A LIFE OF PASSION AND PRECISION

Michael Flatley was always fanatically driven, practising for 16 hours a day in his teens. Although his body now bears the damage of his Lord of the Dance era, he's still chasing dreams. In this candid interview the Irish legend reflects on fame, money and his 'feet of flames'

- BY PAULA COCOZZA

MICHAEL Flatley's feet used to move so fast they tapped 35 times a second.

They made him rich beyond his wildest dreams and yet, for someone who required a £25 million (R575m) insurance policy on his legs, his choice of footwear is surprising low-kev.

The Lord of the Dance legend whips his right foot out on to the seat beside me at a table in the emptied breakfast room of the InterContinental hotel in Dublin: size eight and sockless in un-flashy black sneakers. I tell him if my feet had put me on the Sunday Times Rich List, I'd dress them in silk socks and stroke them each night to thank them.

"Well, listen," he says. "I don't really give any of that any thought. To be honest, I don't think much about me."

Self-effacement is not what Michael is known for; at least, it's not what the swagger of his stage persona suggests.

Truth is, he says, “I don't even look at myself. I don't give that 10 seconds of my time... I get up to the mirror, brush my teeth, say ‘Oh dear’ – and gone.”

It was in 1994 that Flatley leapt into the public eye in Riverdance, a seven-minute extravaganza during the interval of the Eurovision song contest in Dublin. He kicked and clicked his feet to throbbing drums, satin shirt billowing over his bronze chest, arms flung wide. Even his bouffant hair seemed to rewrite all the rules of Irish dancing.

Each show he created afterwards - from Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames to Celtic Tiger - delivered more taps for your bucks. While he admits he hasn't danced in nearly 10 years, not even in private, Michael (67) still seems to hear the drumbeat, always thinking, “What’s next?” he says, looking around the breakfast room. “What’s next?”