In any story, drama comes from conflict. Now comes the conflict.

And the payoff at the end is *so* worth it.

Remember the first time you saw this number? The Little Spirit emerges, explores the empty construct of her creation -- Planet Ireland -- and uses her magic flute to awaken it.

Except, this time...something has gone wrong.

The Dark Lord emerges with the Warriors, seizes the magic flute, *breaks* it, and torments the Little Spirit.

This isn't a feel-good number. You're watching a gang of men beat up on a little girl. But it's an *important* number. The first act is entirely expository: you're introduced to all the major players and their factions, and there's only the tiniest hint of conflict at one point -- in Breakout, between Saoirse and Morrighan.

But if the first act is where all the pieces are set up on the board, then the second act -- following Chekhov's Law -- is where they all get knocked down.

There's also a larger meta-story at work here: Michael Flatley's first #IrishDance show was a variety show -- more of a technical exhibition than a story. But here, in the second act of Michael's second show, you see an actual *story* kick in, with characters in direct conflict with one another. It was a shock to audiences in 1996, who only had Michael's first show to use as a template for what to expect, and it still provokes strong emotional response today.

What is Luke Skywalker's triumph in defeating Darth Vader without first losing part of a limb? What is Frodo's victory at Mount Doom without all the trials he faced to get there? A proper drama is an emotional rollercoaster, and the light is brightest after first plunging into the dark.

There's another challenge at work with this number when presented as a video: at this point, after twenty-five years, unless you're absolutely brand-new to the show, you already know what's going to happen. You *know* the flute is going to be broken. You *know* the Dark Lord is going to torment the Little Spirit. And you *know* the Lord of the Dance will arrive in the nick of time to save the day.

So: how do we entice you to watch it again? How do we up the ante to make it feel even more intense?

The answer is to bring back the onstage GoPro, and show you this number from the performer's perspective so that you can literally see it from the inside-out.

If you've followed #LordOfTheDance at all on social media over the last two years, you've seen us pioneer the use of onstage dancer-mounted cameras to show you commercial #IrishDancing as it's never been seen before. Here, it creates a remarkable effect: *you* are one of the Dark Lord's baddies, tormenting the Little Spirit. It's a complete perspective inversion, and when combined with deliberately jagged editing, it *should* provoke a strong emotional response from you.

This number is also a spotlight on the remarkable performances of Jessica Aquila Judge as the Little Spirit, Zoltan Papp as the Dark Lord, and Matt Smith as the Lord of the Dance. This is the show's 25th anniversary year, and thus by default all three of them are up against not just truly iconic performances from the OG leads, but *also* a quarter-century of nostalgia in everyone's heads about How Things Should Look.

And they pull it off.

Let's start with the Little Spirit, Jess Judge. Jess crafted a performance that echoes Helen Egan's -- it helps that there's also something of a physical resemblance -- but at the same time made it her own, especially since the role now calls for a lot more acrobatic insanity. What's important is that Jess as a performer really *sells* the anguish of the Little Spirit, just as Helen did; you have to feel for the Little Spirit's plight and get angry in order for the emotional payoff to work at the end of the number, and Jess truly does make that happen.

Zoltan Papp, as the Dark Lord, is truly one of a kind. He achieves the same trick that Daire Nolan pulled off -- being the bad guy you wanted to cheer for while still cheering against -- but in a completely different way: Zoltan's Dark Lord is *sadistic,* in a way no one else has ever really pulled off. The pure *glee* in the bugnuts insanity is incredible (and disturbing, in the best possible way) to watch.

Matt Smith, even though he only shows up at the end of this number, has the toughest challenge -- because, like James Keegan before him, he's automatically compared to Michael Flatley. By now, though, after seeing Matt in several Impossible Tour numbers, you're past the comparison stage and able to enjoy Matt's truly *amazing* performance on its own merits. There's a reason why Michael handpicked Matt to star as the Lord of the Dance for the Impossible Tour video: he has exactly the right combination of technical prowess and *dash,* that rare gift which all truly great performers have.

This is Feet of Flames: The Impossible Tour.

This is Dangerous Game.

And this is the New Generation.

#FollowYourDream

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