Lucas Lawton: “Every Opportunity That I Was Given, I Tried To Be The Best Version of Myself”

When Lucas Lawton was growing up, his introduction to the awe-inspiring, larger-than-life world of Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance was the iconic 1998 Feet Of Flames performance in London’s Hyde Park. Like many Irish dancers of his generation, he became obsessed with the VHS video tape of that gargantuan performance in front of some 25,000 screaming fans, to the point where his mum purchased him a second TV for his regular rewatches.

As a young, engrossed fan, Lucas had no idea that he would one day be performing the very same solos that Flatley set the stage alight with that historic night. 

When we speak over Zoom in the autumn, the Montreal native, 32, is squeezing our interview into the brief window of time he’s blocked out before the cast’s morning bus call in Amsterdam, where he’s performing as part of Lord Of The Dance’s 30th anniversary tour in Europe. It comes off the back of a momentous career-highlight run in Taiwan, where he became only the seventh lead performer ever to showcase Flatley’s iconic, career-defining Feet Of Flames showpiece with those heart-stopping beats, electrifying rhythms, and lightning fast footwork that bestowed the original Lord with his icon status. 

“People ask me, ‘How does it feel to be that person?’” Lucas says, reflecting on the full circle moment. “And it’s almost like [when] little boys want to be Spider-Man. But I think every little boy deep down knows that they can’t be. That’s how I felt as a kid. I was like, ‘I would love to be Michael Flatley.’ But I think deep down, I genuinely thought there’s no way that’s ever going to happen. And then it did. It’s like, ‘I actually did it. I actually am my own version of Spider-Man.’”

As the 90-strong cast waited in the wings and the lights came down to a hushed spotlight, Lucas’ take on the flamenco-inflected solo saw him authoritatively command those unmistakable sequences of clever beats and rhythms, his solid stature embodying the hero aura that the “good guy” role requires, sealed with a knowing smile and flashes of Flatley’s own cheeky bravado. It was a fresh interpretation that combined experience, flair, and sheer passion on the stage.

While Lucas’ ascent might sound like the kind of story you’d only find in a superhero movie, his rise to the top has been a much more realistic tale of grit and determination, characterised by the kind of dedication to hard work, disciplined repetition, and hunger for opportunity that is required to reach such heights.

When Lucas was young, Flatley quickly became the benchmark of excellence and showmanship that he strived for. “At that time, I was learning my light jig, and my hop two threes, and then you turn on this show and you’re like, ‘This man is flying around the stage, using his arms, jumping, showing off.’ You just experience Irish dance in a totally different way,” he reflects. “I was totally mesmerised by the fact that what I’m learning could be this.”

Raised in a family of ice hockey players, Lucas broke tradition by choosing dancing shoes over skates. While he admits to being a “big quitter” growing up, who didn’t connect with any sports, that all changed when he saw a friend showcase Irish dancing at their house one day when he was seven. “I was like, ‘I love this’. And I started mimicking her,” he remembers. His mum enrolled him at the Bernadette Short School Of Irish Dancing — where he is now a TCRG — starting out with just one class a week and one feis a year.

Though his teachers encouraged him to compete more frequently, it wasn’t until Lucas was 14 that he decided to add a second class to his schedule. With a little more applied intention, he moved from Novice to Championship within a year. He attended his first CLRG Worlds aged 17 and placed 15th, though admits to feeling “completely out of my league”. The following year, he made the jump to tenth, but as time went on, always found himself on the peripheries of the top results. That was until, finally, he squeezed into fifth place in his Senior Men year, a fitting “last hurrah”. “I finally got what I had dreamed of,” he says proudly. 

While watching him on stage now, he looks like a dancer who always had it in him to reach the big leagues, Lucas didn’t always possess the confidence that he now emanates on stage. “To be honest, I didn’t really feel like I had what it takes to get there,” he reflects. “I didn’t even really know the path. I’m from Canada. I didn’t know anybody in Lord Of The Dance, I didn’t know anybody who had done something like that.”

With his sights set on any professional experience he could get, Lucas started to “put out feelers” to look for potential show castings. After landing his first North American tour with Dublin Irish Dance, his perspective shifted. “Then I was like, ‘I really want this. This is something I want to do, and I want to get to the top of this.’” He was accepted to at least 10 productions after that, including Murphy’s Celtic Legacy, Celtic Legends and Celtic Illusion.

In 2020, Lucas landed his first tour with Lord after auditioning online to be a part of the Feet Of Flames tour in Taiwan, which notably started with a two-week hotel quarantine for the whole cast as a precaution against Covid-19. “I went into that super focused. I treated it as an audition. [I knew] it was going to be an amazing experience, but I had a goal. I knew I wanted to get into Lord Of The Dance, and I knew this was my opportunity to present myself,” he says. “I got there and was super ready to go, and really tried to make it look like I could be in the show the next day.”

After clearly making a good impression, Lucas found out he was cast in the 25th anniversary run of the show (“I was just elated,” he remembers). The promotion to lead came a little further down the line, when the cast were given the option to put themselves forward for the principal role last year. However, Lucas didn’t immediately jump at the opportunity. “I kind of thought that it wasn’t meant for me,” he shares honestly. “I felt like there were a lot of younger people in the cast and a lot of new people that were up and coming.”

But when the show’s creative director, James Keegan, asked if he was planning to present himself, it gave Lucas the push he needed. That kick-started a journey of learning the material, working the choreography into his muscle memory, and knowing it well enough to make it his own. Then one day in July 2024, his “one shot” arrived to audition in front of Flatley. “It was very similar vibes to waiting in the wings to go on stage at the Worlds, where you’re kind of like, ‘This is it,’” he remembers. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s a lot of pressure on one moment, and he wants to see his iconic run on solo.”

His audition was a success and immediately impressed the boss, as Lucas was asked to perform lead that very night. While his debut ultimately ended up being the following day, it was still a whirlwind turnaround for the biggest moment of his professional career. “It was just the craziest experience ever. Going from not even thinking that this was on the radar, to me doing it within less than 24 hours…But I think in so many ways, that’s the best way.”

Having the seal of approval from the man who started it all allowed Lucas to breathe a big sigh of relief; Flatley has since been a source of immense support. “He says so many amazing things,” Lucas shares with a smile, “but he always says, ‘You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t deserve to be here, you’ve got the dancing’. He believes in us so much and the process to get where we are…He also said, ‘You can make a mistake. It’s fine. People make mistakes every single night. It’s about how you respond.’”

With the role he always dreamed of now his to inspire the next generation, is there anything he would tell his younger self? “Trust in yourself. Everything’s going to work out, because it did,” he says firmly. “I think part of the reason it has is, for me, about taking any opportunity that you get along the way and just giving yourself to it and putting everything you have into it. 

“It’s not about this big, massive commitment — it’s every day, trying to be the best version of yourself that day, and if that means you’re spending 10 minutes on your goal, then it’s 10 minutes on your goal, but it’s 10 minutes of whatever you have. Every opportunity that I was given, I tried to be the best version of myself, and I think that’s allowed everything else to happen along the way.”

Follow Lucas Lawton on Instagram.

Photography: Alasdair Spencer
Design: Colleen Falco
Words/ Editor-In-Chief: Hollie Geraghty
Editorial Assistant: Caitlin Clarke