Michael Flatley's "Lord of the Dance"

Well, maybe this troupe is everything (negative) that everyone says - it certainly has served as a target for ridicule more than once. At the risk of taking the unpopular opinion - again – (tho’ recently having admitted to enjoying the Twilight series I think I'm building up immunity), Flatley really was kind of amazing to watch. I would always think how much fun it would be to move like that...and the seemingly effortless flow of energy made you imagine that might just be possible – a feeling which I think would be the main payoff for the observer.

I'm Irish, and I'm not even close to being a fan. Not because I don't appreciate step dancing, because I do, and I could even do a bit of it when I was younger and more nimble; but rather because of the whorish commercialization of it. It's significantly better than crap like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun or those Hollywood colleens flogging Irish Spring soap, but it's still borderline offensive.

I think it's great that someone has created both a form of artistic expression and gainful employment for all of those Irish people who mysteriously suffer from paralyzed arms.

he is not hurting anyone by making a living out of irish dancing. obviously there are people willing to buy tickts to see him.

Nothing embarrasing about celtic dance-but Flatleys got an ego problem.So what?

Once again, entirely to do with taste and nothing to do with race (hey, that rhymed!). Seriously though, what about any black people that like Riverdance and such? Not all black people are strictly thuggin' or into just black music and dance, and it's racist to pin them down as such. Accepting stereotypes is a large part of why racism is alive today.

All in your taste in dancing. If you dig it, more power to ya, if you can keep up, I admire your stamina, and if you dislike it, that's ok too. Art and beauty are both in the eye of the beholder.

It's a cultural expression and dance. For anybody to knock it, just try it...it's complicated and extremely hard. Maybe not everybody's cup of tea to watch, but, next to Hitler, definately not a low moment for white people.

Speaking as a proud person of, more than anything else, Irish ancestry, (who knows his roots and a thing or two about Celtic culture and history), and hardcore Irish struggle/ activism ancestry to boot, and yet not one who spray painted Up the 'Ra on the side of a convenience store when he was 14 like a lot of people who have little to no grasp of what it all means, I would describe this annoying stuff as third only to the hard drinking/ fighting/ cliche spouting,tiny derby wearin', cheap cigar chompin' Thomas Nast cartoon looking "Stage Irishman" of yore, and the mass media corporate buffoonery of The Lucky Charms leprechaun/ Uncle MCGrimace's or whatever his name was shamrock shake guzzling on March 17, and similar sterotypes. Irish step dancing doesn't bother me particularly, in fact, one of my cousins is quite good at it, it's the saturation of this media driven sensation that does.

. . .and you can put the 'riverdance' on this list. . .how can I explain this to my black friends? I hate it. I hate the fact that my wife made me watch it on PBS. I only asked her to not 'shame us white people by having this on the TV when (insert any other ethnicity) people come over.'