Lord of the Dance (4 Stars)

It was Saint Patrick's Day yesterday, so I decided to watch an Irish film. I was undecided between "Lord of the Dance", "Angela's Ashes" and "The Brylcreem Boys". Then I went shopping and saw some young girls doing Irish dances at Asda. That made my mind up.

I watched the DVD which is a live performance of the show in Dublin in 1996. This is still available in America (click the picture above) but not in England. The dancing is as perfect as it could be. Even though I first saw the show on television -- this exact performance -- in 1997 I've never made an attempt to understand its exact meaning. It's a mixture of fairies, druids, temptation, battle with evil, death and resurrection. I'm sure I could google to find a full interpretation of the story, but I prefer not to. I just let the spectacular dancing and visual imagery wash over me.

My main criticism is about the editing of the piece. I hate the slow motion parts, especially at the beginning. If I wanted slow motion I have a button on my DVD player. As a live performance it's adequate, but the musical could have been made better in the studio with better lighting. I've been told that "Feet of Flames", a variation on the same musical, is better, but I haven't seen it.

I've heard a lot of criticism about this performance because of lead dancer Michael Flatley's ego. He works the crowd. He shouts to them. He swaggers around the stage. Does this really matter? He may be a dancer, but he has the posturing of a rock star. And I like rock stars.