LOTD25: Hell's Kitchen 4K Dress Rehearsal (featuring Cathal Keaney, Zoltan Papp, and Cassidy Ludwig)

Grab some popcorn and put your feet up: this is more like a short movie than a standard Irish dance video.

The sequence of numbers you see here -- Spirit in the New World, Dangerous Game, and Hell's Kitchen -- is the keystone of Lord of the Dance's plot. If you look at the show's narrative structure, almost the entire first act is expository: no less than *five* main characters are introduced, and there's only one small hint of conflict (when Saoirse and Morrighan collide in Breakout). The top of the second act, meanwhile, takes a crowbar to the show's plot arc and whacks it *hard* into gear. By the end of this trio of numbers, Planet Ireland has gone from a state of equilibrium to ominous danger: the Dark Lord confronts the Little Spirit and nearly destroys her, subsequently meeting the Lord of the Dance on the battlefield with their respective clans. The Lord also undergoes two trials back to back: fighting the Dark Lord to a stalemate, but then also confronted with the choice to repair the Little Spirit's magic flute.

A big reason why Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance works as a drama without a single word spoken is because the plot is a remarkable adaptation of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" monomyth in dance form. It may be a very "simple" story on the face of it, but if you're paying attention, there's quite a lot happening sub rosa.

Here, you get to see a dress rehearsal of this sequence from Lord of the Dance: 25 YEARS OF STANDING OVATIONS, featuring Cathal Keaney as the Lord of the Dance, Zoltan Papp as the Dark Lord, and Cassidy Ludwig as the Little Spirit.

Cathal versus Zoltan is an interesting match-up, and one we don't see on film too often. Cathal's the boy-next-door Lord: truly one of the greatest Irish dancers alive today, possessing a breezy dance style that makes even the most complicated moves look effortless, Cathal is the nice guy you hope your daughter brings home. It is a stark contrast to Zoltan's completely unhinged Dark Lord: like Kefka from Final Fantasy, Zoltan's Dark Lord is glorious bugnuts insanity, an apex predator toying with its prey, more a force of nature than a human being. If you don't bring your very best onstage, Zoltan will simply run right over you. There's a reason why Michael Flatley himself refers to Zoltan simply as, "The Master".

And finally, Cassidy Ludwig. Cassidy *is* the Little Spirit, in a way that we haven't seen since the days of Helen Egan and the OG Troupe. It's very difficult to explain the subtle difference between playing a role and *being* the role, but Cassidy absolutely nails it. For this sequence to work -- for the narrative arc of the show as a whole to work -- you have to *care* about the Little Spirit, and Cassidy makes audiences adore her every single night.

This video is a dress rehearsal, so there's no audience energy in the background. The tradeoff, however, is that you get all sorts of camera angles that normally wouldn't be possible during a live performance in front of an audience. The end result is a remarkably *cinematic* experience. We hope you enjoy.

Planet Ireland arises! Tickets on sale now via the LOTD website to the 2022 continental Europe tour of Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance: 25 YEARS OF STANDING OVATIONS. Enjoy the classic magic -- with a new generation.

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Видео LOTD25: Hell's Kitchen 4K Dress Rehearsal (featuring Cathal Keaney, Zoltan Papp, and Cassidy Ludwig) канала Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance