![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023d04b-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nLord of the Dance show creator Michael Flatley faked the lifestyle of a millionaire in Monaco using other people’s money because he did not have the financial means to do so, a court in Belfast has been told.<\/p>\n
The claim was made during a court case involving the dancer and a company trying to block his involvement in upcoming productions of the show.<\/p>\n
A worldwide 30th anniversary tour of The Lord of The Dance is due to get under way in Dublin next week.<\/p>\n
More than 260 other shows are scheduled to take place throughout Europe and North America this year.<\/p>\n
Michael Flatley was in court in Belfast defending an attempt by an entertainment company called Switzer Consulting to prevent him from having any future control of the shows.<\/p>\n
The proceedings centre on a service agreement reached in July 2024 for Switzer Consulting to run the stage show.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month the company obtained an interim injunction blocking Mr Flatley from having any role.<\/p>\n
The company is seeking a full injunction and suing the retired performer for alleged breach of copyright, which he denies.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for the company told the court that the July 2024 agreement was to be the rebirth of The Lord of The Dance.<\/p>\n
Gary McHugh KC told the court that the agreement gave Switzer the worldwide rights to the show, including ownership of the copyright and the rights to perform it in public.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said the company was seeking to prevent interference by Mr Flatley because he had an industry wide reputation for not paying bills and for running shows at a loss, claiming that made many promoters reluctant to deal with him.<\/p>\n
He quoted an email from a former business advisor to the dancer who said that since 2019 Mr Flatley has lived the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire without the funds to do so.<\/p>\n
It said the choreographer had maintained “a facade of wealth using other people’s monies” and alleged he had been “faking it on a multi-million euro scale”.<\/p>\n
The email claimed Mr Flatley was all about image and borrowed money “to maintain a pretence of wealth”.<\/p>\n
It cited two examples, saying the dancer had borrowed \u20ac75,000 for his birthday party and \u20ac50,000 to join a Monaco yacht club.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Mr Flatley described those claims as scurrilous and salacious, and insisted that Switzer had no claim to control of The Lord Of The Dance.<\/p>\n
He quoted from an email sent to Michael Flatley by the same former business advisor in September 2024, two months after the agreement with Switzer.<\/p>\n
David Dunlop KC told the court the email said Mr Flatley owed 100% of all the rights and could proceed to operate and ultimately sell the business, “thereby receiving the monies you deserve for the thirty years that you have put into this”.<\/p>\n
It added: “You do so in the secure knowledge that it is you and your family that will be the sole beneficiaries.”<\/p>\n
The lawyer said Switzer Consulting had carried out an attack on Mr Flatley’s character and ability to run a business which had nothing to do with the issues about the agreement.<\/p>\n
The judge will give his decision tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lord of the Dance show creator Michael Flatley faked the lifestyle of a millionaire in Monaco using other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-269181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}