Michael Flatley. "I will be a dancer until the day I die."
Michael Flatley was born July 16, 1958, in Chicago. His parents, Michael Senior and Elizabeth, who immigrated from Culfadda, Co Sligo, in 1947, instilled in their children a love and respect for the traditions of Ireland, especially music and dance. Michael learned from his mother the rudiments of Irish step dancing.
At the age of 11, he tried to take formal lessons but was told that he was already too old to learn properly. He moved the cars out of his parents’ garage in the Oak Lawn suburb of Chicago and spent hundreds of hours there learning the basic steps and practicing. “And then I started adding my own steps,” he said. “It was the only way to win. The Irish kids eat, drink, and sleep step dancing, and they are way ahead of anyone else. ”
Irish step dancing is highly competitive. Contests begin at the local level and work up to national competition, ending in the annual World Championships in Ireland. Michael Flatley became the undisputed champion of modern Irish step dancing.
At 17, he became the first American to win the title of All-World Champion in Dublin. He also gained a major position in the field of Irish flute music, winning the All-Ireland Concert Flute Championship for three consecutive years, 1974-1976. In 1978 he retired from general competition as a musician and dancer, having compiled an unsurpassed record of technical and aesthetic excellence that included 168 first-place championships.
Michael Flatley was also a Golden Gloves boxing champion and considered becoming a professional boxer. But an offer from the Chieftains made him reconsider, and he joined the group for a worldwide tour. “This guy said he saw one of my performances,” Flatley recalled, “and he wants to know: ‘How would you like to dance with the Chieftains?’ I just couldn’t believe my ears. My heart started to beat real fast and my hands started to shake. The Chieftains are the greatest Irish musicians in the world…. I told him I would be honored. So I gave up the boxing idea.”
Over the years, he became renowned for an innovative dancing style that combined jumps of astonishing height, dazzling scissors kicks, lightning-fast footwork, and complex rhythmic syncopation. In 1989, he challenged the Guinness Book of Records in the category of the number of taps one can sound in one second. The former world’s record was 24 taps per second; Flatley managed 28. When asked about his performing, Flatley said, “I wonder if my legs are going to be there when I get down…. I’m definitely setting out to prove that I’m still the best dancer in the world.”
He created the original Riverdance and led the show to great success as the intermission act in the Eurovision Song Contest on April 30, 1994. He then starred alongside Jean Butler in the full-length show that was developed from the original seven-minute act. After a series of rows with the producers, he left the show and produced, directed, and choreographed Lord of the Dance. He also broke his own record for tapping speed in February 1998, by achieving 35 taps per second
He then put together a dance production called Feet of Flames in 1998. He later went on to produce another version of the show of which around 50% of the numbers were different from that of the 1998 show. Titled ‘Feet of Flames The Victory Tour’, he toured Europe in 2000 and the USA and 2001.
In December 2001, He became the first recipient of the Irish Dancing Commission Fellowship award, an honorary degree in Irish dance, and was simultaneously made a Fellow of the American Irish Dance Teachers’ Association. Irish America magazine named him Irish American of the Year in March 2003.
In 2004, Michael Flatley received an honorary doctorate degree from University College ,Dublin, and that same year received the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor in New York.
His current Irish dance show is Celtic Tiger, which opened in July 2005. The show explores the history of the Irish people and Irish emigration to the US, fusing a wide range of dance styles, including jazz. The show also includes popular elements from his previous shows, such as Flatley’s flute solos and the line of dancers in the finale.
In March 2006, he released his autobiography, titled Lord of the Dance: My Story. Commenting on his future, he said in the Celtic Tiger programme: “I will be a dancer until the day I die.”
He married fellow dancer Niamh O’Brien in Fermoy, Co. Cork, on October 14, 2006. Their first child, Michael St. James Flatley, was born on April 26, 2007.