Michael Flatley

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Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an Irish-American former dancer, choreographer, and performer.

He became well-known in Ireland as a performer on Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger Live.

Flatley's shows have attracted more than 60 million people from 60 countries and have earned more than $1 billion. Flatley is best known for reimagining traditional Irish dance by mixing new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movements, which were previously unhearded.

He's been in the Guinness World Record for tap dancing 35 times per second, and his feet were insured for $57.6 million at one time.

Flatley retired in 2016 due to chronic spinal, knee, foot, and rib pains.

Early life

Michael Ryan Flatley was born on July 16, 1958, second of five children born to Irish parents Michael James Flatley and Elisabeth "Eilish" Flatley (née Ryan), both of whom immigrated to the United States in 1947. Michael was a plumber from County Sligo, and Eilish, whose mother, Hannah Ryan, was a champion dancer. Michael and Eilish were married in Detroit on August 25, 1956, at an Irish dance. They had five children: Anne-Marie, Michael, Eliza, Thomasina, and Patrick. The family migrated from Detroit to Chicago's South Side when Michael was two months old.

Flatley began dancing lessons with Dennis G. Dennehy at the Dennehy School of Irish Dance in Chicago at age 11. He attended Brother Rice High School, an all-boys Catholic private school.

Flatley, a teenager from Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne in 1975, became the first American to win a World Irish Dance championship at age 17. Flatley won twice in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil concert flute competitions in 1975 and 1976.

Flatley won the Chicago Golden Gloves Championship in the 126 pound novice division in the 1970s and took the middleweight division of the Chicago Golden Gloves Boxing Championship. He won five knockout games. Flatley said he began to flirt with the prospect of becoming a professional into the early 1980s, but eventually stuck with a career in dance. He later became a philanthropic donor to the Golden Gloves group.

Personal life

Beata Dziaba was beaten in Flatley's Royal Albert Hall in London. In 1986, the couple married in a Danish registry office, but they divorced in 1997 after his dancing successes resulted in multiple affairs with other women.

Flatley began identifying Niamh O'Brien, a long-serving dancer from several of his performances, in June 2006. His first marriage as a Catholic in a civil wedding was not recognized by the Church, according to Canon Law, so the 48 year old Flatley and Niamh, 32, were able to celebrate a Roman Catholic wedding. The couple married at the historic St. Patrick's Church in Fermoy, County Cork, on October 14, 2006, at the historic Castlehyde House in Flatley, Ireland, also located in Cork, Ireland.

Michael St. James, a son of his wife, was born in 2007. The family lives in Monte Carlo and Castlehyde House in Ireland.

Flatley bought Castlehyde, the house that first president of Ireland, near Fermoy, north-east Cork, in 2001, but in a derelict condition. Flatley spent €27 million renovating the mansion and then another €20 million furnishing it with artwork and antiques. Flatley bought a mansion in Belgravia, just off Eaton Square, for €28 million, and listed Castlehyde for sale for €20 million in 2015.

Flatley also owns valuable properties in the Caribbean, New York, Beverly Hills, and Villefranche-sur-Mer in addition to Castlehyde and his London mansion. He has invested a significant amount of his money in Berkshire Hathaway.

Flatley was extorted and defamed by real estate agent Tyna Robertson, who falsely accused Flatley of sexual assault Robertson, was fined $11 million in 2003.

Flatley unveiled Lord of the Dance: My Story, his autobiography, in 2006. He also addressed problems relating to his facial skin cancer in 2006.

Flatley's Garden of Memory and Music in Culfadda, County Sligo, was dedicated to his father's return to America in 2010. The ceremony featured a lecture and an encore of one of his father's favorites songs.

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Career

Flatley has worked in various fields since graduating high school. Flatley toured with Green Fields of America from 1978 to 1979. He appeared with The Chieftains in the 1980s, but he was turned down when he applied to become a full member of the band.

Flatley was asked to help create an intermission display for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest after attracting the attention of Ireland's president, Mary Robinson, and dance-show designers. For the interval act of the competition, which was held in Ireland, he performed a 7-minute show titled "Reverdance." Flatley fought to make the show, which became Riverdance, a worldwide hit. Moya Doherty produced the performance, with principal choreography by Flatley and lead performances by Flatley and Jean Butler.

Flatley left Riverdance in September 1995 to pursue what would later become Lord of the Dance, after the show sold out. Flatley had a squabble with the developers over his salary and royal commissions. He was dismissed the night before the show was due to begin in London again, and Colin Dunne was brought to life. He did not do well with Butler, according to Flatley, "I just wanted power over the jobs that I had created myself." That's all. I don't believe that is too much to ask. I felt like I built it and they took it, and that's the end of it... and it hurt."

Flatley Immediately after the Riverdance tragedy, he created Lord of the Dance, which was capable of playing in arenas and stadiums other than traditional theaters. It premiered in June 1996 at the Point Theatre (now 3Arena) in Dublin, then made its U.K. debut at the London Coliseum. Ronan Hardiman produced the show's soundtrack. Flatley's earnings in 1997 were worth £36 million, placing him 25th among the world's top earning entertainers.

Flatley's original version of the show Feet of Flames opened in 1998 as its one-off performance and his final appearance in Lord of the Dance. On a massive 4-tier hydraulic stage in Hyde Park, London, with a live band and over 100 dancers performing on all four levels of the performance during the finale, it was staged outside. The original Lord of the Dance's music by Ronan Hardiman was used again along with new arrangements, as well as Hardiman himself. Flatley's solo was one of six new numbers on the show; one of which is Flatley's solo.

Flatley made another version of Feet of Flames in 1999, which featured half of the original exhibits and half new content after the success of the 1998 Hyde Park show. Feet of Flames: The Victory World Tour, the show was also on a multi-level stage in 2000 and the United States in 2001.

Celtic Tiger Live, Flatley's next show, opened in July 2005. The display explores the origins of the Irish people and Irish emigration to the United States, featuring a variety of dance styles, including jazz. The show also includes traditional elements from his previous performances, including Flatley's flute solos and a line of dancers in the finale.

In the show's program book, Flatley wrote, "I will be a dancer until the day I die."

Flatley was admitted to a private London hospital with a viral infection on November 15, 2006, well before the show's fall and winter tours. He was released two weeks later and cancelled the tour.

Flatley and a group of male dancers appeared on Dancing with the Stars in the United States in November 2007. He appeared on an episode of the show in October 2008, as a guest judge, filling in for Len Goodman. On the program, he performed "Capone" from Celtic Tiger. Flatley appeared on Superstars of Dance, an NBC series that aired for 5 episodes in early 2009. Stephen Colbert appeared on The Late Show in 1997 Academy Awards ceremony, and he was also interviewed on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in 2011.

Flatley performed in Taiwan in December 2009 for a limited run of Feet of Flames, "Hyde Park" version. To satisfy ticket demand, the run of shows had to be extended.

With appearances in England, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, he returned to headline the Lord of the Dance show in 2010. Nevertheless, the stage for the 2010 Return Tour was redesigned; it featured new sets, new costumes, state-of-the-art lighting, and projections, unlike the original display; rather than the original exhibition.

Lord of the Dance 3D, the return tour's 3D film, opened in theaters around the world in 2011. Michael Flatley Recalls as Lord of the Dance, was later released on DVD and Blu-ray under the title, and it included performances from the O2 Arenas of London, Dublin, and Berlin.

Flatley's On A Different Note, a flute album, was released in 2011. The 25 tracks include airs and tunes he has performed in his performances, some traditional songs, and new compositions.

Flatley's One-Off 60 minute ITV Music Specials episode titled Michael Flatley: A Night to Remember was released on May 18, 2014, commemorating his long career. Christine Bleakley hosted the show on June 1, 2014, and it was broadcast on June 1, 2014.

Flatley produced Lord of the Dance: A New Edition of Lord of the Dance, which featured a new storyline as well as new music by Gerard Fahy, who appeared as a bandleader and musical director in Flatley's shows earlier this year.

Flatley reported in May 2015 that a significant portion of his vertebral column had been irreparably impaired, including a fractured rib, a fractured leg, and a common broken bone in his foot. In the Sardi's restaurant on Broadway, a caricature of him was on display.

Lord of the Dance, Flatley's debut at the Lyric Theatre, a Broadway theatre, premiered in November 2015. Flatley was only able to participate in the final two numbers of the show due to his injury. Flatley went on a final tour in the United States after shows in New York. On St. Patrick's Day 2016, what was then thought to be Flatley's last performance, was in Las Vegas.

Flatley's troupe debuted at the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017. Flatley called it "a great honor."

Flatley produced, produced, funded, and starred in Blackbird, a spy film set in Barbados, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, as a writer in 2018. Patrick Bergin and Eric Roberts appear in the film co-starring Patrick Bergin and Eric Roberts. Blackbird was scheduled to premiere in a private screening at the Raindance Film Festival in London, where Flatley was also a member of the Festival Jury. Pre-production work on Flatley's second film, titled Dreamdance, had started in Hollywood at the outbreak of World War II. In Dublin, Blackbird premiered in August 2022 at the Light House Cinema.

Flatley has performed on paint splattered canvas since the early 2010s and has created art with his feet. In the mid-2010s, he created a series of paintings based on the Great Irish Famine. Flatley was second only to Jack Butler Yeats in terms of the auction price of paintings by Irish painters as of 2015.

Business career

He also founded Castlehyde, which was named after his residential estate around this time. According to reports, his net worth hit €301 million in 2019.

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