![]() Married to Niamh O’Brien, a former lead dancer with Lord of the Dance, the couple currently live in Knightsbridge, London where their son Michael St. James Keegan, James Breen, Matt Smith and Lewis Childs are all great, great dancers who deserve to take over from me,” he said. “I feel happy to go, happy to let some other really talented, hard-working guys take my place. While Michael is leaving the stage, Lord of the Dance will go on. “Firedance,” his first exhibition of paintings, took place in London in August and reported sales of over €1 million. And, with the end of his dancing career in sight, he has embarked on a new career as a painter, substituting paintbrushes with dance movements to capture the mystical, performance aspect of his dancing. He is also an accomplished flautist, and has produce two albums, including the two-CD collection, On a Different Note, which mixes traditional and contemporary music. Over the years, while Michael’s brand has become synonymous with spectacular artistry and grand scale productions such as Feet of Flames, Celtic Tiger, and Lord of the Dance. He went on to create Lord of the Dance in 1996, which went on to mesmerize audiences around the world (videos sales are in excess of 12 million.) And In 1998, he exceeded his first Guinness World Record of 28 taps per second set in 1989 with a phenomenal 35 taps per second. All that changed utterly when he choreographed and performed in Riverdance, which ran as the interval show at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest to spectacular success. When he wasn’t on the road he supplemented his income working at this father’s construction company. But making a living as a dancer was hard. After winning all the top awards in the Irish dance world while still a teen, he went on tour with The Chieftains, the great Irish traditional group. He took his first dance lessons at age 11 – a relatively late start – but from the beginning his teachers knew he was something special. He has three sisters, Anne-Marie, Eliza, and Thomasina, and a brother, Patrick. The son of Irish immigrants, Michael grew up in Chicago. Seeing the nerves and excitement on the students’ faces as they rehearse the Act III Waltz of the Hours warms my heart.Michael Flatley, 57, who has turned traditional Irish dancing into an international phenomenon, is retiring. It’s been his dream since he was a little boy to be on Broadway and that’s where he will be through the end of this year with his new dance show, Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games, which opened at the Lyric Theatre on November 10th to wide acclaim. I remember exactly how I felt dancing next to company ladies and now, I am one of them. I remember my role perfectly – Group #3, girl in the middle, on stage left.įlash forward 13 years and I have stepped into new shoes – those of the professional ballerina I had dreamt of those many years ago. I performed Coppélia several times with NYCB at the NY State Theater and at their summer residency in Saratoga Springs. I had been auditioned by Children’s Ballet Mistress, Garielle Whittle months in advance and had been rehearsing on weekends and after school hours to feel absolutely prepared for our shining moments on stage. Believe it or not, Peter Boal was a Principal dancer with NYCB at the time I first performed in Coppélia – we have both come a long way since!Īs a student chosen to be in a NYCB production, I took my role very seriously and would practice my choreography everywhere – the school cafeteria, at home, on the street, you name it. ![]() ![]() You certainly didn’t have to ask me twice to wear the cutest pink tutu and dance alongside the company dancers – those I only dreamt of becoming one day. In 2003, I had been cast as one of the 24 little ballerinas to dance on the New York State Theater stage, now named the David H. ![]() This ballet must tickle every little girl’s dreams of becoming a ballerina and twirling in a tutu on stage. As I rehearse for its opening in one week, I daydream about my memories as a wide-eyed 12-years-old girl dancing Coppélia. George Balanchine’s Coppélia is a ballet near and dear to my heart. Cecilia Iliesiu as an SAB Student in George Balanchine’s “Coppelia” Waltz of the Hours in 2003.
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