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Lord of the Dance set to deliver high kicks at Trump’s big ball

Fearless Flatley flouts inauguration boycott

Fears that Donald Trump inauguration will be more winalot than Camelot have abated, with the news that renowned trad Irish hoofer Michael Flatley will parachute in his Lord of the Dance troupe to Friday’s virtually celeb-free inauguration.

Barack Obama attracted the likes of Aretha Franklin, YoYo Ma, James Taylor and Kelly Clarkson to his swearings-in.

However, real estate mogul and index finger-poker in chief Trump has, apparently, struggled to secure a cracking lineup of entertainers to sing him into the White House. Presumably they’ve been worried about being upstaged, given the Donald is so entertaining himself. Either way, it seems you've got more chance of spotting an A-lister helping Obama move his furniture out of the White House than at Trump's first day on the job.

So far, Trump's lineup includes country stars Big and Rich, and fellow country ass-kicker Toby Keith – who is an unrepentant Democrat and has previously described Trump as a media whore. Trump has also attracted half of classic soul duo, Sam and Dave, in the shape of Sam Moore. Sam and Dave’s biggest hit is the graphic "Hold on I’m Coming".

Apparently a Bruce Springsteen band pulled out of the gig, “out of respect” for the man they presumably consider the real Boss.

However, according to TMZ and assorted Irish news outlets, Flatley’s Lord of the Dance troupe will take to the stage at the Liberty Ball on Friday night having finally confirmed on Wednesday night.

And it seems that Flatley may even be pointing his toes himself, despite having hung up his Irish dancing shoes a couple of years ago. Flatley is undoubtedly one of the world’s foremost Irish dancers. Riverdance was originally conceived as nothing more than half-time entertainment for the Eurovision song contest, and its success as worldwide cultural phenomenon took many by surprise. Strangely, the self-effacing Flatley somehow never saw this sort of media-afterthought-turned-rampant-success as a sign he should run for high office.

Given Trump’s own half-Scottish ancestry, we wonder that he didn’t procure a set of traditional Scots dancers to entertain his Balls.

To the uninitiated, Irish and Scots dancing may seem very similar. However, there’s a key difference. Scots dancers throw their hands in the air, while Irish dancers keep theirs resolutely by their sides. The reasons for this are obscure, but one theory is that this prevents any inadvertent skirt-raising. ®

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