The charity that saves lives at sea is planning a major event in the city of Derry this Sunday 9 May 2010 at midday. The RNLI want to break the official current record for the number of dancers forming a continuous ‘Riverdance’ line and dancing in unison. The event is being planned to raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and to raise awareness of the life-saving work of the volunteer lifeboat crews in Ireland.
The current record stands at 312 dancers and was set in New York in 2008. The RNLI is hoping to break this record and over the past few months organisers have been in contact with Irish dancing schools all over the country. Interest in the event has been enormous and Derry City Council will be providing valuable support in staging the unique performance in the city. Three of the cast of the official Riverdance show will also be coming to take part in the record attempt.
The idea for the record attempt came from RNLI Area Fundraising Manager Tony Hiney after Riverdance selected the RNLI as their chosen charity last year on their Irish tour. “ Seeing that famous line of dancers performing together and the effect it had on the audience gave me the idea of trying to break the record while at the same time trying to raise funds and awareness for the work of the RNLI. You never know how many people will turn out on the day but so far the response have been overwhelming. I really hope we can break the record and raise some funds for the RNLI in the process.”
Each dancer taking part in the record breaking attempt has agreed to raise a minimum of £20/€20 to secure their place in the line. All funds raised will go to the RNLI.
The dancers will be taking their places on Queen's Quay from 11 am on Sunday 9 May.
