- Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance officially debuted on July 2, 1996, at The Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.
- From Dublin the show went on to a run of four sold-out weeks at the London Coliseum, sold-out within days of going on sale in Australia, and broke all known box office records in South Africa.
- America fell under its spell in March 1997, with thirteen consecutive sell-out shows at New York’s prestigious Radio City Music Hall.
- In Los Angeles in March, Michael and the troupe delivered a scintillating performance at the 69th Academy Awards Ceremony in Hollywood before a global television audience estimated at over 2.5 billion.
- 1998 was another record-breaking year for Lord of the Dance. The show performed 21 consecutive sell-out shows at London’s Wembley Arena – a feat for which it still holds the record.
- Michael breaks his own Guinness World Record of 25 taps per second with an incredible 35 taps per second.
- In July 1998, Michael took Lord of the Dance to the next artistic level and presented the “turbo-charged” version, the spectacular Feet of Flames, to an audience of 25,000 on the historic Route of Kings in London ‘s Hyde Park.
- Due to popular demand the show expanded forming several Lord of the Dance troupes which would tour North America and Europe including a five-year residency in Las Vegas and a contract with Disney for Lord of the Dance to perform at Epcot in Walt Disney World for the summers of 1999 and 2000.
- Michael was recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records as the Highest Paid Dancer and also having the Highest Insurance Policy on his legs at $40,000,000
- After Hyde Park, the public demanded more and, in the summer of 2000, Michael launched his new version, the Feet of Flames 2000 World Tour which played to over four million people in Western Europe and performed before an audience of over 100,000 in Budapest, Hungary. The last show of the European leg, a spectacular finale at Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland, proved that hearts united through music and dance pay no heed to historical boundaries.
- In June 2001, Michael brought Feet of Flames – The Victory Tour, to 20 American cities. The highlight of the tour was the fulfillment of Michael’s dream to perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden. All who were fortunate enough to get a ticket said Michael was truly at the pinnacle of his art.
- Lord of the Dance debuted in China in November 2004 at the Beijing Exhibition Hall Theatre.
- In July 2005, in Budapest, Hungary, Michael unveiledCeltic Tiger, an epic masterpiece that fused the spirit and history of Ireland with music and dance fulfilling Michael’s life-long ambition, to showcase Irish dance as a dynamic, powerful art form. In September 2005 Celtic Tiger premiered in the US at Madison Square Garden where Michael and his troupe gave the audience a stunning performance that received five standing ovations.
- In 2010 after a long road to recovery from a mystery illness, Michael Flatley returned to the stage with Lord of the Dance with arena performances in three major cities across Taiwan.
- In 2011 Lord of the Dance was filmed for the first time in groundbreaking 3D
- Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games premiered on London’s West End at the historic Palladium Theatre in September 2014. After a sold-out run, Michael Flatley was honoured to be inducted into the Palladium Theatre “Hall of Fame”.
- A year later the show moved to the Dominion Theatre and subsequently the Playhouse Theatre on the West End before embarking on tours of Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the US.
- On July 4th, 2015, Michael made his final UK performance at Wembley Arena as spectacular as his first. With the cast of two productions performing onstage together for the final number in the show. In recognition of his record-breaking performances at the iconic venue, Michael was invited to leave a lasting mark in history by having his feet cast for the Arena’s “Square of Fame”.
- In November of the same year the show debuted on Broadway at the Lyric Theatre for a limited run which was the first time for Michael and the cast to perform on Broadway.
- After a tour of the US, Michael made his final stage appearance with the show in March 2016 at the magnificent Coliseum at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas.
- In 2019, by invitation of the Vice President of China, Lord of the Dance performed at the Beijing Expo.
- In early 2022, with a cast of 100 dancers Lord of the Dance returned to Taiwan to perform Feet of Flames in arenas across the country
- 2023 saw the show return to Dublin at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre to celebrate 25 Years of Lord of the Dance.
- In Dublin 2023, Michael Flatley and the original cast gathered onstage to celebrate 25 Years since the premiere in Dublin.
- In the same year, the Young Lords, aged between 7 and 12 years performed Lord of the Dance onstage. They were all children or dance students of the original cast.
- In March 2024 Michael Flatley received a prestigious Ireland US Council Award for his Outstanding Achievement in the Performing Arts at the Metropolitan Club in New York
As patron of Breakthrough Cancer Research Michael Flatley hosts an event in New York to raise awareness of the groundbreaking work carried out by the charity
- May 2024 sees the launch of Flatley Irish Whiskey, in Dublin.