Michael Flatley's Lord of the dance

Michael Flatley's mother and father came to the states in 1947. They were just hard working people who didn't have much money, infact being honest Michael describes his family as not having any money.

His Father was from Slygo, his mother from Carlo. They missed ireland, especially where Michael said they were living in Chicago. Which he describes as being just a big melting pot of different types of people.

There are 5 in his family, 1 older sister Annie, Michael is the second oldest, then his brother Patrick, then his sister Lyza and Thomasena.

When Michaels family came over, his father served time in all the trades such as plastering, Bricklaying and Plumbing. He was just a big strong Irishman, who was about 6'1, 220 pounds and from Michaels description all muscles. However Michaels mother was a petite read head. Michael says QUOTE "I didn't inherit her full temper(laughing), thats probably a good thing".

Michael went to a Catholic school called the little flower, however he went to a Christian brothers high school. He says it was tough being irish and going to his school, their were alot of different nationalities who were going their, however he was one of the only Irish guys. Michael walked to school each day in which he says would of been about a mile. He said he would have to cross paths with gangs of Kids who were going to their Public school. He got into his share of fights, and it got to a point where his father just said lets take some Boxing classes and learn how to defend yourself. Michael said that from then on everything became alot easier.

         Michael persued the Boxing seriously, even as far as the Golden Gloves amateur title, this along with the Basketball, and the heavy
         construction work he did to make money, all built into the peak physical fitness needed for the dance.

         He was about 11 when his mother took him to dance classes. Flatley was out playing baseball with his brother, when his mother sent his
         sister down who said they had to go. Michael didn't know what was happening, and they took him and his brother to dance classes.
         Michael says he doesn't remember that first night all that well, but he does remember thinking "I dont know about this".

         He went to Dublin at age 15 to compete in the World Dance championships. Irish dance was all about competition.
         Michael said it taught you drive and determination. The people that were winning were the people who were trying the hardest.

He then went to New York and won. No-one had even heard of him before or seen his style. Michael began creating the way he thought it should be done, in which would end up being much more flamboyant. He felt the strictness of it all was so hard to swallow. Some examples of the strictness were that your arms had to be very straight, you had to cross your legs in certain movements, your knees had to be together in certain movements, Your kicks could be only at a certain level, there could be only so many kicks in a particular step. Flatley just wanted to Dance the way he felt. They however wanted him to dance their way, and he had to do that to win the title.

Going to Ireland for the first championship, Flatley says was terrible. The first time he went was on his own but their were alot of Americans their, but no one had ever won. Michael didn't come anywhere close. He came back to Chicago and started working like crazy, as he realized his teacher wasn't going to get him their. He went went back their the second year only to find their was a bigger obstacle. He was a yank, and he ended up coming fourth. He didn't like loosing, he wasn't used to that. So he stayed in Dublin, kicked up alot about how the Irish thought, and what they thought about dance and the strictness. He managed to get all the rules altered accordingly. Then he went back home and worked what he says honestly 6-8 hours a day. He gave up everything. He did nothing but that, and went back the next year and won it. He described it as being brilliant.

He left school at around 17-18 and opened a Dance class in which had 300 people the first night. However he still wasn't happy because he wanted to dance. He said teaching is strange because its not really the kids who wanna Dance, its their parents who wanna Dance. So he began touring with different Irish Dance groups, and one day got a call from the Chieftains. Michael had his sights set on where he wanted to go, and would test out what he intended to do with the Chieftains. Michael began dancing with what he felt contained the passion of Ireland, in which included the use of the whole body and arms. Irish people have so much spirit in them, he felt it was only natural that they were going to dance with their whole bodies.

               He accelerated the footwork, introduced an enormous amount of new moves into the Dance, brought back moves which
               havent been used in competition for a long long time such as Rocks, however he still works with his knees properly and
               has brought sexiness back into the dance.

Dublin 1994, the Eurovision song contest was Michaels next big break. He got a phone call from Moya Doherty who wanted him to Dance for a show called the Male-5000. He danced and mesmorized the audience whilst becoming friends with both Moya Doherty and John McCologan who were producers. They asked him what he eventualy wanted to do and he said that one day he hoped to have a show of his own. They said they would call him, Michael did not know whether he would ever hear from them again, but he did and it was them saying that they had just nailed the Eurovision song contest and they wanted him to be in it and help design a 7 minute piece called Riverdance. Michael began auditioning Champion Irish dancers in which he could mould into the style required. He walked into the room for the first rehearsal, and everyone just stood there and didn't say a word, the worst thing Michael thought he could do was say something, so he put his shoes on and did 10 seconds of stuff no-one else in their could do, then everyone was all friendly. Michael just had to get their respect, and they were eager to learn because it was what they did only alot faster, alot harder and alot further out. The performance at the Eurovision song contest was a rawing success, Michael said he didn't expect it to take the whole world by storm overnight.

It was such a hit that they were indented with requests to make it a longer show that
would tour around the world. Riverdance-the show opened in Dublin, and then London.
It took everyones breath away. Then just before the second tour of London there was
controversey over the contract. There were three main points that Michael felt he could not
conceed on. They did not want him talking to the press, because they didn't want the star to
become bigger than the show. They wanted a generic show. Which Michael felt was
ridiculous because he was always going to push Riverdance, Riverdance, Riverdance.
They wanted copywright over his work which basicaly means they wanted to own all of
Michaels work. Which he understandibly thought was very unfair.
The third being that they wanted 100% complete artistic control over the way he danced.
In which he felt was just way out of line and I am shore most of you will agree.

Michael gave up a 50'000 pound a week contract just so he could dance the way he wanted to Dance. At the time everyone was saying just sign the contract and dance but he didn't because he would of given up everything he had ever worked for. The night before he got a phone call saying that was it, its over, their going ahead with a Generic show. He then made a phone call to his father in which Michael has described as being the best phone call he has ever had. His father could of done anything, but instead he said "Mike. You built Riverdance, everyone knows it, you can always build another one.

Michael could of done anything at this point, he could of run home with of course the money he had earned or he could of proved he built Riverdance. The only way he could prove he built it, would be to build another one.

11 days later he just sat up in bed and remembered an idea he had had for a Dance. The Dance is called PLANET IRELAND and it ends up being one of the final dances in the end of his show. He wanted his show from the time the curtain went up and the time it went down, to take the audience through a whole bunch of emotions , in which I am shore you will agree, when I say it very much does.

Michael then held a meeting with buisness men and told them the plot of Lord of the Dance. Then one of them said I'll pay for it.
Then another said I'll pay for it, and Michael said No No guys, I'll pay for it, I'll Pay for it, and he does, he funds the whole of LOTD himself.
The show finaly opened in Dublin, it could of opened in London,
but it's an Irish show, it has to be born out of Ireland.
Michael had basicaly become the peoples champion because he
had not said anything to the press. Then he came out of the darkness,
it was just the opening number with Cry of the Celts.
The Audience loved it and Michaels Brilliant show Lord of the Dance
has gone to tour all over the world. There are now even two Troupes.