I JUST FIND AMERICA REALLY FRIGHTENING," says Jean Butler, sitting in a coffee shop that faces Radio City Music Hall. "I really do, to be honest, and that sounds funny. But I haven't lived here in so long [ten years] and the culture is so different. In Europe, people are less concerned about things." Though she only returned to New York two days ago, she's certainly gotten back into the New York style without a hitch, clad in slim black pants and a tiny pink tee-shirt, with a black sweater casually tied around her shoulders. And there's the ubiquitous Hollie Go Lightly sunglasses, black leather coat and large cup of coffee.

A decade ago, Butler left her home in the U.S. to be a student in England. In that time period she became the grande dame of Irish dancing, as the sexy star of Riverdance, making an international phenomenon out of the formerly niche cultural dance and its red-haired leading lady.

Now Butler, who turned 29 in early March, is back in the United States, for the American run of her new show Dancing on Dangerous Ground--loosely based on the Celtic legend The Hunt for Diarmuid and Grainne--premiering at Radio City Music Hall on March 8. She not only co-stars in the show, but has conceived and choreographed it, along with her dance partner and fellow Riverdance alumnus, Colin Dunne.

Says Dunne, "We had a lot of conceptory (sic) ideas and various scenes and ways that we wanted to treat the dance and a lot of the context that we wanted to put into it. We read the story and a lot of the ideas had fit into it ("Although Dongerous Ground is still rooted in Irish dance, Butler and Dunne have worked to make this show a unique entity from Riverdance. Adds Dunne, "Once people see the show they'll realize it's a completely different monster" Butler agrees, "What Colin and I were trying to do with the dance language is just alter the shape, alter what the public would normally perceive Irish dance to be. I mean there are certain numbers where everybody's tapping at once and coming straight towards the audience and that's really exciting. And if we hadn't done that people would be displeased. But on top of that we've also put in other things that they would never expect Irish dance to do."

In the 18 months it took to stage the show, Butler and Dunne strayed from the conventional methods of choreographing Irish dance. They hired a drama coach to work with the 30 dancers in the company and also had the dancers help with the choreography, giving input, and feedback to Butler and Dunne. Says Butler, "I think for Irish dancers, it was the first Irish dancing think tank, where people just got together:'

Explains Dunne, "Before full rehearsals we had a workshop with the dancers to start experimenting with the dance. We only decided the choreography had to be different to tell a narrative but we didn't know how far we could take it with the dancers, so we turned them into guinea pigs, to see how well they would respond. I think for Irish dance they had never experienced that sort of thing before. It was always, 'here's your step, here's how you do it--go do it.' " Both choreographing and performing in a show is rigorous, and Butler and Dunne admit that at times they got so involved in working with the company, they wished that they didn't have to perform also. The time they put into the company's routines meant that oftentimes, Butler and Dunne left room for improvisation in their roles. "Colin and I do a lot of improv, which is great," says Butler. "But there are levels of improv as well. I know I'm getting to that corner--I don't know exactly how, or what I'm going to be doing, but I'm going there."

Like the choreography in the show, Butler's background in Irish dance is not as traditional as one might expect. Although Butler's mother was from County Mayo, Jean, along with her brother and sister, was born and raised on Long Island. She started her dancing career with ballet and tap lessons at the age of four. She quit those and began Irish dance lessons at age six, which she also promptly quit. "I hated it," she says. "They made me stand with my arms at my sides for two hours. So, I left. I was too young."

Butler tried Irish dance again when she was nine, and this time under the guidance of teacher Donald Golden, whom she considers to be one of the most influential people in her life--she was hooked. "He taught me how to dance, how to live, how to be a good person, and his love for dance," she says. "That's why I stayed, because of him, really. At nine you know you're gonna be good at this and he's gonna allow you to be good and make you better."

Within a year of starting lessons with Golden, Butler seriously jumped into the Irish dance, quitting the baseball and soccer teams. Although she attended and graduated from high school in Long Island, she spent little time there because of her rigorous dancing schedule. She jokes that teachers thought she was new. "I have a recurring nightmare about graduation and never going to math class," she recounts. "I did graduate, but I thought they were going to catch on that I never went to class. Somebody was going to find out that I didn't even go once, but still got a grade."

After high school Butler studied drama at the University of Birmingham, in Dunne's hometown. She and Dunne had known each since the mid-eighties from the competitive Irish dancing scene, and when she moved to Birmingham they started doing small gigs around town together, and then they worked on a larger gig, The Chieftains, together. Finally, the Riverdance explosion happened in 1994, and Dunne eventually took over Michael Flatley's leading role.

Butler says she only recently came to understand the impact of Riverdonce. "I didn't even realize what Riverdance meant or how big it was or the phenomenon until about a year ago. Because when you're in it and you're swept with it, you just do it. You don't know," she says. "People tell you it's so phenomenal, and you're like,'really, it is?' I didn't know!"

Butler and Dunne feel that Irish dancing always had the potential to be mainstream, but it was not until Eurovision in 1994 that it had the financial backing necessary to reach a mass audience. Butler understands that her performance has caused her to be a role model for young girls in the surge of Irish dancing which has occurred since Riverdance. "I don't consider myself one [a mentor], but in some ways I have become one as I understand it, which is really nice, but with that comes a certain responsibility," she says. "But it's nice to know that the show has spawned interest that would make people want to dance like Riverdonce or Doneing on Dangerous Ground(' Adding to her impact on the Irish dancing community, she and Dunne recently became honorary doctorates at the University of Limerick, which has an MA program in dance, the first of its kind."

After leaving Riverdanee, Butler feels she was able to mature as a dancer and open her horizons to break away from the technical side of dance, which is something she hopes to do with the dancers in Dangerous Ground. "Colin and I had the opportunity after we both left Riverdonce to open our minds and to just dance whatever we wanted to dance and actually question it and look at it and say,'do I look like a ballerina gone wrong or is this right! And can you notice the difference doing it this way! Does it look better!,' " she says. "And most dancers in Irish dancing would never even think in terms of that. They would have thought that in terms of how fast can I be! But that's a bit mundane right now, that's technical rather than the bigger picture of Irish dance.

As for when she finishes with the national tour for Dangerous Ground, Butler doesn't know where her life will lead her next, but she has many options. Although she doesn't get to visit it much, Butler recently bought a house in Dublin and she sometimes contemplates getting out of performing and becoming a choreographer. "I love rehearsals actually more than I love the show," she says. "I love having no idea how you are going to come up with the next scene and relying on the dancers to inspire you. It's that magic moment when you're in a rehearsal and you think 'OK, now it will work. We've actually crafted something!'"

She could also return to films. Last year, Butler made her film debut, with favorable reviews, in The Brykreem Boys opposite Bill Campbell and Gabriel Byrne. Although she liked working on the movie, Butler prefers live theater, where she can instantly feel a response from the audience." In film acting you're a prop, it's a different technique that I don't know anything about," she says. "I'd love to be just acting in Dublin and chilling out--after this."

Or, there are always academics. Butler, much to Dunne's chagrin, would like to go to school to study art history. "So you can be pretentious," Dunne jokes.

"No, so I can meet a fabulous painter and go away and get married." she retorts. "What do you mean to be pretentious! Because I have an interest, and I know nothing about it, and I'll admit that, and I'd like to. Is that ok, boss!" "I actually like listening to people and reading books:' she says in a more serious tone. "I like learning things, basically Since her role in Riverdonce she sometimes gets recognized on the street, but Butler does not consider herself famous: she simply thinks of herself as a working dancer. "It's too far a jump for an Irish dancer to think she's famous."

And if Riverdance had never happened! "l'd definitely be involved in the theatrical world because I always knew I wanted to be onstage, but I couldn't do that Irish dancing, she says. "Or, you know, I could've been a bus driver."

By Ilana Schweber