Michael Flatley - Lord of the Dance [Video] (VHS)

All Music Guide

Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance presents an hour-and-a-half of the dancer/choreographer's popular, trendsetting Irish dancing. This mid-'90s performance, filmed at Dublin's ~Point Theatre, features supporting dancers like Bernadette Flynn, Daire Nolan, and Helen Egan among others, and showcases the theatrical, often glitzy style Flatley adopted after leaving Riverdance. The dances themselves are based on traditional Irish folk tales and range from gentle, sensual numbers to extremely physical, almost violent pieces. Though Flatley's dazzling technique and showmanship is impressive, Lord of the Dance's distracting, jump-cut editing detracts from the experience that he and his troupe work so hard to create. However, the cast and crew biographies and the backstage footage make the DVD worthwhile for most Riverdance fans -- as well as dance aficionados in general.

- Heather Phares, All Music Guide