Lord of the Dance to retire: Flatley leaves the limelight

WANTED: Charismatic, unrelenting, imaginative, high-energy, world-class dancer (35 toe-taps a second is the required standard) to help change how a staid traditional idiom is perceived.

The successful applicant will also show that, after disagreements with former colleagues, they would have the emotional and intellectual capacity to build their own record-breaking international show and the physical capacity to remain the lead dancer in that touring show until they reach 55.

Razor-sharp business acumen and the ability to play the flute to a world standard would be an advantage. A commitment to philanthropy and heritage restoration would be influential also.

The rewards package will, for the right candidate, be beyond most people’s imagination.

So what’s wrong with Michael Flatley, you might well ask? Well, The Lord of The Dance has just retired.

“My body just can’t take it anymore, I’m beaten and battered and I’ve given everything I have... I just have nothing left to give,” Flatley said at Dublin’s 3Arena on Saturday night.

The announcement shows again that time and tide wait for no man, but what use Flatley has made of his time.

He was born in Chicago but very few Irish people have done as much to show this country in such a positive light.

He may have stepped from the limelight to the wings but if his record means anything, we have not heard the last of Flatley by any stretch of the imagination.