Michael Flatley Michael Flatley Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is a former Irish-American dancer, choreographer, and musician. He became internationally known for Irish dance shows "Riverdance", "Lord of the Dance", "Feet of Flames", and "Celtic Tiger Live". Flatley's shows have played to more than 60 million people in 60 countries and have grossed more than $1 billion. Flatley is credited with reinventing traditional Irish dance by incorporating new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movements, which were previously absent from the dance. He is in the Guinness World Records for tap dancing 35 times per second and his feet were at
Billy Pierce (choreographer) Billy Pierce (choreographer) Billy Pierce (14 June 1890 – 11 April 1933) was an African American choreographer, dancer and dance studio owner who has been credited with the invention of the Black Bottom dance that became a national craze in the mid-1920s. The son of two freedmen, Dennis and Nellie (née Shorter) Pierce, William Joseph Pierce was born in Purcellville, Virginia. His parents were truck farmers, but Billy, an only child, went to college, matriculating first at Storer College and then attending Howard University. Pierce started out as a journalist, eventually moving to Chicago to write for the "Chicago Defender",