Michael Flatley talks critics, cancer, and why Cork will always be home for him
Michael Flatley: 'When god rings the bell, I’ll know it’s time to go. But until that time, I’m going to keep punching'
Say “ego” to Michael Flatley, and he will let you know that he takes it as a compliment.
“If you don’t have confidence maybe it just means you have not done the work. I was brought up in Chicago. I grew up with Muhammad Ali. I grew up some of the great American heroes. What figure goes into the ring and says, ‘well I’m probably going to lose?’
"Every man has to believe in himself, no matter who you are or what you do. If you don’t believe in yourself, who is going to believe in you?”
Flatley, an icon of Irish dance from Riverdance to the present day, was born on Chicago’s hard-knock southside in 1958, but Cork will always be home for him. He has lived in the county on and off since purchasing Castlehyde Estate, near Fermoy, for €3 million in 2001.
His son, Michael Jr, was born at Cork University Hospital And he returns to the city on August 9 for a performance of his celebrated Lord of the Dance show. With Cork, he says, there is always a sense of belonging.
“I love Cork. My family and I have Castlehyde in north Cork, one of the most beautiful places in the world. We love coming home to Cork. We rarely get an opportunity. There is rarely a venue available. I believe this is our first time in the Opera House and it’s a thrill. We have a lot of dancers and a lot of performers from Cork. And they’re all buzzing to come home.
"I live most of the time in Monte Carlo. It’s busy all the time.
Lord of the Dance marked its 25th anniversary in 2021. The production emerged out of a period of turmoil in Flatley’s life. He’d just left Riverdance, with which he’d had blockbusting success as the lead dancer alongside Jean Butler, and the departure was not on good terms.
With Lord of the Dance, he set records all over again: the production has run around the world on a near-constant basis since 1996, propelling Flatley to an estimated net worth above €300 million. In hindsight, it seems inevitable Lord of the Dance would triumph.
Coming off Riverdance, however, many people thought he was crazy to go out on his own, with a huge troupe of dancers, an epic story based on Celtic mythology and an ambitious cinematic score by Ronan Hardiman.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I don’t lack self confidence. It’s because I work hard. I’ve done the homework.
"Before I got into the studio [prepping for Lord of the Dance], I had every little move finished in my head. I couldn’t afford to pay dancers [while he was composing the work], I didn’t have money for that when they first came. I had to do it efficiently. I’m very proud of that.
"I didn’t get the greatest reception: people told me, ‘no, it can’t happen, you’ll never make it, it will never work’. Somehow or other we gained lift-off. Once we gained lift-off we sold out big venues — 18,000 seaters all over the world, from Tokyo to Texas to Madison Square Garden. I’m proud of that.”
He won’t be dancing in the production that comes to Cork. Decades of treading the boards have taken a toll on his body: wreaking havoc with his hamstring, spine, and legs. He has talked about making “friends with pain”. But he never regrets continuing to perform after medics advised him to hang up his dancing shoes before finally retiring in 2016.
“I wasn’t going [to] listen to doctors. My body is probably in ribbons, in bits right now,” he says.
”I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I followed my dream. I’m happy. These are good pains; these are welcome pains. They prove to me every morning when I get out of bed, ‘You did what you came here to do… you followed your dream, you did the work’.”
Flatley grew up in Chicago, surrounded by Irish people. His father was a plumber from Sligo, and his mother was a gifted dancer from Carlow. Aptly, they met at a dance in Detroit before moving to Chicago, where Michael was the second oldest of five.
He started dancing at 11, which was regarded as too told for him to ever compete at the highest level (most dancers begin at five or six). That sense of being the underdog becomes a considerable motivation, he says.
“I was told I was too late, I should go home. There was something inside me [that] said I’m not having it. I had to learn a step a week or two steps a week or more. I started learning at a way faster pace. When I caught up with the class, the teacher was amazed I knew all the steps. He was teaching them a half a step a week. I was learning three, four, five steps a week. That was slow-motion for me. I began already to create my own steps.
"I think that’s what gave me the launching pad for the rest of my career.”
He was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of cancer at the start of the year, having overcome melanoma 20 years ago. Speaking to the , though, Flatley is chipper – and optimistic about the future.
“It was certainly a punch of the solar plexus when I got the diagnosis. It’s a long hard road. I’m not going to lie. But I’ve already made up my mind: I’m on the other side of that wall. I will not be defeated.
"One of the ways I do that is I thank god every day for what I already have in my life. When god rings the bell, I’ll know it’s time to go. But until that time, I’m going to keep punching.”
Lord of the Dance’s new tour comes at a busy time for the dancer. Last year, he brought his self-funded action movie Blackbird to cinemas - Sinéad O'Connor's last written song was for the film. Critics were dismissive, and it is fair to say that Flatley will not be mistaken for the second coming of Daniel Day-Lewis. Still, the film went down well on social media and is on its way to becoming a cult classic.
“I probably got a hard time from one or two critics. Mostly the press has been great to me,” he says.
“So if there’s one or two guys that don’t like this particular project, that’s okay with me. I’m not worried. I’m happy to take criticism. I’ll take criticism from any other person that has written, directed, produced, financed and starred in their own first movie that opened in over 100 cinemas, and won the opening night and got a five minute standing ovation at its premiere. I’m happy to take criticism from that guy.”
Flatley’s relationship with Riverdance may have ended on a downbeat note. However, he is proud to have helped put Irish dance on the world map. He thinks back to Riverdance’s debut at 1994 Eurovision in The Point in Dublin and feels goosebumps, just like everyone else. He reveals that he was encouraged to put his arms down before he went out, as is Irish dance tradition. He refused, and his twirling, swirling pivots – with arms pointed skyward – were a defining element of the performance.
“It felt like I was in the right place at the right time, maybe for the first time in my life. Right before I went on stage they tried to stop me using my arms. They said they were getting calls from people at RTÉ saying I was going to ruin the Irish dance tradition. I would not change. I had a little debate right before I went on stage. I said, I’ve had enough of this and I went flying on the stage. And I’m glad I did it to this day, I’m glad that I stood by my guns and did the right thing.
"And of course, you saw the results."
- Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance is at Cork Opera House from August 9-13. Tickets from corkoperahouse.ie
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