Origins
Riverdance has its roots in a three-part suite of baroque-influenced traditional music called "Timedance" composed, recorded and performed for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by Ireland. At the time members of Irish folk band Planxty, Bill Whelan and Donal Lunny composed the music, augmenting the band with a rock rhythm section of electric bass and drums and a four-piece horn section. The piece was performed, with accompanying ballet dancers, during the interval of the contest, and later released as a Planxty single. In a book about Planxty ("The Humours of Planxty", by Leagues O'Toole), Whelan says "It was no mistake of mine to call it Riverdance because it connected absolutely to Timedance. It was a nod in the direction of where I believed it came from".
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