DAVID BELLAN talks to Julian Erskine, producer of Riverdance, which returns to the New Theatre

Riverdance burst upon the world's consciousness when it was chosen as the interval entertainment for the Eurovision Song Contest. The full-length show opened in 1995 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, and since then has been seen by more then 19 million people worldwide.

Julian Erskine has been with the company almost from the first tap and, to my surprise, he told me that up to then there had been no professional Irish dance company.

"Actually, there were no Irish dance shows at all. Irish dancing, at that point, was a competitive, amateur hobby. Children would learn to do dancing in order to compete and to win prizes. There's a very well-organised competition system whereby people can compete locally in their villages, and go on to county, national and then world championships because Irish dancing is done anywhere the Irish emigrated to."

So who had the idea of making it into a professional show? I asked.

"It was a lady called Moya Doherty, who was working as a television producer at RTE Ireland's state television network at that time. Ireland was hosting Eurovision that year, and she was the producer of the whole show, and had to come up with an idea for the interval. She had done Irish dance herself as a child and decided to put on a show using that. Eurovision itself was just one seven-minute number, but there was a sensational reaction - it took everyone by surprise - and so Moya decided to create a full-length show, and that's what she did with the help of the composer Bill Wheelan and her husband John McColgan, who directed it."

That first show was created with amateur dancers and I was surprised and pleased to hear that they are still using dancers who have come through the traditional dance training system, although they are getting paid now, of course.

It's many years since I saw Riverdance and I asked whether there is a story of any kind.

"It would be wrong to say there is a story, but there are essentially two themes to it. The first half is primeval and primitive. It deals with the arrival of man, the worship of the elements, and it's very Celtic. The second half of the show is quite contemporary, and it's to do with emigration, with the huge movement of people out of Ireland in the 1850s, going abroad, meeting and mingling with other cultures.

"And then, eventually, in the 1990s, which is when Riverdance was born, all their descendents coming back to Ireland. So it's to do with that cycle of people going away and coming back. That's in keeping with the spirit of the original Riverdance piece, which was based on the cycle of life represented by a river, starting in the mountains, going through the land, out into the sea, and then coming back as a cloud and starting it all over again."

Julian himself joined while the very first show was in preparation, bringing his theatre experience to the project.

"Their experience was all in television, so I joined as a kind of consultant producer to advise on what could and couldn't be done on the stage, and stayed with them through the first few shows, and then Moya asked me to stay on and manage the whole thing for them, and I produce the various companies that are doing the show.

"There's one company travelling though North America, which tours 40 weeks a year - we've been in America continuously for ten years now. There's one travelling through the UK, which is the one you'll see in Oxford, which also goes to Europe, and is heading off to the Far East soon: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and we're looking now at going to China.

"Then we have one at home in Ireland which is very much a seasonal one performing from May to September. In fact, we've just had the gala opening of a new touring company for Ireland."

Has the show changed much through the years ?

"There was a lot of change during the first five years and we tried to move things round and improve things, but after that it's stayed pretty much the same. We've found that people like their Riverdance the way they know it, and we get a bad reaction if we tamper with it.

"We get a huge amount of repeat business. People come and see it over and over, and bring friends and family to see it, and if they find it's changed they let us know they're not happy about that."

I wondered whether the show goes down better in some countries than in others, whether it has ever had a flop.

"I'm delighted to say we've never had a flop. But we nearly had a heart attack in Japan where they sat in stony silence on the opening night, and we thought we had finally come somewhere where they just don't want Riverdance. But at the end of the show they just went crazy! In Osaka, the cast was leaving the venue while the audience was still inside clapping."