One Take: Michael Flatley's Feet of Flames Solo (featuring Matt Smith)

Here's something fun: Matt Smith performing Michael Flatley's legendary Feet of Flames solo, live in a 15,000-seat stadium, all in one unbroken camera take!
No camera tricks. No edits. Just one man alone onstage, dancing at full throttle in front of a packed house, for a performance being filmed for commercial release.
Let's talk about just how superlative Matt is as a professional Irish dancer. The actual poster boy for the Impossible Tour and #LordOfTheDance: 25 YEARS OF STANDING OVATIONS, he is the first Lord of the Dance to have his likeness used as part of an official show logo. He is only the third person, after Michael Flatley and James Keegan, to be commercially filmed performing the full show as the Lord of the Dance. He is the first person to star as the Lord of the Dance in a commercial video shoot in which Michael Flatley does not appear. And he holds the record for the most-viewed LOTD online video release in the show's history.
This is the big leagues. At this level, we're talking about getting up at ungodly hours, sleeping on a bus, maintaining strict physical fitness, dancing for hours in warmup each day, and delivering an earthshattering performance each night -- and doing it over and over again, nine times a week, for months at a stretch. Just to qualify to audition for this level of brutality, an Irish dancer has to have the holy trinity: technical skills, work ethic, and performance ability.
For anyone wearing the Lord of the Dance title belt, the pressure jumps by several orders of magnitude. Now you've got to be the guy who goes out there alone and wins over an entire audience that has Michael Flatley hardcoded in their hearts. You have to do everything Michael did, plus put your own spin on it. You have to be the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence that makes people want to buy another ticket and see the show again.
To be that guy requires more than just skill: it takes dash. That rare, elusive, you-either-have-it-or-you-don't gift that glues an audience's eyes to you. The producers of Michael's first show like to state that the show is the star; meanwhile, with Lord of the Dance, it's the other way around -- the stars are the show. You pay good money to see the greatest Irish dancers on the planet pushing the envelope all the way to the cancel-postage stamp.
Make no mistake: there are very, very few people on this planet who can do what the men and women of Team Lord do every night. And when we get to Matt Smith's level, you can actually count them on one hand: there are only four people on this planet who can perform Michael Flatley's legendary #FeetOfFlames solo, and two of them -- Lords Emeritus Damien O'Kane and James Keegan -- are retired from show dancing. That leaves literally only two people on Earth -- Lords of the Dance Matt Smith and Cathal Keaney -- who can do what you see in this video.
You wanted the best? Come get some.
Planet Ireland arises! Tickets on sale now to Lord of the Dance's 25th anniversary show, 25 YEARS OF STANDING OVATIONS. Witness the classic magic -- with a new generation.

[@papanna]

Happy birthday to you Matt 🎂🎂🎂🍾🍾🍾

[@paulinestevenson2705]

Love it ❤️

[@polixeniagraf2636]

Happy Birthday Matt! Have a great day ! 😘🎊🎉🌻🍀👏👏👏

[@liviaulbrich6530]

The Legend continues. Amazing performance. Happy birthday to Matt Smith, the new Lord of the Dance!

[@brandonhoffman3321]

There will never be another Michael as I saw him do that solo twice in 2001. Having said that….Oh Matt….you might be the closest to Michael any of us have ever seen. Well done. 👍

[@joannaphillips9877]

Happy birthday 🥳 x hope you have a great day xxx keep dancing 🕺

[@cyberhawk99]

Just incredible!!! I love the smoke effect!

[@carolinejennings5021]

Amazing 👏

[@karendagostino1953]

You are very talented, and good 👍. I really enjoy watching you you dance. You are very 😊 good.

[@darryldonnelly5363]

Wish they would of done this in Manchester I was looking forward to seeing it but they never did and Happy birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉

[@chelsealeonardbaum23]

Thank you

[@damejeannemoi]

👏👏👏👏👏👏💖💖💖💖

[@chell272]

Wait, wasn't Flatley supposed to be paying whoever did the solo a million bucks or something? And am I tripping or is he actually doing it _faster_ than Flatley?

[@theemrpoint123]

I just watched Flatley's performance of this and I'm pretty sure they're doing it at the same speed. They both are probably doing it to the exact same backing track that was recorded by Flatley back in the day - even he never did it 100% "live".