`Riverdance' gives its regards as flatley says farewell. (News).

Fans of Irish dance received a double blow recently. After presenting 618 shows to more than 1,170,000 people, Riverdance--On Broadway gave its final performance at the Gershwin Theater on Sunday, August 26--just a month after famed Irish dancer Michael Flatley announced he, too, was leaving the stage.

Riverdance accrued impressive figures during its eighteen-month run at Broadway's largest venue, where it played nightly to a house of nearly 2,000 seats. "We originally came for a three-month engagement in March of 2000," said Riverdance's press representative, Merle Frimark. "But the demand was so great that we extended the run three times! It was much longer than anyone expected, and it was time to go."

Irish-dance fans aren't left completely deprived, however. There are still two Riverdance touring companies--the Liffey and the Lagan (aptly named for principal Irish rivers)--and the show may return to Broadway in the future. The touring companies have crisscrossed several continents, bringing the total number of people who have seen Riverdance to a staggering twelve million (plus seven million who have bought the video). The Liffey company performs throughout Europe and Asia and will be touring the United Kingdom, including Belfast, Birmingham, and London in 2002. The Lagan troupe covers North America, where forthcoming venues range from Mexico City to Toronto.

Some of the Broadway cast joined the touring companies, while others returned home to Ireland, Scotland, England, Canada, or Australia, many of them to finish school. Indeed, the cast of Riverdance is quite young. The average age in the Broadway show was 20, while dancers on tour are usually 18 or 19. The closing of the Broadway show was also marked by several Riverdance weddings, romance having blossomed among several in the cast of eighty dancers, singers, and musicians.

The show's popular female star, Eileen Martin, chose to stay in New York to pursue a career in acting and in other forms of dance. Martin, now 25, was with Riverdance from the very beginning and danced the lead for the last five years. She was witness to the show's spectacular growth from a seven-minute interval act for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, through several world tours, and up to its Broadway run. Martin described the journey as "amazing. We never expected anything like this to happen. There were never performance outlets for Irish dancers before--we'd either compete or teach. When Riverdance came along, I jumped at the chance. I thought it'd be just for a few weeks, but then it exploded and snowballed! Now, here I am, seven years later!"

In a bit of coincidence, Michael Flatley announced his retirement this summer. He finished a twenty-one-date U.S. tour of his show, Feet of Flames, in Dallas, Texas, on July 29 and declared that was his last performance. Flatley originally played the male principal in Riverdance. After parting ways with the show in October of 1995, he went on to create the popular hit Lord of the Dance. Flatley's plans were undisclosed, but Irish dance fans hope the man with the fastest feet will organize future projects--even if he won't be appearing in them himself.