IT BEGAN as a simple interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, to give viewers the chance to put the kettle on and consider whether to vote for Ireland’s Rock ’n’ Roll Kids just for the amusement of seeing the country win yet again.

But while Eurovision continues to be a bit of amusing light entertainment, Riverdance has by far surpassed the reason for its creation.

Around 10 million tickets have been sold around the world and, although it will continue to play to packed houses in other countries, this is its last ever week in the UK.

Largely based on the combination of music and Irish dance that transfixed viewers 15 years ago, mixed with elements of flamenco and Russian folk ballet, the show is still just as compelling.

It opens with a lone piper’s haunting melody as mist swirls across the stage and the dancers make their steady entrance.

Then the pace shifts sharply as they leap into an urgent reel, celebrating the benevolent power of the sun.

This is Riverdance as you expect it, all stiff upper bodies and darting legs, to rousing Irish music.

But the show’s success is in its contrasts – dance alternating with song and music, the old country of Ireland against the bright lights of America.

The most powerful moments are when these contrasts are at the centre of the piece. Relaxed tap dancers, whose almost casual movements evoke images of moonshine and clouds of cigar smoke, compete with a trio of the straight-backed, fleet-footed Irish in Trading Taps.

This is a wonderfully inventive way of expressing the mingling of cultures as those weary of their lives in seek a more comfortable future in the New World.

Although this is a production named for dance, without such evocative music it could not be so powerful.

Bill Whelan’s score stirs the primitive inside, and the musicians are immaculate performers.

* READ an interview with Riverdance’s senior executive producer, Julian Erskine, at http://bit.ly/riverdance