Michael Flatley’s Celtic Tiger: Capone Finale - LORD OF THE DANCE 2005

Like and subscribe to be the first to see more videos from the Lord of the Dance archives. #FlatleyFiles The first rule of imagination: you can always go further. In 1993, at the Mayo 5000, Ireland got its first taste of Michael Flatley’s wild and exciting art form atop Irish dancing. Flamboyant, powerful, and full of swagger, it was to traditional Irish dancing what the Battlestar Galactica would be to a wooden sailing vessel. Go on YouTube and watch those videos of the Mayo 5000; this was a year before Eurovision, and here’s Michael, shirtless, wearing a fedora, doing several minutes of stuff no one else in that room could do, let alone have the courage to dare to invent. Michael’s art form had been honed by years of touring with the Chieftains at that point; remember, in 1993, he was the only professional Irish dancer in the world. Eurovision, a year later, didn’t happen in a vacuum. But an artist is always e