Michael Flatley has said he will be \u201ccalling his dancers\u201d, as a legal order blocking him from engaging with the Lord Of The Dance production was overturned by a court in Belfast.<\/p>\n
At the Chancery Court in the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday, Mr Justice Simpson discharged a temporary injunction that had been secured against the dancer, saying \u201ctrenchant and quite personal\u201d allegations had been made on both sides.<\/p>\n
Switzer Consulting took legal action in a civil case against Flatley for alleged breach of contract, relating to an agreement the firm says was reached to allow it to run the dance shows.<\/p>\n
The Irish traditional dancer and choreographer found international fame performing Riverdance at Eurovision in 1994, before going on to create the stage show The Lord Of The Dance.<\/p>\n
The production\u2019s 30th anniversary tour is due to play in Dublin\u2019s 3Arena next week on February 5th, continuing in 2026 across Europe and the US.<\/p>\n
Speaking outside the court after the judgment on Thursday, Mr Flatley blessed himself as he said: \u201cI\u2019d just like to say thank God, I\u2019m delighted with the judge\u2019s decision today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t be in the car 10 seconds and I\u2019ll be calling all my dancers, all of the cast and crew. All their families have flown in and we\u2019re going to lift the roof on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be the greatest version of this show that you will ever see. I\u2019m absolutely delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he was back in control of the production, Mr Flatley said: \u201cYes, 100 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legal dispute hinged on a terms of service agreement under which Mr Flatley transferred intellectual property rights for Lord Of The Dance to Switzer and they in turn were then required to provide business management services to Flatley such as accounts and payroll.<\/p>\n
The temporary injunction first filed by Switzer director Joe Gallagher in early January prohibited Mr Flatley from \u201ccancelling, postponing, or in any way interfering\u201d with the Lord Of The Dance, including forbidding him to \u201ccontact promoters or venues\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was on the basis of breach of contract as well as \u201cconspiracy to cause loss by unlawful means\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Simpson said that at that time he had been shown a text message Mr Gallagher had been sent from Mr Flatley\u2019s agent Denis O\u2019Sullivan, saying \u201cunderstand you have no further involvement whatsoever in anything to do\u201d with the Lord Of The Dance.<\/p>\n
Barrister Gary McHugh, representing Switzer, had said the injunction was necessary to protect Switzer\u2019s interests because Mr Flatley\u2019s financial situation would have left him unable to pay damages.<\/p>\n
The court heard a statement by Mr Flatley\u2019s former financial adviser Des Walsh who said the dancer \u201chas lived the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire\u201d by borrowing money \u201cas he did not even have the minimum cash required to open a residency package\u201d.<\/p>\n
His statement claimed Mr Flatley\u2019s \u201cappetite for lifestyle cash was insatiable\u201d, and he borrowed \u20ac75,000 for a birthday party and \u20ac50,000 to join Monaco Yacht Club.<\/p>\n
Barrister David Dunlop, representing Mr Flatley, rejected the claims that Mr Flatley \u201cwas a man with substantial debts\u201d, and that \u201cad hominem\u201d attacks had been made on his character by the opposing legal team.<\/p>\n
Mr Dunlop had told the court on Wednesday that Mr Flatley had half a million euro with a solicitor in Dublin that was available to pay to the end of the contract with Switzer.<\/p>\n
On Thursday Mr Justice Simpson said he was \u201csatisfied that damages are an adequate remedy for the plaintiff (Switzer) and that the money is available to pay for any damages sustained\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Flatley\u2019s legal team also raised the fact that Switzer had filed new accounts last weekend, updating their valuation with a primary asset being their licence agreement with Mr Flatley.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Simpson said: \u201cI cannot see how accounts can be filed essentially taking the whole of contingent income and describing it as an asset worth \u00a32.14 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge added that over the course of proceedings \u201ctrenchant and quite personal\u201d allegations were \u201cboth made and denied\u201d but that the civil nature of the case meant it was not the place to resolve \u201chotly disputed issues of fact\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Flatley\u2019s lawyers had warned that the Lord Of The Dance tour was in danger of \u201cfalling apart\u201d without the creator\u2019s involvement because his \u201cartistic direction\u201d is a vital component.<\/p>\n
The production is described in promotional material as \u201cthe culmination of Flatley\u2019s belief that \u2018Nothing is impossible. Follow your dreams\u2019.\u201d \u2013 PA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Flatley has said he will be \u201ccalling his dancers\u201d, as a legal order blocking him from engaging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[663,18,117,10476,19,17,4778,14186],"class_list":{"0":"post-310122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-high-court","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-michael-flatley","15":"tag-riverdance"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115979562776976383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}