When Irish feet are tapping

 Toronto Star – Wednesday May 31, 2000 (Entertainment - D2)

  

THINK Irish dancing and visions of overthe-topless Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance and fleetfooted Riverdance inevitably spring to mind.

But the Trinity Irish Dance Company predates Flatley and Riverdance and will be tapping up the stage at the Hummingbird Centre tomorrow and Friday nights.

Trinity was founded in 1990 by artistic director Mark Howard as a venue for dancers between the ages of 18 and 24 outside the competitive circuit.

Toronto's Darren Smith is principal dancer and one of two Canadians. The other is Marie Short from Montreal. Toronto audiences would have seen Smith in Needfire: Passion Of The Heart at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

Smith, 23, has been Irish dancing for 19 years. He is the 1997 World Irish Dancing Champion, held in County Galway, which he won with a perfect score.

"It's the Olympics of Irish dancing a perfect score is not done that often," he understated. "It was kinda cool."

Smith was chatting mere minutes before he caught the plane to New Orleans, where they would be performing for two days. Next stop: Norfolk, Va., just two gigs in what he guestimates will be a four month itinerary.

Smith was born to tap, following in the footsteps of his mom and grandmother who danced in County Derry, Ireland.

“They were not professional, just involved.  My mum put me into it when I was 4.  I stuck with it but I never told me friends because I had to wear a kilt.”

Which is all the more remarkable considering he was born in Brazil.

   “Both my parents are British and moved to Brazil.”, he explained. "My dad was an engineer. I lived there until I was 3; I used to speak Portuguese."

Smith hooked up with the company four years ago and after it had performed on The Tonight Show, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Good Morning America. He did appear with the company in the movie spoof Jane Austin's Mafia, dancing behind one of the hit men, who was decked out as a grossly out of shape, notoriously flatfooted Michael Flatley.

"We ended up dancing for 14 hours straight," he recalled, "the same shot 20 times over. The big guy who knocked off Flatley was surprisingly good very funny and natural. It was almost impossible not to crack up. Yes, we taught him a few moves."

The shelf life of an Irish dancer depends on the body parts giving out.

"It's hard on the joints, I have slight tendonitis in my right knee.

"I'll stick to it as long as my body can handle it," Smith vowed. "I have a degree in broadcasting and hopefully I can use it. I worked at TVO on Parent Connection for six months doing the grunt work: research, phones . . . I don't want to be on camera. I have a tendency for the technical."

The Riverdance phenom, which escalated to Lion King proportions and helped give Irish dancing a leg up, started out innocuously as a throwaway.

"You've been doing something for 19 years and people are still asking, `Is that the dancing where you jump over swords?'" Smith marvelled. "Or they make a reference to the Lucky Charm (leprechaun) guy. They didn't have a clue; they had no respect. Then at the Euro Song Contest they used Riverdance as an act during intermission and the crowd went crazy."


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