The latest season of Dancing With The Stars, the ABC reality competition that pairs celebrities with professional dancers to perform choreographed ballroom and Latin routines, has been full of memorable moments. Last week’s theme was Dedication Night, a fan favourite in which each celebrity dedicates their performance to a person, milestone, or moment that has shaped their life.
Irish television personality, presenter, and model Maura Higgins and her partner Mark Ballas dedicated their routine to Ireland, a Paso Doble set to ‘I’m Shipping Up To Boston’ by Dropkick Murphys. They were joined on the floor by none other than Lochlan ‘Lucky’ Howard, Lord Of The Dance cast member, viral content creator, and our July 2023 cover star. The episode drew 7.36million viewers across TV and streaming.
We caught up with Lucky to hear about his rehearsals with Mark and Maura, how performing on a TV set compared to Lord Of The Dance, and what it meant to represent Ireland in front of a national audience.
What was it like when you found out you’d be joining Mark and Maura’s dedication night routine, and what was your first reaction?
It was our last week on our four-month tour in London. It was late Wednesday that I was asked to do it, and then Thursday I found out I was flying the next day to go to LA from London. I was obviously really excited when I found out, but it was just so quick. I missed the last weekend of the tour, but it was just the craziest news ever to receive.
What did the collaboration look like in rehearsal? How did you work with Mark and Maura to blend Irish dance with ballroom, and was there anything that surprised you?
I’m a huge fan of Mark and Maura. I’m a big fan of The Traitors, and they were on the same season. I loved them together. I’ve also watched Dancing With The Stars in the past, so I loved Mark, and I’d seen Maura on Love Island ages ago.
Maura has no dance experience. That’s kind of her whole thing. She said she did two weeks of Irish dancing ages ago, and her niece does Irish dance competitions, too. But Mark is so knowledgeable about dance, and he speaks about it in such an educated and smart way.
I was there as a delegate for Michael Flatley, which was a crazy position to be in, first of all. Mark knew so much about Irish dance, and he knew what he wanted my part to look like. Their section at the beginning, probably 50 seconds, was already done, and they were going to finish with my part and then a little ending section.
That was on Saturday, and it’s crazy how quickly it all moves. I didn’t even really know I’d be dancing that much. At first, I didn’t know if I’d be dancing at all. So going in and coming up with the steps, I do three little four-bar steps, and two of them are from the show, from Lord Of The Dance.
“When they sent me in [for rehearsals], Mark said, ‘Oh, we knew you’, which was crazy for me”
Mark said he wanted a front click, so I put in the front click. He wanted that slide thing to come on as well. Then they took my suggestion for our step together, which was just the over two threes, because I figured that was probably the easiest thing to do quickly.
They thought it was super, super hard. There was a whole storyline that wasn’t used, where Maura was doing the over two threes really quickly, and it was taking Mark a long time to figure them out. They didn’t use any of it, but it was so funny.
The other craziest thing to me was that about a month and a half ago, I got a notification that Mark liked two of my TikToks. When they sent me in, he said, “Oh, we knew you”, which was crazy for me. That’s how he knew he wanted to see the front click and twisty angles and whatnot. And he liked the slide.
How did performing on a TV stage compare to performing with Lord Of The Dance? Did the pressure, the audience, or the preparation feel any different?
I really wasn’t nervous, just really excited. I’d never done TV or been around cameras or a big production like that.
Obviously Lord [Of The Dance] is a huge production itself, but essentially my day job is to dance. Lord is a big two-hour show, so it’s a long day of getting ready and then doing the show, and that’s your day. This was just 30 seconds of dancing, which was not a challenge, to say the least. Luckily, I wasn’t worried about the dancing at all.
And the cameras, you kind of just don’t notice them. I wasn’t intimidated by them. They’re there and they’re huge, but the way it’s filmed, you’re in the centre, so the cameras aren’t in the way at all. But the room was a trip. There was so much energy. You could see people waving flags. My dad was actually there, too, which was fun.
At Lord, you get to see everybody who’s watching you. Maybe I’m just used to it, and I was only seeing the people around me. But obviously a lot of people watch the television show.
What did it mean to represent Ireland? Dedication Night is deeply personal, so what was it like to be part of a tribute to Maura’s home country in front of a national audience?
I still haven’t really processed that part. I was the representative from Lord, which is a huge legacy show for Irish dancers and Michael Flatley — that is why Irish dance is what it is today, honestly. So I was representing that, and also representing Ireland with Maura, who’s extremely popular there, and Mark, who’s extremely popular on the show.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever really process it”
There was a lot of pressure, and luckily I just wasn’t thinking about it. But now that I am, I’m like, that was the coolest thing ever. It’s insane that I was chosen to do all of that. I don’t know if I’ll ever really process it.
Irish dance is continuing to have a real moment in pop culture lately. What was it like to showcase it authentically in the iconic DWTS Ballroom? What do you hope viewers took away about the tradition and the work behind it?
Ballroom has been Mark’s, and all those pros’, whole world. Irish dance has been mine. There was like a little bit of relation in that with them, but we’re all doing the same thing — it’s just that we are all in our different little worlds. So for the worlds to come together a little bit, that was really fun.
It’s nice that Irish dance has been in the limelight a bit more. I think it’s only up from here.
Catch up on Maura and Mark’s Dedication Night performance featuring Lucky here.
