The flamboyant former Riverdance star, Michael Flatley, has announced the end of his dancing career. The 43year-old American-born dancer has said his performance last night in Dallas, Texas, marking the end of his Feet of Flames world tour, would be his last in public.
A spokesman for Flatley said the star wished to return to live in Castle Hyde House in Co Cork, a Georgian mansion he bought two years ago. In 1999 a European business magazine estimated Flatley's personal wealth at £425 million.
"He feels he has done everything at this stage. He's been offered other work for next year but he's decided to quit while he's on top," said Flatley's publicist, Mr Chris Roche.
"It's like a footballer playing at the highest level. He's still only a young man, but you can't go around at that age playing first division football every week."
Flatley is due on August 14th to start shooting a film entitled Lord of the Dance which he cowrote with Shane Connaughton, screenwriter for My Left Foot.
Born in Chicago of Irish-American parents, Flatley became, at the age of 17, the first American to win the World Irish Dancing Championships. With 28 taps a second, he earned an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest tap-dancer ever.
He worked as a stockbroker, a blackjack gambler and a flautist before making his professional breakthrough as a dancer working with the Chieftains and composer Bill Whelan. This led him in turn to be asked to perform the seven-minute Riverdance routine during the interval of the 1994 Eurovision song contest in Dublin.
After being sacked the following year by the producers of Riverdance, he went out on his own, establishing the Lord of the Dance show, which now earns him an estimated #1 million a week in royalties. The production will continue with other dancers playing the lead.
