Michael Ryan Flatley was born on July 16, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois and was raised by his Irish parents, who moved from Ireland in 1947. At 4 years old he took his first dance steps, his grandmother teaching him. In 1969 he and his brother and 4 sisters were put on dancingclasses. His teacher thought he was too old already to become a great dancer and oh boy, was he wrong!!! Michael was on a Catholic school and the neighbourhood was very tough and so he started to take boxinglessons where he won the Chicago Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Championship. In the meantime he was still dancing his way around. At the age of 15 he did compete with the World Dance Championships where he did not even come close and he worked harder on his dancing. The next year he became fourth and the year after that he finally won!!! He left school around 17 and went to New York where he got the chance to get on tour with the Chieftains where he played the flute and could dance! They were highly successful. In the meantime he had been married. In 1994 he was asked to dance at the Eurovision Song Contest in a 7 minute piece, called "Riverdance". It was an instant success and he was asked to make a show of it and that was how "Riverdance" the show took off. In 1996 there were contractproblems and Michael left the show and instantly created his own show, "Lord of the Dance". In 1998, at London's Hydepark, he performed with his dancers in the show "Feet of Flames", with new numbers, a much bigger set and more dancers! He then took a year and a half off and he returned with a new version of "Feet of Flames", based on an Egypsian style. He stopped the tour early and then returned with the show in 2001 and toured during summer in the USA. It was his last show and tour. He has now retired. All that time he had three troupes touring with "Lord of the Dance" and he has still all the controle over them.
In my opinion he is a wonderful dancer and we are lucky to have him around on this world!!!
You want to see him dance? Click here Videoclips
