Word: flatley
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Flatley's robust sense of self, combined with a stupefyingly energetic stage presence, has made him the center of a cultural phenomenon few would have predicted--a rage for the jig. As star of the two-year-old, 85-member Riverdance, the traveling Gaelic dance show, Flatley hopped, stepped and high-kicked to exultant houses in London and Dublin. When he parted ways with the company in October 1995 over a bitter, and still unresolved, creative dispute, he fashioned Lord of the Dance, a glitzier rival extravaganza showcasing his talents and the updated, freer-form manner of Irish dance...
...string of sold-out performances last year. Riverdance the CD won a Grammy last month and remains the top-selling album on Billboard's world music chart. pbs broadcasts of both productions have garnered high ratings for the network during pledge-drive months. Taped versions of Riverdance and Flatley's new opus are, respectively, the second and third best-selling home videos in the country (just behind Bambi...
...Before Flatley came on the scene, Irish dance was a rigid affair that required performers to hold their arms tightly at their sides. Flatley, an American-born son of Irish parents, acquired his interest in traditional dance from his mom and dad but did not start taking lessons in his native Chicago until he was 11, an age deemed too old by teachers. In the years to come, he spent most of his time overcompensating with endless practice sessions in his parents' garage. He went on to win dance contests all over Ireland and ultimately loosened up the genre...
While fans may be hard pressed to select their favorite between the two troupes, most critics have no problem. Having hailed Riverdance for rejuvenating the Irish jig, most reviewers have derided Lord, which has Flatley blasting onto the stage in puffs of smoke, as a sort of Siegfried and Roy with tap shoes. "There is only one word for it all," wrote Ismene Brown in London's Daily Telegraph: "embarrassing." But harsh comments do not deflate Flatley. "When there are 7,000 people in an audience cheerin', and there's one guy who doesn't like what I'm doin...
What has shaken Flatley, however, is the acrimonious nature of his split from Riverdance. Flatley was dismissed from the company following stymied contract negotiations during which producers refused to accede to his demands for full artistic control of the show. "I walked out on $75,000 a week because I wanted to dance free," says Flatley. At the time of the negotiations, the British press painted a somewhat less romanticized picture of Flatley's aspirations. It was widely reported that he demanded, for example, expanded homage in the program notes. Such reports, Flatley insists, "are lies, out-and-out lies...