# "Lord of the Dance" -- clue me in please **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 9, 1999, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639 "1999-09-09T18:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/1 "1999-09-09T18:27:00Z")
Ok, my husband and I are in Vegas this week and spent $60 each to see this and I totally didn’t get it. Is there some sort of story or narration or background I’m missing? As near as I can tell it was just an hour and a half of people stomping around, and I’d had my fill after about 15 minutes. I’d assumed it would have some sort of storyline or I’d learn something about Ireland or Irish song and dance. But,no…it’s just these same five or so dances over and over until your head feels like it’s going to explode. I don’t understand why it’s so popular. I mean, sure, it looks like the dancing is hard and all but lots of things are hard and I don’t want to spend $60 to see them. Has anyone else seen this? What did you think? ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/2 "1999-09-09T18:32:00Z")
Lots of things are hard? Have you been peeking at “Love Potion #9” by Cristi? ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/3 "1999-09-09T18:34:00Z")
I’m with voguevixen, I wouldn’t want to pay $60 to watch 15 accountants prepare taxes in synchonization to celtic music. * * * To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion. ---
**Author:** ![AuraSeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AuraSeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuraSeer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/4 "1999-09-09T18:53:00Z")
The story? Well, here’s what I got out of it. There’s a Dancing Good Guy, whom you can recognize because he’s Michael Flatley, the guy in all the ads. There’s also a Dancing Bad Guy, whom you recognize because: 1) he wears black; 2) he wears a mask; and 3) he acts important but is not Michael Flatley. Each of these has a small army of Lesser Dancing Guys. These armies encounter each other at some point, and have a fight represented by dancing. (For those who haven’t seen the show, think of Dueling Banjoes on a percussion instrument. Not as silly as the “fight” scenes from _The West Side Story_, quite.) Anyway, there’s this fight, and then some woman in green comes out and sings, and then there’s some more dancing (or fighting, or something else represented by dancing), then the woman comes out and sings again. This is repeated a couple more times. At various points, the Good and Evil Dancing Guys come out to inspire the troops (by dancing), and at some point they fight each other (by dancing a lot). So you probably didn’t miss much. * * * Of course I don’t fit in; I’m part of a better puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/5 "1999-09-09T18:57:00Z")
I always wondered about _Riverdance_ and _Lord of the Dance_ myself. Thanks for explaining it so succinctly, AuraSeer! Now I get it. I think. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/6 "1999-09-09T19:01:00Z")
ok, I did get all that, and you left out the part where there’s a gold pixie thing who plays a fife or something and the bad dancer breaks it in two, because he’s the “thug of the dance” or something and the good dancer comes out and puts the broken fife in his pants and it’s magically fixed until the bad guy steals his magic dancing belt and the pixie helps him steal it back…Now that I think about it…it was more like professional wrestling than a musical or something. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/7 "1999-09-09T19:07:00Z")
Who needs MST3K when you guys are around? ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/8 "1999-09-09T19:10:00Z")
LSHIGRBUMN ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/9 "1999-09-09T19:12:00Z")
Wait just a minute, vvixen - Flatley puts a broken fife in his pants, “fixes” it, whips it out, and, through dance, tells the pixie “You can blow it now!”? Just what version did you see? * * * The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/10 "1999-09-09T19:14:00Z")
I’d like to hear a desription of football or mowing a lawn! ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/11 "1999-09-09T20:25:00Z")
Oh, man! I feel so vindicated! I _fell asleep_ watching the video of “LotD”. My wife thought I was uncouth. No, I was just bored. Years ago, my parents took me to a Flamenco dance “concert” at Warner Theatre in DC. After about 30 minutes of tapping, I was tapped. I started to drop off, but kept waking myself so as not to insult my parents’ hospitality. But then I looked over at them: they were asleep! At intermission, my mom asked, “Do you mind if we leave now?” “No, quite alright, Mom.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AuraSeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AuraSeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuraSeer)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/12 "1999-09-10T01:39:00Z")
Oh yeah, I completely forgot about the golden pixie Peter-Pan-looking chick. How careless of me. BTW, **Cristi** , _Riverdance_ is just dancing. Far better to watch, IMO, because there’s none of Flatley’s grandstanding or the pretentious symbolic storyline. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/13 "1999-09-10T01:45:00Z")
Oh…okay, AuraSeer. That’s what I get for watching \*Lord of the Dance[/ibefore _Riverdance._ Trying to find a story where there was none. 🙂 Michael Nelson _did_ do a much better job, I thought… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 1999, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-dance-clue-me-in-please/7639/14 "1999-09-12T05:10:00Z")
I think what really ruined it for me was the “Stonehenge-ey” set…Spinal Tap and the dwarves never did come out!