John Rockwell explores the Riverdance phenomenon. “It’s easy to be sniffy about the “Riverdance” experience. I’ve been sniffy myself. But it is what it is, and what it is is Las Vegas-style entertainment. As such it’s far more popular than most dance. Which makes people scornful and envious. They even go so far as to deny that this is dance at all, which is silly. “Riverdance” goes out of its way to demonstrate connections between other forms of heel-and-toe-tapping folk dance, like flamenco and tap. And some of the dancing is pretty spectacular.”