Michael Flatley
Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American dancer with Irish roots.
Life
Michael Flatley is the second of five children. His parents and grandparents are from Ireland. Since the entire family was very musical, Flatley followed his father's request and learned to play the flute . With this instrument he achieved numerous titles, including that of All-Ireland Flute Champion .
Michael had been taking dance lessons since he was four, both from his parents and from his grandmother Hannah Ryan , who was a top dancer in Irish dance at the time. At the age of eleven, Michael Flatley finally tried to get admission to the Dennehy School of Irish Dance, which was rejected on the grounds that he was too old. However, he did not give up and was finally able to attend school. After intensive training he got better and won numerous dance competitions in the USA over the years. At the age of 17 he won the All-World Irish Dance Championship , the world championship in Irish dance in Ireland .
Michael Flatley grew up in a neighborhood where many different cultures collide. After repeatedly coming home with a bloody nose, his father advised him to start boxing . He pursued this with great commitment and won the Chicago Golden Glove Championships as a 17-year-old .
He had his breakthrough as a dancer from 1983 onwards by participating in tours with the Chieftains , a famous and successful Irish band.
After these successes he was invited to the Spirit of Mayo Festival in Dublin in 1993 . After his performance he was commissioned by the show producer to create a dance interlude for the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 as a break filler. The result was Riverdance , a five-minute dance performance. This performance was the beginning of a worldwide success.
Today Michael Flatley works as a director , producer and choreographer . He always works with Ronan Hardiman on his “own” shows .
Flatley has been on tour with his show Celtic Tiger since July 9, 2005 . The European tour planned for early December 2006 was canceled because Flatley was hospitalized with heart problems.
In October 2006, Michael Flatley and Niamh O'Brien, co-stars of "Celtic Tiger" married. The marriage has a son (* March 2007).
In his prime role as Lord in Lord of the Dance , he was last seen on stage in 1998. In April 2010 it was surprisingly announced that Flatley would return to the stage as Lord . According to Flatley, the main reason for this step was the fact that he had received thousands of fan letters in the past few years in which his fans had asked for exactly that, and that he felt better than ever to dance at the moment.
Discography
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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| Albums | ||||||||||||
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CDs
- 1996 Lord of the Dance
- 1998 Feet of Flames
- 2005 Celtic Tiger
- 2010 On a Different Note (flute solo double CD)
-
DVDs and / or videos
- 1995 Lord of the Dance
- 1998 Feet of Flames
- 2000 Michael Flatley Gold
- 2005 or 2006 Celtic Tiger
- 2009 Michael Flatley in Feet of Flames Taiwan
- 2011 Michael Flatley in Lord of the Dance - The Spectacular New Show
Awards and Achievements
- 1975
- World Championship for Irish Dance
- Golden Glove Championship
- All-Ireland Flute Championships
- 1987
- Master of Dance Award
- 1988
- National Heritage Fellowship from President Ronald Reagan
- National Endowment
- 1989
- first entry in the Guinness Book of Records with 28 steps per second
- 1991
- it was declared a "Living Treasure" by the National Geographic Society
- Honorable mention by the press for Riverdance as part of the Rose of Montreux
- 1997
- Chicago Mayor Daley declares April 4th "Michael Flatley Day"
- Award for the best performance of the year for Lord of the Dance
- 1998
- largest dance show in the world - Feet of Flames
- second entry in the Guinness Book of Records with 35 steps per second (break of his first record)
- 1999
- third entry in the Guinness Book of Records for being the highest paid dancer in the world; he earned $ 1.6 million; his legs are worth $ 40,000,000
- Outstanding Irish-American of the Century Award
- 2001
- Music Video Prize from Germany to Michael Flatley
- Irish-America Lifetime Achievement Award
- DIVA Award
Dance shows
- toured with the Chieftains in the 1980s
- 1994 Eurovision Song Contest: seven-minute dance performance with Jean Butler and the Riverdance Troupe in a short break
- 1994 Riverdance - The Show with Jean Butler
- 1996 Lord of the Dance
- 1998 Feet of Flames
- 1999 Feet of Flames - Budapest
- 2005 Celtic Tiger
Awards for music sales
|
|
| Country / Region |
 gold |
 platinum
|
Sales | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
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 Germany (BVMI)
|
- |
11 × platinum11
|
550,000 | musikindustrie.de |
 Canada (MC)
|
gold1
|
- | 50,000 | musiccanada.com |
 Hungary (MAHASZ)
|
gold1
|
- | 25,000 | slagerlistak.hu |
 United States (RIAA)
|
- |
12 × platinum12
|
1,200,000 | riaa.com |
 United Kingdom (BPI)
|
gold1
|
33 × platinum33
|
1,675,000 | bpi.co.uk |
| All in all |
3 × gold3
|
56 × platinum56
|
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literature
- Lord of the Dance: My Story, Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Individual evidence
- ^ A tale of three Michaels. In: independent.ie. September 14, 2007, accessed on October 7, 2010 (English, in German: A story about three Michaels).
- ↑ Michael Flatley announces his return as Lord of the Dance. (No longer available online.) April 20, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on October 7, 2010 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chart sources: DE
Web links
- Homepage of Michael Flatley
- Michael Flatley in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Lord of the Dance
- Lord of the Dance in Austria
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Flatley, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Flatley, Michael Ryan (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American dancer with Irish roots |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 16, 1958 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago , Illinois |