A Converstion with Michael Flatley, the Lord of the Dance
by Kieran Jordan
1997Some call him the "Lord" of Irish dance, while others throw around names like "Rod Stuart look-alike." No matter what your opinion is of Michael Flatley, chances are, you have one.
Flatley has brought Irish dancing to an international stage, but he hasn't stopped at that. His own dancing, his cast choreography and his stage production include a kind of bravura and attitude that is new, both to Irish dancers and their audiences. It is this attitude and style, combined with record-breaking dance precision and unstoppable energy that have earned Flatley his success.
His current show, Lord Of the Dance, will play in Boston at the end of April--two shows in one day at the Fleet Center. That agenda alone shows Flatley's daunting ambition. Yet, in person, this 38-year-old stage giant is gracious, soft-spoken, and honest. In early March, he met reporters (photo by Harry Brent) and TV crews at the Fleet Center to plug his show to eager Boston audiences.
Flatley talks like a man who is living out his most precious dream. He says he has hoped to do an Irish dance show of the size and intensity of Lord Of the Dance for years. Michael Flatley met with reporters at the Fleet Center while promoting his new show and its debut in Boston.
"It's been in my mind for a long, long time now. It goes back to when I was touring with the Chieftains. I always wanted to do a great big show like this; I always wanted to do something real special and have a line of dancers across the front of the stage. I remember when I was doing the folk festivals and the type of reaction I was getting . . . the more fancy stuff I threw in there, the more the audience responded. It just seemed to make sense that if I had a whole line of dancers doing the same thing, it was going to work."
Flatley's first effort at this type of Irish dance, chorus-line show played out in the original Riverdance segment that served as the intermission act at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. Here, Flatley, co-starring with Jean Butler, gave Dublin (and then the rest of the world) a seven-minute glimpse of his lightning-quick feet, flamboyant and daring arm motions, show-biz persona and sexy costumes. From there, Flatley went on to create and lead his next triumphant success, Riverdance--the Show.
But in autumn of 1995, just before the show's return to London, Flatley and Riverdance producer Moya Doherty struggled with a contract dispute that led to Flatley's dismissal from the show. Flatley himself describes it this way.
"I left the show because I wanted the freedom to dance the way I want to dance. They were starting to tell me 'No, you can't do the moonwalk; no, you should hold your arms down more,' all that kind of stuff, and those days are gone. I'm from America--freedom of expression--and I'm not gonna put up with that. So I walked out on $75 thousand a week because I wanted to dance the way I want to dance, and I'm proud of that. I'm glad I did. And it let to this, which is bigger and better and more money."
Bigger, it sure is.
The total gross for Lord Of the Dance is now over $100 million. In terms of video sales, while it took Riverdance one year to sell one million videos, it took Lord Of the Dance only 12 weeks to sell 1.5 million. Here in the States, it has been the only production to star at Radio City Music Hall for two weeks, and the stats keeps rising as the show makes its way around the U.S. One of the biggest aspects of this show is that it is now playing in arenas, rather than theaters.
Flatley comments, "We made Riverdance, and I'll say on record as I do in every interview, that I created that dance and all of the Irish work in that, and then it became enormously successful. And then that let to Lord of the Dance, which is even bigger. Now we're doing arenas. Who would of dreamed, when I was doing Riverdance, that I could become this big? That's a huge step up for me. It's enormous, and I'm really proud of it. I'm really proud of it."
Whether or not Lord Of the Dance is better than Riverdance, though, is hard to determine. Viewers might recognize some Riverdance choreography in Lord Of the Dance, but the similarities end there.
Flatley calls Lord Of the Dance is a mixture of Celtic mythology and rock and roll. According to him, there is a clear and simple storyline to the show. "[It's] very, very simple. There's no secret message. It's a good versus evil story, and dance wins at the end." Of course, that means Flatley wins at the end.
The show plays out a thrilling dance battle between the "Lord" of the dance and Don Dorcha, the "Dark Lord" played by Daire Nolan. Meanwhile, Flatley is lured into a romance by the blond-haired, white-clothed Saoirse, played by 16-year-old Bernadette Flynn. Gillian Norris, also 16, plays the temptress who tries to steal Flatley away with her provocative dancing, dark tresses and fire-red costumes.
Flatley says the young age of his two principal female dancers was not a factor in the selection process. "Age has absolutely nothing to do with it. I believe that once we're past sixteen, everyone's the same age. I had auditions. I had a whole roomful of girls there, and I said I wanted everyone to dance this particular way, using your arms. Be free, and let your body feel things. Two girls jumped out of that crowd. They just knocked me out, and those were the two that I chose, for no other reason in the world, except, wow--were they great. Their heart came through--their passion came right to the top. I've danced with a lot of people in the past, but I have to say that no one comes anywhere close to Bernadette Flynn or Gillian Norris."
Flynn, Norris and Daire Nolan are all world champion dancers, as are most of the 32 or more cast members. Yet, for dancers who have worked their way to the top of the competitive Irish dance world, Flatley's choreography, that requires arm and head motions, along with real theatrical expression, is new, rebellious, difficult, and unlike anything these dancers have ever done.
Flatley insists, "They have an enormous appetite for it. They love it. I work them really hard; I know I'm a task master. It's been very difficult, but they're very good at it and they're getting better every day. The tape was shot on the seventh night that our show was up in Dublin, where now, about 160 shows into it, you'd see the difference already." Flatley also insists that, unlike Riverdance, all the material in Lord Of the Dance is Irish. While it's true that Lord Of the Dance bypasses Flamenco dancing and the Gospel choir, it presents a drastically different kind of Irish dancing.
Flatley admits that the Irish audience hesitated to accept it, though not for long. "At first, they were dead against it. Then, all of a sudden the phone started ringing, they have three-hundred kids [in their dance classes], they're driving a new Cadillac, and Flatley's a nice guy. That's kind of how it worked. "But in Ireland, through the Irish and the English press, through all of that stuff, I quietly became the people's champion, because they saw me as a guy who is hard-working. I'm really proud of it. I went home to Ireland with a whole new style of dance that I created here in America. All these other people, they can say what they want and they can talk what they want, but of all the time I've known Moya Doherty, Bill Whelan or John McColgan, I've never seen them dance. What they had was not 'Rivermusic,' they had 'Riverdance.' And I built it, and that's it. And the Irish people know it. So when I go home, get treated very well."
That said, Flatley knows that he has received mountains of negative publicity--slamming everything from his wardrobe to his dancing to his ego. "Help! I don't get it," he laughs. "I was over in England, and I think they just think I'm a cocky American because of the way I dress or something. You know, if you're not English, they don't want to know about it, so they beat up on me. But I always feel, meet me, watch my show. Then go ahead and start throwing mud at me, but, Jesus, have the decency to meet me first. I think they just figure it sells papers and they'll write whatever they want."
Whether the publicity is positive or negative, it is selling papers, and Lord Of the Dance is selling tickets. Meanwhile, Flatley and his crew continue to rehearse and tour on a demanding schedule. "It's brutal," he states. "It's absolutely brutal. I don't think anyone has ever danced this way before. Never. I mean, Riverdance was one thing, but with all due respect, this has gone a hundred miles past it. It's so hard, man. The work is so much more difficult, so much more intricate.
"We're booked now until January, which is a long run. We've got a few film offers that we're looking at right now, and I would try that if it came along, if we could work out the right deal. Right now, I'm happy doing this.
"It's not all me, me, me. If you look at this show, I got 100 people travelling around the world--they're counting on me for a living. And their families are counting on me. Not only that, [but] their grandmothers and grandfathers are counting on me for bragging rights in their neck of the woods. You know? I mean, there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. So I gotta keep this whole thing going one way or the other.
"Everyone is off today, except who? Me. Everyone's off tomorrow, except, you guessed it. I'm the guy. If something goes off with the lights, I gotta get up there on stage and talk to the lads and get them pointed the right direction. [If] the guy that lights the torches is feeling sick and can't do his job tonight, if the girls gotta have some different colored tights because the lights aren't working right--all that has to come down to me. And that's work. That's work. You know, people think, 'probably he just lounges around and, you know, shows up for show time and walks out and starts dancing. . . .' It's takes me an hour before show time just to get up to speed. I'm exhausted by the time the show's starting. You have to be at full speed for that first leap."
He may be exhausted, but Michael Flatley is thriving on Lord Of the Dance and its success. By combining top-notch, innovative Irish dancing with a Celtic rock score and ultra-modern pyrotechnics and special effects, Flatley has pushed the Irish dance tradition into a hip, contemporary realm.
And he knows it. "A little kid stopped me on Grafton Street in Dublin the other day--just a little fella in tennis shoes and these little tiny jeans, and he says to me, 'Wow, man. You're mega.' I had to actually ask a girl, 'What does that mean?' before I realized that it was a compliment. But that is saying something, isn't it? That is the ultimate. A tough little Irish kid, walking on the street, chewing gum and spitting, and 'You're mega.' I thought that was the best ever. I'm a lucky guy that I'm in this position."
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1999
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