance – An Introduction”; and Manning, Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion.16. Manning, Modern Dance, Negro Dance, 10–11.17. Negra, “The Irish in Us,” 1.18. O’Connor, The Irish Dancing, 125–26.19. Moloney et al., “The Impact of Riverdance on Irish Dance,” 87–88.20. Ibid.21. Wulff, Ballet Across Borders, 36–37.22. “Riverdance Leaps into the Art World,” Evening Herald, May 26, 1998; “Banging the Drum,” Irish Independent, February 18, 1995; and Aughney, “Intel to Make New Chip Here.”23. See Foley, “Perceptions of Irish Step Dance,” 34–45; Moloney et al., “The Impact of Riverdance on Irish Dance”; and O’Toole, The Ex-Isle of Erin, 143–46, and others.24. Hall, Competitive Irish Dance, 126–27; and Wulff, Dancing at the Crossroads, 112.25. O’R, “‘Riverdance’ Show Exploded Into Life.”26. Moloney et. al., “The Impact of Riverdance on Irish Dance,” 143–44.27. Foley, “Perceptions of Irish Step Dance,” 39.28. Qtd. in Foley, “Perceptions of Irish Step Dance,” 38.29. In this case, “normal prosperous Europeans” refers to Western Europeans, as Eastern and Southern Europeans were also often Othered. See David Chioni Moore, “Is the Post- in Postcolonial the Post- in Post-Soviet?”30. Duffy, Who’s Your Paddy? 91–95.31. Doherty, “Riverdance at the Eurovision Song Contest.”32. Ibid.; Trebles are a hard shoe step where the dancer brushes the ball of the foot forward then back, making sound with each movement. Drums are a quick ripple movement, dropping the toe, ball, and heel in quick succession. Toes refer to striking the tip of the shoe on the ground, usually crossed in back of the dancer.33. Carby, “What is this ‘Black’ in Irish Popular Culture?” 336.34. Hoffman, The Great White Way, 179–80.35. Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance, 8, 97.36. Manning, Modern Dance, Negro Dance.37. Casey, “Riverdance: The Importance of Being Irish American,” 11; The concept of Africanist aesthetics in dance, and analysing how they appear in European American dance performances, was popularised by Brenda Dixon Gottschild in Digging the Africanist Presence.38. Hassett, “Riverdance”; McAuliffe, “Stepping into Money With Riverdance set”; Lynch, “VIPs Queue Up to Compliment a Breathtaking Blend of Dance and Music”; and “Riverdance the Show is Tops at the Point Riverdance the Show is Tops at the Point,” Leitrim Observer, February 15, 1995, Irish Newspaper Archive.39. “Riverdance the Show is Tops at the Point”; and McAuliffe, “Stepping into Money.”40. McColgan, “Riverdance.”41. When Colin Dunne replaced Flatley as the male lead in 1996, he choreographed a new number called “Trading Taps” where a trio of Irish dancers engages in a dance battle with the tap dancers. This number remained for all subsequent productions. The friendly and extended interaction produces an intercultural exchange in contrast to the 1995 production.42. At least two of these dancers were not American (Marcel Peneux from Suriname, and Leon Hazelwood from the UK), so “Harlem tap dancers” also creates an imagined link to African American histories.43. Carby, “What is this ‘Black’ in Irish Popular Culture?” 329.44. Ibid.45. Ibid., 328.46. Ibid., 329.47. Carr, “Can We Take This Jiggery Pokery?”48. Hill, Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History, 64–65.49. For more on the racist implications of “Wacko Jacko,” see: Vogel, “How Michael Jackson Made “Bad.”50. “Lord of the Dance FAQs,” Lord of the Dance, 2022. https://www.lordofthedance.com/faqs/lord-of-the-dance-faqs-yr7u17/.51. “Lord of the Dance FAQs.”52. Ibid.53. Gladstone, “The Man Behind the Duel Between Irish Blockbusters.”54. Monks, “Virtuosity,” 155.55. Gareiss, “An Buachaillín Bán,” 188.56. Pacheco, “From Chieftains to Dance ‘Lord.’”57. Casey, “Riverdance,” 18.58. Flatley, Lord of the Dance.59. Ibid.60. Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence, 114.61. Ibid.; Two examples of the Cakewalk filmed in 1903 can be found via the Library of Congress. “Cake Walk,” Library of Congress, July 10, 2009, video, 0:41, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QifiyNm6jG4; “Comedy Cake Walk, Library of Congress, July 10, 2009, video, 0:44, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQVLuR7jj8Q.62. Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence, 26.63. Mura Dehn, The Spirit Moves-Part 1: Jazz Dance from the Turn of the Century to 1950 (Dancetime Publications: 2008); and Minnelli, Meet Me in St. Louis.64. Connell, “Decolonizing Colleen,” 3–4.65. The slip jig is a soft shoe dance that is unique for its 9/8 music structure. Generally, the slip jig is only performed by girls and women in competition, although boys may perform the dance prior to the championship levels.66. See note 57 above.67. Flatley, Lord of the Dance.68. Garner, Racism in the Irish Experience, 62–64.69. Gray, Women and the Irish Diaspora, 63.70. See Hancock, “The ‘Gypsy’ Stereotype and the Sexualization of Romani Women.”71. Women of colour scholars have written extensively on the hypersexualisation of multiple groups of racialised women. See Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 133–60; and Hwang and Shalazar Parreñas, “The Gendered Racialization of Asian Women as Villainous Temptresses,” 567–76.72. Flatley, Lord of the Dance.73. A front click is performed by a dancer clicking their heels together in front as they leap from one foot to the other. In a toe stand, the dancer stands on the tip of their hard shoes. Twists are a movement in which the dancer twists both feet inward, then out, switching the position in the process.74. Rains, The Irish-American in Popular Culture 1945–2000, 144–183.75. Ibid., 176.76. Ibid., 152.77. Flatley, “Lord of the Dance Perform at Trump Inaugural Ball.”78. Ibid.79. Monks, “A tale of two presidents.”80. Kusz, “‘Winning bigly,’” 116.81. Ibid., 117–18.82. Neville-Shepard and Kelly, “Whipping it Out,” 467.83. Andrew Katz, “Unrest in Virginia.”84. Glasser, “The Man Who Put Andrew Jackson in Trump’s Office.”85. Bradley, “Trump Staffer Says Kanye West is Not ‘Traditionally American’ Enough to Perform at Inauguration.”86. Lentin, “Illegal in Ireland, Irish Illegals,” 435.