Some of them are already here.
Some are lurking in South Carolina
to
catch the dress-rehearsal performances
of Feet Of Flames 2001.
Others are
checking their itineraries.
They are rabid and they are knowledgeable.
They come in all shapes, ages,
sizes and
nationalities with their diversity
unified by one passion:
They
revere their Lord of the Dance,
Michael Flatley.
They are advancing from near
and distant parts
on their pilgrimage to see their
daring dancer leap into
the
opening of his final world tour.
They are the Flatheads.
They're invading Miami en masse
to see his extravaganza, starring and
choreographed by Flatley himself.
The show formally opens the U.S. tour
on
Friday, June 8,
at American Airlines Arena
on Biscayne Boulevard.
From there the troupe will go
to Tampa and on to a
total of 20 major cities
before leaving
the U.S. to complete Flatley's final world tour.
So this will
be the
Flatheads' last big hurrah,
unless Flatley changes his mind,
which is
always a
possibility with the mercurial dancer.
Flatheads, as those in Lake Woebegone Days
"are all above average fans."
Just ask them. Or ask their man.
Flatley calls them "learned," and
"knowledgeable,"
and he says they're not to be
compared to the screaming
hordes following other artists.
Flatley made the remarks during a phone
interview from his villa in Monte Carlo
shortly before leaving for the U.S.
via London.
The fans indeed are unlike
Madonna's enthusiastic, mostly prepubescent
followers,
or such grim ones as the subculture
neo-hippie Deadheads who
gather in their
Central American peasant clothing,
tossing Rastafarian
dreadlocks,
munching on veggie burritos and
smoking pot while waiting
to
worship the Grateful Dead.
But you wouldn't exactly call the
Flatheads Broadway aficionados or
operagoers either, though
many of them are those things too.
They're simply
different.
The Flatheads come from all
parts of the globe and with individual attitudes
toward Flatley, 42, the Irish-American from Chicago
who revolutionized Irish
traditional dance.
Most of the disciples are
women, and they're mostly women
in
love with Flatley's dancing,
his charisma and,
not least of all,
his
bare-chested masculinity.
But that's just part of it.
"He's not macho,"
Flathead Australian student
Pamela Leahy, 21, said,
"that's oversimplifying his appeal.
He's an artist, sensitive and caring."
The Flatheads are unique and imaginative.
They throw special parties for
Flatley, though the honored guest
doesn't show up.
They congregate in the
various venues with cheesecake
and strong dark Guinness beer as hotel party
musts.
Sometimes the parties
are virtual-reality affairs,
held in Internet
chatrooms.
In RL, or Real Life,
they send the multimillionaire presents,
suggest him
for knighthood
and think he should be
president...of Ireland and the U.S.
They buy him stars. Real stars.
Many Flatheads who were
formerly only admirers of the dancing art
in
general were converted to
Flatheadism only after seeing the master perform.
One such man is
Jim Quinn, 64, from Burke, Va.,
whose earthy adjectives
pepper his
critique about his first view
of Flatley's flying feet and high
leaps.
"I first saw Flatley bursting out
onto the stage in a PBS showing
of
Riverdance, probably around
St. Patrick’s Day, 1997.
I took one look at the
puffy shirt
and puffy hair and his immensely
self-satisfied smile and I
wondered just who the - - - - was this guy,
and who the - - - - did he think
he was?
About 30 seconds later
I KNEW who he thought he was:
just the best
damned dancer since
Gene Kelly retired and
Mikhail Barishnikov entered
dancing’s golden years.
"And I completely agreed with him.
Damn, he was amazing!
A few
minutes later, I learned
his name was Michael Flatley.
A few days after
that I also
learned that he was no longer with Riverdance
and had his own new
show,
Lord Of The Dance,
which was about to
play at an arena near me.
So I
went,
and was blown away
by his energy, vitality, and control;
not to mention
the show
and all the young talent he showcased."
Jake Tinio, 36,
a physician from Cleveland,
agrees with Quinn.
"Before
Michael Flatley came along," he said,
"Irish dancing was about as sexy as the
Republican Party...
so how did a thirtysomething,
professional, heterosexual
male like myself
get turned on by Michael Flatley?
Damned if I know.
The
guy's a DANCER
for God's sake not an athlete
like Mike Piazza or Tiger Woods.
He's not a rocker like Springsteen.
He's not even a secret agent
like James
Bond.
But he's Da Man."
Others were not so convinced.
"The guy thinks he can walk on water,"
one
showgoer was quoted
as saying in Irish newspapers.
Word of this upstart
Irish-American's
giant ego quickly got around
in Europe, and "egotistical"
became the obligatory word
preceding Michael Flatley in
British and Irish
newspapers.
Much was written about it,
but it didn't quite
jibe with the man
himself,
whose offstage demeanor is low key
and whose soft speech is a
beguiling mixture of Irish
and American Midwest accents.
Flatley answered the criticism
by releasing a photograph of himself
walking on water.
Most thought it was a hoot,
but some literal-minded
critics saw
the photo as sacrilegious proof
of the man's ego.
"It was just a bit of Irish teasing,"
was how Ann Keller of
Dublin saw his
response.
Keller is an artist,
a teacher and a
Flatley admirer of long
standing.
She added:
"Although born and raised in Dublin,
like many Irish people
I did not ever
have a
great appreciation of
traditional Irish dance or music.
It was
considered rather
old-fashioned.
His performances have changed
forever the
perception of our culture
and made it something we could all celebrate,
rejoice in and be proud of...
I have come to admire and respect Michael,
the
man behind the image,
as much as the great artist he is on stage....
I will
always travel anywhere
I possibly can to be there
and to bring him Irish
support."
Keller will attend the
Miami performance Friday
in the company of
Flatheads
she met at various shows in Europe.
Linda Brongers, an attorney
from the Netherlands, also
recognized Flatley's
subtle sense of humor.
She calls him "a charming man, creative,
who loves the
good things in life
and has this irresistible
Irish wicked sense of humor.
Ever since seeing him,
I have been admiring
Michael Flatley for his
incredible dancing,
his achievements and his views on life."
Sandra Sasvari, a 15-year-old from Sweden,
thinks too much is made of
Flatley's ego and she blames the media.
"I would love to show Michael
for who
he really is instead of
that cocky guy the press
want people to think he is,"
she said.
She says she bought him a star.
So who leads this pack of
devoted Flatheads? Well, nobody.
But if a
monarchy were to be
created tomorrow, a queen candidate
would be Judy Garvey
of Manassas, Va.
She's the volunteer administrator
of the Flathead webpage,
the Guest Book
for the official Lord of the Dance website.
There Garvey, the daughter of a
globe-trotting diplomat and,
presently
employed by National Geographic,
keeps fans up to date with
information about
Flatley and his troupes.
She scans comments from other Flatheads
before
putting them on the message board.
(The URL for the official Flatley website
is:
http://www.lordofthedance.com/
or just ( Click on the link below)
Since the Chinese-language website is
not yet online, Jennifer Ho, 14, a
Taiwanese schoolgirl, visits the American websites.
She plans to come to the
U.S. to see her idol.
"If I feel lost or weak," she said,
"I just watch
Michael's video
and think of his advice,
'Follow your dreams. "
Caeri MacQuarrie of Jeffersonton, Va.,
is also attracted to the
philosophical side of Flatley.
"It was the impact of his spiritual presence
that made the biggest impression on me.
I went backstage to meet a celebrity,
and came out feeling as if I
had been introduced to the Dalai Lama."
She and her friend
Jerri Whiterose of Ridgely, Md.,
are two of the many fans
Flatley may recognize.
Whiterose once presented him with
homemade gifts
backstage after a Dublin performance
and cherishes the time she spent with
him
which was captured on Flatley's GOLD video.
And then there's
Janice Morgan, of Mexico, MO.,
who traveled to London to
see
the Hyde Park show in 1998,
and now looks forward to seeing Flatley
again.
She says, "Meeting him after the
shows is an experience
like none
other,
If I'm a better person at all,
I owe everything to Michael,
this man
inspires so many to
'Follow Their Dreams'."
Jennie Kaidy, 74, of
Rochester, N.Y., found enough inspiration
to sideline
her cane.
"When I heard Michael say,
'You have to make pain your friend,'
I
put my cane in the corner."
Kaidy stops short of
calling Flatley a healer,
but
says he is indeed an inspiration and
"it gives me a sense of strength
and
purpose to be reminded
that he dances through pain
as I walk through mine."
A child celebrity who
sees Flatley as his role model is
Justin Miller,
11, who stars in his own
television show as The Little Chef.
"I like
Michael's dancing so much,
that he has inspired me to
take Irish Step Dancing
lessons too,
" Justin said, " maybe one day if I
practice hard enough I can do
a show like Michael does.
I'm going to see him in Cleveland,
and maybe I can
cook for him," he said.
And who would have been
Flatley's role models?
They're mostly sports
figures
and include heavyweight
boxing champion Muhammad Ali,
NFL running
back Walter Peyton and
hockey star Bobby Hull.
He also mentioned Elvis
Presley in a
phone interview shortly before the tour began.
"They're all
people who worked
hard to be the very best
at what they do," Flatley said.
"Certain people who go a
little bit further and were willing to work at it.
They not only go a little bit
further but they work harder."
After the shows, Flatley enjoys
mingling with the audience, shaking hands,
chatting
and signing autographs.
His security team worries though,
as he
moves through the crowd,
hoisting children and looking for familiar faces.
But all that may change.
Flatley's sociability with fans has been a
nightmare
for his security team,
especially since an intruder recently
invaded his villa in Monte Carlo.
The stalker, a man,
stood staring at the
dancer
from the foot of the bed before being
chased away by Flatley.
Although
nothing was stolen,
the dancer said he didn't think
the intruder was a fan at
all.
Flatley had given his
security team a short leave of absence
and he says
its members were upset.
The bodyguards are taking no chances.
At any rate,
French police
have insisted that Flatley be
accompanied by an armed guard
whenever he's on the
Riviera and more precaution has been taken on all tours.
To prepare for the summer tour,
Flatley exercised and lifted weights in his
villa gym.
He says that he has retained his
stamina through sheer hard work.
He is stronger and
more muscular now,
with a more balanced body,
since his
shoulders and arms now
match his muscular legs.
The balance especially helps him
"paint a picture"
with his signature
flights
through the air.
Flatley, who will turn 43 on July 16th,
still
displays the fierce sense
of purpose that led him to become the
world
champion Irish dancer
in 1975 at the age of 17.
He was the first non-European
to win that title.
That same sense of purpose
led him to become win the
All-Ireland flute championship
three years in a row.
Flatley retired after his
production of
Feet of Flames
in London's Hyde Park
in July, 1998,
but returned to the stage for a
newer version in March, 2000,
in Cologne, Germany,
after dress rehearsals in Erfurt.
Flatley is also a former
Golden Gloves amateur boxer,
who was known for
his
powerful punch,
not his footwork.
He won all his
middleweight fights by
knockouts
but says his footwork was horrible.
"I took a lot of punches,
but I
knew I'd have to
get into slugfests to win.
We sparred with the heavyweights,
since there weren't enough of us
in my weight class to go around.
I was lucky
to have a right
that could knock down buildings," he laughs.
Among other highlights in his career,
Flatley gained recognition by
Guinness as the
world's fastest tap dancer
at 35 taps a second.
He was
declared
a living National Treasure
by President Reagan
and was later
acclaimed by President Clinton.
Flatley, the son of
Irish immigrants who came to America in 1947,
was
eleven when he first saw
Irish step dancing in Chicago.
He knew immediately
it would become his passion.
He took it and made it his own,
revolutionizing
the style and
substance of Irish dance.
He departed from the traditional
version of
having dancers hold their arms rigidly
at their sides to a style
which
includes all natural free-swinging motion,
while retaining the
precision stepping.
With music by Ronan Hardiman,
the productions took on an
undercurrent of rock-and-roll
mixed with a primitive percussion.
Hardiman
has been wooed
by other producers,
but he likes working with Flatley.
"Besides," he said,
"I would only be competing with myself."
Hardiman was one of the members of
Flatley's think tank
which came up with
the theme for the current show.
Flatley's Unicorn Enterprises fields
four dancing troupes.
Presently
Troupe 1 is in Istanbul,
Troupe 2 is in residence
at the Beau Rivage Casino
Hotel
in Biloxi, Miss., and
Troupe 3 is at the New York New York Casino Hotel
in Las Vegas on a permanent engagement
while Flatley's own troupe tours the
U.S.
Feet of Flames 2001 is a new show
with a different theme,
and different
characters, although it remains a
basic good-triumphs-over-evil story.
It's a
mixture of
Egyptian and Celtic dance.
The show portrays a
connection between
the
ancient teachings of Egypt,
and the Irish Druids.
Flatley no longer plays
the character of the
"Lord of the Dance"
in this production,
but dances as a
"Firespirit,"
or Fire Elemental,
who arrives from Egypt to enlighten Ireland.
His character is revealed in
"Firedance,"
performed at the beginning
of the
show.
With its combination of
dramatic dance, haunting music
and a feel-good
story on a
magnificent scale, the show
could well live up to its
hype as a
production with
innovative choreography which
takes dance to a unique
dimension.
The Flatheads will be in their glory.
(c)Written by F. MICHAEL JETT
and used here
with his permission
THANKS {{MICK }}!!
This picture was "editied" by
Shaughnie Sewell
GREAT JOB {{Shaughnie }}
