Official Lord of the Dance Web Site

"I just wanted to do something new and exciting"
Michael Flatley, The Lord of the Dance

International sensation Michael Flatley, a/k/a "The Lord of the Dance," is a study in contrasts. His dancing style is traditional yet contemporary. He and his show are famous on both sides of the Atlantic, yet he still possessed genuine, earnest excitement to be making his Tonight Show debut. He's even been selected as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World", joining the ranks of Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise, yet he still would like to meet some of his (make that "any of his") fellow honorees.

Michael's most evident disparity is in what he does best: dance. As he put it, "I've always seen Irish dance done a different way. I'm not trained in any other forms of dance. I only do Irish dancing. It's what I love. It's my passion. I just wanted to do something new and exciting with it, and I was never comfortable dancing the traditional way holding my arms at my sides without moving them, which is the traditional form of Irish dance."

While Michael was unsure where the straightened-arm tradition of Irish dancing originated ("A lot of people say it's because of the Church. The British occupation is another story. It's really hard to pinpoint, so I wouldn't want to speculate."), he said that his style came about in the dance studio: "I began noticing that when I was rehearsing, that I would use my arms, just more for balance and for different things, but it felt right doing that. One day I was working out in the studio in front of a mirror and I realized, 'You know what? That looks much better.' You feel much more comfortable. You should work on creating it and molding it. But I couldn't just go to take classes in tap or ballet or jazz. Those arm [movements] wouldn't fit with what I was doing. So I had to create the proper arm and body movements that fit with this type of dance. That was the most difficult part. That's what took the longest time. ... The shape of the dance and the energy of the dance are completely different."

Yet the style he developed and then popularized not only made headlines, it also made a lot of people angry, particularly those who believed the centuries-old traditions of Irish dance were being irreparably harmed. Said Michael of the traditionalists, with laughing understatement, "They didn't love it. Right at the beginning particularly. They were dead set against it, and it was like a brick wall. It wasn't till the public finally showed their approval that all of those people sort of were silenced. The public stood by me, and I quietly became the people's champion."

This was no one man show, however. Michael had a great team to work with. He recalled, "We were 8 weeks from The table to the stage. We didn't have a lot of money to throw around. We had to get it up and running. So once we made up our mind to go, we had just a fabulous team of professionals around me -- Patrick Woodroffe [lighting design], Jonathan Park [show design], choreographer Marie Duffy-Messenger [additional choreography], Ronan Hardiman [original music] -- and when you have those kind of people, and we all are on the same page at the same time, we made the decisions, we agreed to go ahead as planned, and then it just went smoothly."

The company of Lord of the Dance is made up of 40 dancers. As Michael explained, "We had all the auditions in Ireland, but they came from all over the world. We have dancers in the show from all over Ireland, all over England, Scotland, Australia, Canada, the U.S. They're all of Irish descent. The people that came to my audition, and there were hundreds and hundreds, would have been the people that were eager and willing to try this new dance form. But they had to be the cream of the crop in what they did already in Irish dance. Most of my troupe are world champions in Irish traditional dance, but they're young enough to be trained to use their entire bodies, and they were accomplished enough with their footwork, so it made it much easier for me to do this. Don't forget, we only had eight weeks, so I had to get people that were already really good and had a great attitude, and were willing to work really hard. That was the key." When it comes to the auditions, Michael said, "It was a great time. ... The ones that made it were the ones that were truly spirited and truly hard-working and had great energy." In Michael's mind, it certainly has paid off.

While Michael is justifiably proud of his show and the accomplishments of his troupe, a more personal, singular "accomplishment" produces a wry smile. After all, when it's pointed out that it's not everyone gets to be in the same room with one of "the most beautiful people in the world," Michael replied with a laugh, "If you've got any contacts, I'd like to meet a few of them. I'm delighted to be in it. I don't know how they choose them. I'm lucky to be in there. It was a bit of a surprise."

Getting more personal, Michael revealed that while he has many favorite foods, "I have steak every day for breakfast when I'm on tour. It's more of a necessity. But I do like it. I love Oriental food. I have to eat everything I can just to keep my weight stable." He said that he expends a tremendous amount of energy for every show, and provided some thoughts on how dancing is only part of it: "I just get to the point many times when you feel like, 'Can I put out this much energy? Can I keep going?' But any athlete goes through that, and it's very difficult sometimes. You've got to take really good vitamins. You've got to eat as much as you can. You've got to take care of your body. It's draining, because it's all about energy. Our whole show is about energy. Everything that we do is about energy. We're trying to put out good energy to everybody, and it can be draining." Considering that Michael loses a few pounds every performance, a steak for breakfast comes as no surprise.

Moving to his favorite film, Michael stated "My favorite movie was The Mission with Robert DeNiro, and I liked The Field with Richard Harris's acting in it. It was brilliant."

When asked, "What's your worst vice?", Michael shot back his own question, "Have you got the 'A-to-Zed?' [i.e., a dictionary]" After the laughter died down, Michael revealed, "I guess of the things that I do, I guess the reason that I do them is that I don't consider them bad. I love more than anything, dancing, but I don't think that's bad for me."

Finally, Michael said that his secret ambition really wasn't a secret at all: "I like to encourage people: the people that work with me, the people around me, just the people I talk to or meet. I just get a real buzz off of convincing them that they can do things, that they can go far. I love that. My main thing in life, since I was a little boy, has been my art and my work, and what it is I do to be able to create something new that will leave my mark on the world, for better or for worse. I think that that has encouraged an awful lot of youngsters to take up dance, particularly young guys. For a long time, it wasn't cool for them. We're now appealing to all of these different nationalities and ages and races around the world, and I think that's a good thing."

It seems that Michael Flatley is well on his way to realizing his ambition, doing it the only way he knows how: his own.

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