Making it [St. Patrick's Day] a great day for the Irish, but just an ok day if you're looking for a quiet tavern to talk, read or have a white wine spritzer.
The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
My heritage is Scottish and a lot of Irish, too.
I think most Irish people are creative. Whether it's music, or dance, or... certainly storytelling is in the blood.
Growing up, I was brought up around Irish music, Irish traditions.
My first mentor and inspiration was my Irish Dancing teacher Patricia Mulholland. She created her own form of dance known as Irish ballet and created stage productions of old Irish myths and legends. They were my first experiences on stage. She told my mum I was destined for the stage, and I took that as my cue.
When I was growing up, for example, everybody on our street was Irish. And all the girls did Irish step dancing. It was pre-Lord of the Dance - it was before anybody knew what gillys were - but we did, and there was such pride among the members of my family and people I grew up with.
My mum and dad teach, and all my brothers and sisters have been in 'Riverdance' and so forth. So I was forced to become a dancer; it's part of my family history.
I love a lot of Irish folk music and Irish folk songs.
I went to Irish dance when I was four. I was playing the tin whistle when I was five. So I think certain things are bred into you.
It has always been my dream and ambition to introduce Irish dancing to the world.
My father was sick when I was little, and we had a woman, a nanny-type, who was from Ireland. Her daughter was in Irish dancing, so she put me in it, and in the summertime, every weekend was filled with traveling somewhere to dance in competitions.
A huge part of Irish dance is balance, which is so good for any kind of combat - just being aware of your body.
My father and his brothers and sisters were childhood Irish jig champions in the Bronx. At our family celebrations, they all get out and do the jig. And of course, the younger generation, me and my cousins and my brothers, we have our own Americanized renditions of the Irish jig, which is a bit more like 'Lord of the Dance.'
The school I went to was so Gaelic that you learned how to play the tin whistle and how to Irish-dance in class.
Irish music in the local pubs was my first exposure to musical expression, and I feel like Irish music is very close to musical theater because it is always telling a story.
I'm the Lord of the Dance! F-k Michael Flatley, it's me!
I got kicked out of Riverdance for using my arms.
My dad's Irish music was such a huge influence.
... in general, the Anglo-Irish do not make good dancers; they are too spritely and conscious; they are incapable of one kind of trance or of being seemingly impersonal. And, for the formal, pure dance they lack the formality: about their stylishness (for they have stylishness) there is something impromptu, slightly disorderly.
Every St. Patrick's Day every Irishman goes out to find another Irishman to make a speech to.
