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Irish Dancer

Dancing to a Degree

By Irish America Staff
August / September 2003

August 1, 2003 by Leave a Comment

Jean Butler

Jean Butler Goes Back to School. Jean Butler, the tall red-haired Irish-American from Long Island, New York who starred with Michael Flatley in the original Riverdance, plans to dance again. In the meantime, she is pursuing a master's degree in dance at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Butler, who now lives in Ireland and is married to Irish designer Cuan Hanley, stayed … [Read more...] about Dancing to a Degree

Michael Flatley Goes
One More Round

By Mick Jett, Contributor
August / September 2001

August 1, 2001 by Leave a Comment

Michael Flatley was eleven and living in Chicago when he first saw Irish step dancing. He knew immediately it was to become his passion. "I was impressed with the sheer masculinity of the dance," he recalls, speaking to Irish America after his opening Feet of Flames 2001 national tour performance in Miami. Flatley, who leaped to fame in the original Riverdance, went on to … [Read more...] about Michael Flatley Goes
One More Round

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May 13, 1842

The composer Arthur Sullivan was born in London to an Irish Italian mother, Mary Coughan and Irish-born father, Thomas Sullivan. Sullivan composed his first anthem at age 8. At age 14, he was awarded a scholarship to the London Academy of Music. Sullivan began a collaboration with W.S. Gilbert to create the comic opera “Thespis.” He would work with Giblert on fourteen light operas in all, including The Pirates of Penzance and the Mikado. Sullivan’s “Irish Symphony” was first performed in March 1866. He wrote it on holiday in Ireland: “As I was jolting home through wind and rain… in an open jaunting-car, the whole first movement of a symphony came into my head with a real Irish flavor about it – besides scraps of the other movements.”

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