I have to say this is the first interview I've done where I'm holding hands with my my subject the whole time. Yeah. Is it is it getting awkward?

No, I'm quite comfortable. I'm in leg warmers. It doesn't get any from this.

What's up, guys? Leslie Robbins here for Young Hollywood. I am standing outside the Pantages Theater in the heart of Hollywood. And right now Riverdance is here. And as you can see, I am in full dance gear. Not only has this cast taken me under their wing to show me around, they have shown me how to dance Irish style. I am now with Craig. He is one of the principal dancers of Riverdance and he is actually going to show me how to dance. Give me the basics cuz I know nothing.

Okay, so traditionally Irish dancing, you may have heard that, you know, the arms are by the side. There's a few myths behind that. I think you know they were trying to hide the fact that they were having fun from the British back years ago. But we're going to be a little more loose today. Okay. Okay. You we can hold hands if you like.

Let's hold hands.

So you you might see a long line of Irish dancers tonight. That's the you know that's the fantastic part of it that you get to see. Okay. All right. So you're going to have your right foot in front of your left.

Fantastic. I've never done this before in my life. I swear.

And we'll have our heel to our toe. Okay. Now we're going to stamp our right foot. Okay. Now, jumping onto the left but you're going to make two noises. So jump two three. Jump two three. Beautiful. And crossing the knees over is a very traditional Irish way of dancing as well. Instead of we don't want the Yeah. Plié. Yeah, as lovely as that looks we'll stick to the style. All right. So we'll try and speed that up a little bit, all right? Heel to toe, remember. Just so you're prepared. There's thousands of people out there.

All right. Now what do you do with this hand?

Oh, well, there'll be a long line of dancers. Riverdance the number, whole line of synchronized Irish dancers all you know, arms kind of by our side and our legs are just moving like crazy. One, two, three. Seven, eight. Drum two, three. Drum two, and back. Yeah. I think you need to work on the hop though at the end. Yeah. Okay. Well we'll come back in and have another practice.

How do you take care of these legs? Because just five minutes of doing this exercise, I feel the pressure.

Yeah. No, it it's a it's a it's one of them art forms where everything's tightened up. So everything's very tight which means you have to stretch. You have to warm up. And um also after the show a lot of us like to jump into ice buckets. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, it's quite it's quite entertaining but it's, you know, it it helps your legs. So it helps bring the swelling down and all that. So you might need to do that soon actually.

I think I'm I can help. You are in the heart of Hollywood right now. On the stage. Thousands of stars have been here. After you leave, you have Wicked, Spamalot, Rock of Ages. I mean, the Broadway shows just keep coming. What's it like to be on this stage?

Yeah, it's it's a little bit, you know, you're out like secretly you're out sight seeing all day you know cuz you're you're so excited to be in Los Angeles but then you have to kind of you you got to ground yourself and be like, all right. Let's just, you know, let's just bring it back down. This is the same show um that we're putting on. You know. We just want to make a spectacular piece for anywhere we are in the world. But the Pantages Theater is just an incredible place just to look at and um just to just to be dancing here is an achievement in itself. So yeah, it's great.

All right, we're done the dancing. Uh let's uh I'll show you down to where the costumes are.

Yeah, she's sewing up my pants. Oh this is our quick change we call it.

Is anyone changing?

No. No, no, no. So we come in here and we have all sorts of costumes and um we've got some shoes. And as you can see, we have numbers. Um so our name will correspond with our number. I'm number six. Just so you know.

Hello number six.

And then um these are our shoes. This is uh this is an example of a traditional Irish dancing shoe. So this is actually mine. I've I've both. Um so that's a tap shoe. That's that's fiber glass. It it allows you to point your toe a lot more. The it just allows it to stretch.

What is your fastest quick change?

Oh, well, the girls actually have a very quick quick change. They um during the counter's number uh which is the first number that you see the female principle, she'll come off stage and she has like 20 seconds to change her shoes. Maybe even less. And I mean anyone who's seeing the show will sometimes be baffled as to how they do it. But it just takes preparation and practice. And um and then I suppose over the years they're just so used to being able to having to change the shoes so quickly. Oh yeah.

Okay. So I just had a one-on-one with the male lead. Now I'm going to crash the dressing room of the female lead. Hope she's dressed. Hi. Hi. Can I come in?

Of course you can.

Thank you. Yeah. Hello. This is a big dressing room.

I know. It's great, isn't it?

Well I have to say I'm officially an Irish dancer because the lead and I are wearing the same we're similar look. Fun. Do you want to put the crown in? Can I try a crown on?

Of course you can. There you go. Actually, do you know what? This is my favorite one. It's bright, colorful. It's the final dance. We use that for her.

Do you just ask me for it on? Yeah, of course. Is that it? Just slide in. Yeah. Now does it go up? That's it. There. Perfect. Well, I feel like an Irish dancer now. So Craig gave me a pose before on stage. Now give me a girl pose.

Okay. Right before I go out for the first number countess, I kind of prepare myself in the wings. So I'll be like jumping around, hand on hip. And you go out with your hand on your hip so you do like a lift and then you go out with that arm and then you bring it down. Sort of like your entrance.

I have to say your legs are incredible. How often are you at the gym? I have to ask.

Four or five times a week, especially when I'm not on tour. Now when I am on tour, it can be difficult but at least three times a week we still try and get to the gym. And me I get a good protein diet as well. Snack on almonds. Love almonds. Yeah. So you snack on them throughout the day quite a lot.

So your diet is pretty normal.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just have to make sure we eat quite a lot actually, so our energy levels are always.

You're probably burning everything you're putting in your body.

Exactly. I mean two hour shows eight times a week we have to make sure that we're really well.

Rumor has it there have been some romances within the Riverdance community. Is that true?

Well, there is. There's been is it I'm not sure the exact figure but there's been 40 something Riverdance marriages. We're all a big family here on tour. Everybody's so amazing. That's that's another amazing thing about it. We meet best friends for life. My best friends are on tour with me and they're my family too, so.

Wow. When you go out socially with a group of people, how do you transition from Irish dancing to club dancing?

Oh, I'm not the best club dancer now. I wouldn't ask me to do that. I feel sad to the bar. You're the girl standing right there. Yeah, I wouldn't be the best dancer now. I think uh my friends and colleagues would appreciate that as well. They'd tell you my dancing skills wouldn't be the best.