Profile of Michael Flatley on Famous Like Me

Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958 in Chicago) is an Irish-American step dancer whose parents were from County Mayo. He moved to Ireland and began dancing lessons at the age of 11, after spending some time as a boxer and winning a Golden Gloves Championship. His first teachers were his mother and his grandmother Hannah Ryan, an Irish dancing champion. After leaving high school, he opened a dance school.

His teacher told him he would not be able to compete professionally as he would have had to start dancing at an earlier age. His first professional break came when he joined The Chieftains for tours in the 1980s. He competed with Colin Dunne for the lead in Riverdance. Jean Butler and Michael Flatley led Riverdance to great success as the interval act in the Eurovision Song Contest on April 30, 1994, eventually dancing at Radio City Music Hall in New York. After quitting the show Michael Flatley began his own show, Lord of the Dance, which went platinum in three countries: the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom. Colin Dunne worked with Jean Butler, taking Flatley's role as lead. More recently, Flatley put together a dance production called Feet of Flames.

In February of 1998, Flatley broke his own Guinness Book world record by achieving 35 foot taps per second (the first time was in May 1989 with 28 taps per second). He received the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1988.

Flatley's newest Irish dance show is Celtic Tiger, which opened in July of 2005. In it, Flatley attempts to dance the entire history of Ireland in two hours.

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