February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
His publicist hovered in doorway.
“That’s allright Jessica, I’m sure I don’t need protecting from these people,” he said, waving her away with a grin and winking conspiratorially.
He was there to talk about his new production, “The Celtic Tiger,” which opens in Budapest on July 9. The show sees Flatley take to the stage for the first time in four years.
“I had to take time off from the grueling touring schedule,” he recalled, crossing his legs, those famous feet ensconced in a pair of bright red sneakers.
“My mind wasn’t 100 percent on it, because I had already started working on something new and when I start doing that, I may as well just focus on that.”
Flatley created, choreographed and directed “The Celtic Tiger,” a dance spectacular that traces Irish history from the Druids to present day. His last show, “Lord of the Dance,” smashed global box office records, grossing over $500,000,000 in ticket sales alone and adding “highest paid dancer” to Flatley’s list of Guinness book records.
“This show is much, much bigger than anything I’ve done before,” he said, widening his eyes.
“‘Lord of the Dance,’ and ‘Feet of Flames,’ were fabulous shows, but they were built around fiction. They were not as serious as this one is. This is a show that I’ve had time to create. It’s a show that means, really an awful lot to me. the Celtic Tiger to me is not just the financial success Ireland has had over the last decade. The Celtic Tiger is the heart and soul and spirit of the Irish race, who have come back time and time and time again. After the Viking invasion, after the Norman invasion, after the British occupation, after the great Famine, and after 1916.”
According to him, the show contains some “strong messages,” about the 1916 rising, an event has never been fully depicted on Irish stage or screen.
“My whole family was very republican on both sides. This is a story that has to be told, and I don’t understand why everybody’s afraid to tell it — I’m certainly not,” he said.
“2016 is coming and there’s nobody talking about it. I won’t believe those seven men died in vain. Let me be the first to say something.”
Flatley is in great shape for his 47 years, but his tired voice and puffy eyes suggest the grueling nature of his rehearsal schedule.
“People think, you know he only works a couple of hours and look at all the money he makes. They have no idea,” he said, rubbing his forehead.
“For 26 weeks I’ve been in rehearsals. I hired the coach of the Welsh rugby team and I’m in Hyde Park by 7am every morning with him. Every day I lift weights, we box and then I work with the dancers until late, late at night. Once the dancers are gone, then I start working. When I’m done with my dancing, then I deal with all the technical guys. Then I go home, catch a few hours sleep, get up and start again.”
In a career that has included meeting Nelson Mandela and witnessing the proclamation of October 11 as “Michael Flatley Lord of the Dance Day,” in Las Vegas, Flatley finds it understandably difficult to pick out a highlight.
“At the Oscars we had 2.5 billion people watching us, that was a really wicked night for us,” he said, smiling at the memory.
“It was great to how the stars were fascinated with our dancers, its something they’ll never forget. We’ve taken people that would normally be dancing with ringlets in their hair in a church hall, and we’ve gotten people like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman fawning all over them.”
With the highs come the lows of course, and he admits that it can be a challenge to preside over such a huge business empire.
“It’s a constant battle between business marketing and looking after all the dancers,” he said.
“We had one particularly difficult situation in Africa recently where one of our technicians was shot to death. That was horrific.”
The paparazzi in the U.S. and Britain, where Flatley is currently based, are a constant nuisance.
“I’ve done my utmost over the last five years anyway to stay out of the press in America and England,” he said.
“With a new show you need to launch ticket sales, you need to be in the media. That doesn’t mean that I want to be in the tabloid newspapers, you won’t see me in ‘Hello,’ magazine or those things. But I can also say I’m not complaining. It’s an honor to be recognized for the work that you do. People often say: ‘don’t you get sick of people asking you for your autograph?’ and that sort of thing. I’m the luckiest man in the world. Until I was 35 I was digging ditches for a living. That’s what I think if somebody stops me and asks me for my autograph.”
“The Celtic Tiger,” will undoubtedly spark the interest of US audiences, for many of whom Flatley’s rise from construction worker to worldwide superstar represents the ultimate realization of the American dream. But Flatley, whose parents moved from Sligo to Chicago in 1947, is unequivocal about where his heart lies.
“I’m as Irish as it gets,” he said, laughing.
“My dad is 77 and you still can’t understand a word he says. He and my mother came in 1947 and they worked so hard in the United States to make a living for themselves. They are perhaps the greatest influence on me. They came to this country with nothing, they never took a penny from unemployment. The Flatleys worked seven days a week. They gave me a really good respectable upbringing and taught me a lot about life. I owe them the world.”
His expects to bring the show to Irish audiences sometime next summer.
“We’re looking for a venue in Ireland — who knows, if everything is good next year, maybe we’ll do Croke Park. I’d like that,” he said, displaying his trademark modesty.