Biography

Mick started dancing at the age 7 in my local primary school and was taught by Michael Ryan. Initially I did not want to dance at all, but was inspired by a fellow class mates’ appearance on TV. From then on my perception of dancing changed irreversibly.

The next Saturday morning I was off to learn my 1-2-3's. My mother also joined the class, having danced herself years earlier and in this way when I was practising at home she knew what faults to look for.

I persisted and practiced until I was ready for my first championship at age 10. I continued my competitive career until I was 16 at which stage I turned full time pro.

During the intermitting years I competed in all the usual championships, Munster, Great Britian, All Ireland and world championships, winning accolades at all of them. However my first love was performing.

I made my stage debut aged 11 in a show called The Booley House, in Ballyduff, Co. Waterford, which still runs to this day.  Immediately, I was bitten by the stage bug.

I performed with this show every summer until I was old enough to join The Comhaltas groupe Bru Boru based in Cashel. This is when I met, the second major influence on my dance style/tecnique, he was Damien Noone.

This is the first time I saw tap movements adapted into the Irish style. I did two summers with this show.

Age 16 I auditioned for Riverdance. I was initially invited to join their "flying squad", which meant I did promo work for the show. I ended up touring with their british tour and also doing some promo work in Europe. Unbelieveably, exciting for a 16 year old.

That year I was offered a full time contract to tour with them. I was supposed to do my leaving cert the next year but I couldn't say no.

So at just 17 I set for Canada and America. It was during this year that I was asked to learn the lead part of the show.

It was also here that I met the third major influence on my dance style, in the shape of Kevin McCormac. He spent many frustrating hours helping me perfect my skill. Eventually after lots of hard work I was given the honour of performing the lead in Nashville TN.

My mother flew over for the big day. I was just 18 and to the best of my knowledge the youngest to perform the male lead ever.

Later that same year I left Riverdance and joined a show called Dancing on Dangerous Ground. It was the most progressive dance show that’s ever been attempted by the Irish dance world but unfortunately did not last that long.

After months of gruelling rehearsals the show opened in London’s Covent Garden, but was besieged with technical mishaps. We played here and in New York Radio City Music Hall, which, I have to say is one of the highlights of my career. Dancing on Dangerous ground, enabled me to work with Colin Dunne, the fourth major influence in my dance career.

I had seen him perform at competition, but it was from him that I learnt most of what I know. I strongly recommend that any dancer out there that has not seen this show, find a copy and have a look.

After that I rejoined some old friends back home in a show called Ragus. A back to the basics, no frills, raw and full of energy, Trad Irish show.  I spent a summer on the Aran Islands with them dancing opposite Damien Noone.  This is where I also started choreographing for the first time....

The next show I did was called Magic of the Dance. I toured Europe with this show for about 7 months. During this time I started to perfect all the things I'd been shown and tried to come up with new techniques myself.

The following summer I once again joined my comrades at Ragus. This time we were playing Dublin, so there was some real pressure on (No more of that dancing to pre-recorded taps!!!). It was also the first real test of my choreography. However, the show was well received by critics and audiences alike.

It went down so well in fact that we returned the subsequent year to a bigger venue for a longer run.

We also made a video which is worth checking out.

During my time with "Magic" I met a tapper/producer from Germany called Sven Goettlicher. He asked me to join a show he had set up called Dancing Feet.

It was a dance variety show with everything from tap to ballet/jazz to breakdance, I was to choreograph the Irish dancing section. Together with some good friends, we played to sell-out houses and rave reviews all over Germany.

This past year I have been lucky enough to be working on another project called Celtic Legends. I part-choreographed as well as dance one of the lead parts in this show. It's been great working here as I've been given pretty much free reign to do what I like on stage, going as far as a to throw some breakdance into the equation.

In the time between tours I've done many other mini projects and also spend quite a bit of time learning different types of dance. In my opinion it's very important for a dancer to explore as many varying types of dance as possible. This enables them to progress their own style by mixing it with the flavour of another.

As for the next few years? Who knows! I just hope that I have as much fun and meet as many great people as I have over these last few.

And to all of you thanks. It's been a good ride!