Two Irish folkdance based shows, Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, will play in the same arena in The Netherlands within a few months of each other.

Lord of the Dance, which is produced, choreographed and stars one of the original principals of the Riverdance show, Michael Flatley, is like it's predecessor Riverdance based on traditional Irish music and folkdancing, but is anything but traditional. The British newspaper The Evening Standard called it "The show for the nineties".

Riverdance, which The New York Times called "A phenomenon", grew out of an intermission performance during the 1994 Eurovision Songcontest, had it's worldpremiere in Dublin in 1995. It has since played sold out runs in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and the U.S.A. The hundred person strong company includes the Irish Dance Troup and the Riverdance Orchestra. Riverdance was an initiative of producer Moya Doherty, together with composer John McColgan and choreographer Bill Whelan.

Lord of the Dance will play 6 performances from May 5 -10, 1998 and Riverdance will play fourteen performances from September 29 until October 10, 1998 at the Ahoy Sportarena in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Tickets for both Riverdance and Lord of the Dance have already gone on sale and the all shows are apparently almost sold out. Remaining tickets can be ordered in The Netherlands through De Reserveerlijn tel. 0900 300.5000, from outside The Netherlands through *.31.297.380878.