25 Years of Lord Of The Dance

Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance is back, for its 25th anniversary and it’s better than ever. Personally, I knew that the show was Irish dancing and that the dancers would have footwork quicker than the speed of light, but I didn’t know much more than that. However, I was still extremely excited to see this show, as it has always fascinated me, with how quickly and precisely the dancers can move, having seen snippets of the show on various TV shows. I was not disappointed and have fallen in love with this worldwide, record-breaking phenomenon.

The show itself is made up of the storyline of the Little Spirit and her dreams. She dreams of the Lord of the Dance and his arch-nemesis, The Dark Lord. The Dark Lord wants to become the Lord of the Dance, and nearly succeeds by tempting the Lord of the Dance away from his true love, Saoirse, with the dark and mysterious Morrighan, who turns out to be working for The Dark Lord. The story continues, without giving away too many spoilers, the fight of good (the Lord of the Dance) and evil (The Dark Lord) continues, with interludes of a love story, a cheeky and playful Little Spirit, a lot of footwork and some very talented fiddlers, Erin the Goddess, putting into words what the dances mean, in the form of song.

Matt Smith, as the Lord of the Dance, blew me away with his first entrance onto the stage being something to remember, with his charismatic smile and unbelievable talent. However, before we meet the Lord of the Dance, the Little Spirit must dream him up first. The Little Spirit came in the form of the lovely Cassidy Ludwig, who dazzled the audience with sprinkles of glitter and her cheekiness towards The Dark Lord and his Warriors (especially when she kicked one of them up the bum as he exited the stage, to show her hatred for them). As rivals for the love of the Lord of the Dance, Lauren Clarke’s Saoirse and Cyra Taylor’s Morringhan were light on their feet, gaining so much air-time they looked as though they were flying. The Dark Lord himself was played by the highly experienced and truly incredible, Zoltan Papp. Having performed opposite Michael Flattley, he brought all of the energy required to make The Dark Lord scary and surprisingly funny, at the same time.

The roles of Saoirse, Morringhan, the Lord of the Dance and The Dark Lord are played by different people on different nights, meaning each show is a different experience, as you witness the small changes that occur due to the way each person works with each other. You could watch the show 100 times and get something different out of it each time, which is why people keep coming back for more.

The back of the stage had a higher platform, which had steps that led to the main stage, with the whole of the back of the stage being a massive LED screen, that showed Celtic knot patterns and different landscapes that went with the dance and the character, such as The Dark Lord’s dark forest, that was engulfed in flames.

One of my favourite parts of the entire show is the iconic end to act one, which is simply named, Lord of the Dance. That music, with those costumes and that choreography has awed people all over the world, me included. The canon, down the horizontal line of dancers, where they don’t miss a single beat by even a nanosecond? INCREDIBLE.

In conclusion, from the hardcore fans that have followed Lord of the Dance since its birth 25 years ago, to the novices of viewing the show, such as myself, every single person in the auditorium enjoyed the show. If you like Irish dancing, or if you like topless men moving their feet so fast that you cannot see it with the naked eye, or even if you are just looking for something new to see at the theatre, this is the show for you.

Michael Flattely’s dream became a reality in the shape of the biggest dance show of all time. It is so inspiring to see it and encourages me, as I am sure it does others, to follow my dreams. No dream is too big, as Lord of the Dance shows time and time again.

WE SCORE LORD OF THE DANCE - 10/10