Irish stepdance many this was a betrayal of tradition, but to some it was a way of expanding Irish culture and became widely accepted. Following after Riverdance was Lord of the Dance and many other theatrical productions based on Irish stepdance. Michael Flatley, an Irish stepdancer, became a well known name within these shows. Two types of shoes are worn in Irish stepdance; hard shoes, which make sounds similar to tap shoes, and soft shoes (called Ghillies), which are similar to ballet slippers. The dances for soft shoe and hard shoe are generally different and go by different names. Different music with
Mariquita (dancer) Mariquita (dancer) Mariquita, often referred to as Madame Mariquita, (1838–1922) was an Algerian-born dancer who became a successful choreographer and ballet mistress at various theatres in Paris from the 1870s until 1920. Mariquita is said to have been found by a female dancer as a small child beside a fountain near Aumale in Algeria. She learnt to dance even before she could read. She arrived in Paris in the 1840s and later became a choreographer and ballet mistress at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, the Folies Bergère and the Opéra Comique. She trained several show dancers of the period including