Creative Entrepreneurship in the Arts

Abstract

The emergence of an unparalleled national economic performance, labelled the Celtic Tiger, has given Irish business educators the challenging task of analysing and recording their country's burgeoning growth over the past decade. As part of this development, Riverdance –an upbeat combination of Irish music and dance – hit the world stage, demonstrating that entrepreneurship and innovation are as much part of the success process within the creative industries as is the case in any other sector of the economy. By researching the advent and ongoing development of Riverdance and the follow-on show, Lord of the Dance, it is believed that invaluable insights can be gained into the creative entrepreneurial process, including the shows' particular characteristics, their development needs, how innovative entrepreneurs work, and the particular barriers they face. This paper shows how, through publishing a series of studies on Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, it has been possible to demonstrate that the evolution of ‘New Age’ Irish dance, with its unprecedented success abroad, can provide an important role model for both the arts/culture sector and the Irish business community in general. Additionally, these entertainment industry cases, among others, provide an opportunity for considering the confluence within Irish music in terms of its traditional, classical and contemporary forms, within the rapidly changing educational, social and cultural landscape of a burgeoning economy that has earned the title, the Celtic Tiger.