Holly Fealey, a 10-year-old Irish dancer from Co Kerry, has received an invite to perform for the "Lord of the Dance" crew in Co Cork in August from none other than Michael Flatley.

Fealey caught Flatley's attention when a video of her "freestyle" Irish dance performance, which won her first place at a recent feis, was shared online by Irish Dancing Magazine.

"Flatley Freestyle is catching on!" Flatley and the "Lord of the Dance" team said on social media, sharing the video of Fealey's performance.

"Congratulations Holly Fealey! Looks like you're the youngest winner so far."

Flatley introduced his "Freestyle" competition this year at the 2023 World Irish Dancing Championships as "a way to stimulate creativity and expression in Irish dance, without restrictions of arm movements, music, and theatrics."

Fealey was only delighted to learn that Flatley shared her video, but was over the moon to later learn that she, her family, and Irish dance teachers have been invited by Flatley to the Cork Opera House where she is set to perform her freestyle for the "Lord of the Dance" crew.

Fealey is a student at the Listowel-based Cronin School of Irish Dance, who was equally as excited to learn that Flatley had extended the special invitation to the 10-year-old Irish dancer.

Proud mom Roseann told The Kerryman newspaper: "She was dancing in a freestyle Irish dancing competition in Ballinrobe, just a local feis. 

“It [freestyle] is an area that she has a fierce interest in and so she was mad to enter it. She choreographed her own steps about a week or two beforehand and she was practicing, practicing, practicing all week long.

“She went up on stage and sure she did her dance and she was named as the winner and we just thought that was that.

"I had taken a quick video of her dancing and I posted it on my own social media. We had no idea that it was about to blow up into something massive."

Read more

Roseann explained that after Flatley and his team picked up on Holly’s impressive video, they reached out to her teacher Johnny Cronin to invite Holly to dance for the crew at the Cork Opera House on August 9.

"She’s in shock at the moment," Roseann said. "She’s just absolutely thrilled but she doesn’t realize, I think, how big it’s all after becoming."

Roseann said that her daughter loves Michael Flatley and last year they traveled to Belfast to see "Lord of the Dance."

"The funny thing is that we had actually bought tickets to see the show in Cork on August 9 and now Holly’s part of the show in a way," Roseann said. "It’s mad."

Roseann added: "She works really, really hard. She’s in dance classes four to five times a week, so this is a dream come true for her.

"It’s just mental how quickly it’s all happened. I just took a short video and it’s just grown into something massive."

Related: Irish Dance