Bare chested men in leather pants, women with long tresses and short skirts, lines of dancers stamping in unison - this is the image that Michael Flatley's tap dance extravaganzas evoke. Critics sniff at the shamelessly flashy Vegas-style pageantry and purists are repelled by what is thought to be a bastardized rendering of a once-obscure art form, but millions of fans cheer Flatley's lordly presence. Feet of Flames, recreated for this Taiwan tour nearly 10 years after its legendary premiere in Hyde Park, London, is a dance blockbuster that mixes contemporary choreography, Celtic dance and music with pyrotechnics, explosive visual effects and video displays designed to overwhelm.
Flatley's story is well-known. The son of a Chicago construction contractor who immigrated from Ireland, Flatley was brought up in a house with a solid work ethic and two champion Irish dancers - his mother and grandmother. With an almost manic drive to raise himself up in the world (Flatley once reportedly said that he didn't have time to read anything other than self-help and motivational books) the then-aspiring lad managed to become the first American World Irish Dance Champion at 17. His first big break came when he scored a gig with the Chieftains in the 1980s, which eventually led to an interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The seven-minute prototype of Riverdance performed there was expanded into a full-length production and made Flatley an instant star. Flatley left the production amid a bitter dispute over the copyright of the Riverdance routines and went on to stage The Lord of the Dance in 1996. The rest is history.
Dubbed the turbo-charged reworking of Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames was created in 1998, following the same storyline but doubling the number of dancers and adding new music, numbers, sets and costumes. The dance spectacle is representative of Flatley's updated and popularized version of traditional Irish step dancing.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KHAM
Credited to Irish parish priests who developed the dance style due to concerns about lascivious bodily display, step dancing involves a stiff torso and rigidly held arms juxtaposed against quick, precise movements of the feet. In the skillful hands of Flatley, the staid dance was turned into a showbiz spectacular glazed with full-on sexuality and expressive choreography.
For those who aren't familiar with the story, Feet of Flames recounts the perennial tale of the battle between good and evil, represented by the Lord of the Dance and Don Dorcha, the Dark Lord. A lusty romance sub-plot spices things up with Irishwoman Colleen Saoirse winning the heart of the Lord of the Dance from the wicked temptress Morrigan.
Flatley himself will not dance in the Taiwan shows, and the lead role will be played by Damien O'Kane, who played Flatley's original role when Lord of the Dance visited Taiwan in 2004.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KHAM
According to Yang Yu-tsun (楊玉存) of Kuang Hong Arts (寬宏藝術), restaging Feet of Flames in Taiwan after its world tour ended seven years ago was made possible by the almost insatiable thirst that Taiwanese audiences have for Flatley's shows. Lord of the Dance, which was staged here in 2004 and 2005, and Celtic Tiger a year later, all proved enormously successful.
"When Flatley came with Celtic Tiger in 2006, we suggested the possibility of bringing Feet of Flames to Taiwan since so many people love his shows," Yang said. "After six months of communications and persuasion, Flatley finally agreed to re-stage the production in Taiwan."
The two-hour show has cost over NT$100 million to stage in Taiwan, and every effort has been made to match the grand scale of the original London production. Nearly 100 dancers will sashay, prance and leap on the multi-tiered stage against displays of pyrotechnics and rear-screen projections. Around 20 crew members have been flow in from the UK to construct the set with the aid of local theater technicians. The troupe has been rehearsing intensively in Kaohsiung for the last two weeks, but requests for interviews were rejected.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KHAM
Performances in Taipei and Taichung are nearly sold out. Tickets for the Kaohsiung and Tainan shows are selling quickly. Flatley may have taken his last curtain call as the Lord of the Dance, but the show he created and continues to direct still works box office magic.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KHAM
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
RSS