LOTD 25 Years of Standing Ovations: Cry of the Celts -- James Keegan’s Final Performance

Let’s celebrate James Keegan’s amazing tenure as the Lord of the Dance with another clip from his final performance: this time, it’s Cry of the Celts! James’ career needs no introduction. His achievements in the world of competition #IrishDancing are jaw-dropping. His 19-year run as an #IrishDance pro in Lord of the Dance is truly superlative. He was the first person other than Michael Flatley to star as the Lord of the Dance in a commercial video release of the show. Today, he is the show’s creative manager -- effectively Michael Flatley’s right-hand man -- as well as the head of the eponymous Keegan Academy in Manchester. And it is Manchester where our stage is set for this video: Manchester, the final stop on Lord of the Dance’s inaugural tour of its 25th anniversary show, 25 YEARS OF STANDING OVATIONS. Manchester, where current Team Lord dancers Sean Scally (who just celebrated his birthday) and Ryan Thomas Lalley also hail from (indeed, the end of the tour marked Ryan’s retirement as well). Manchester is James Keegan’s home town -- and what better storybook ending as a professional Irish dancer than one final performance in a billion-dollar show as the Lord of the Dance in one’s home town? The audience that night was not aware that James would be performing. There were rumors of some sort of surprise in store for the evening’s performance, but listen carefully to the crowd as James explodes onstage for his Cry of the Celts solo: as the audience realizes who it is, the cheers start to erupt -- and keep going. What followed is legitimately one of the most electric evenings in the history of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance. We had cameras onsite filming as much of the action as we could (special thanks to Alasdair Spencer, Joe Harrison, Connor Smyth, and Zoltan Papp for their work, without whom the camera coverage would not have been possible), so that we can present excerpts from that magical evening to you now. Planet Ireland arises! Tickets on sale now to the 2022 continental Europe tour of Lord of the Dance: 25 Years of Standing Ovations. Witness the classic magic -- with a new generation.