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From TikTok trend to Riverdance star: meet Morgan Bullock

At just 23 years old, Morgan Bullock is the first black performer in Riverdance during its 25th anniversary tour in the US.

The origin of this groundbreaking event (and dream come true for Morgan) came back in 2020, when Morgan released a video on TikTok of her Irish dancing to rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s track "Savage".

The reception was wild, and the clip notched up over 1.3m views. Irish prime minister Leo Varadakar invited Morgan to the country to dance in the St. Patrick's Day parade, and then came the call from Riverdance.

Oti Mabuse caught up with Morgan to find out more about her amazing story and to hear about her chosen dancing legend – who else but the creator of Riverdance himself, the indefatigable Michael Flatley.

Morgan Bullock

Love at First Sight

“I started off with ballet, tap and jazz from the time I was three,” says Morgan. “I didn't see Irish dancing for the first time until I was 10, but it was kind of love at first sight, and I just knew that I wanted to try it. It combines a lot of the aspects of the other dance forms that I had done, and it’s a constant challenge.”

“There's so much about it that's just so mesmerising and just fun, but I didn't know at the time that it was going to literally take over my life. Nothing really stuck the way that Irish dancing did.”

Kicking a door open

While there is a big Irish dancing community in the US, especially on the East Coast, it is rare to see people of colour among them. “There are other black Irish dancers, of course,” says Morgan, “but it's not a bunch.”

Despite some online trolling suggesting Morgan was “culturally appropriating” Irish dancing, she says she has mostly experienced “love and support” and believes she has “culturally appreciated” Irish dancing rather than claiming it as her own.

“I think that the whole attitude with Irish dancing and Irish culture is, if you want to do it and you're going to work towards it, and you're embracing the culture and respecting it, it really doesn't matter what you look like – just do it.”

Why I fell in love with Irish dancing

Why I fell in love with Irish dancing

Going viral

The pushback on Morgan’s TikTok video was not the abiding memory of it – the positivity was overwhelming. However, it nearly didn’t happen at all!

When people say, 鈥榶ou're making Irish dancing cool鈥�, I say 鈥榯hank you, but it鈥檚 already cool.鈥�
Morgan Bullock

“I had taken some time off from Irish dancing and wanted to get back into it when the pandemic hit,” explains Morgan. “It was nice outside, and I was just making a video for fun.”

“I almost didn't post it,” she recalls. “I sent it to my mom saying, ‘I don't really like this, should I post it?’ And she said: ‘You should post it. It's nice.’”

“The response was pretty immediate after I posted it. More and more reposts were popping up, and I posted on Twitter as well as TikTok. It was a little bit overwhelming at first. I turned my phone off for a while and went and sat by the river. When I turned my phone back on, Beyoncé's mom had reposted the video. So, yeah, it was pretty crazy.”

The legendary Michael Flatley

The gravity-defying Michael Flatley was born in Chicago in 1958. His parents had emigrated from Ireland and settled among Chicago’s massive Irish community. Flatley had relatives who had danced, and he learned when he was 11. A number of unsuccessful attempts at winning the prestigious World Irish Dancing Championship fuelled a fire within him, and he eventually won the title in 1975 and started to tour, including with the hugely popular traditional Irish music band The Chieftains.

By this time, Flatley had caught the eye of producers Moya Doherty and John McColgan, who were asked to produce the interval show at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, hosted by Ireland that year. As Oti comments: “This is usually the chance for people to move away from their TV to make a long-awaited cup of tea. This time, however, they were glued to their sofas.” It was a defining moment, with Riverdance the realisation of Flatley’s dream of a line of many dancers accompanied by an orchestra. Despite breaking off his arrangement with Doherty and McColgan, Flatley went on to create the hit show Lord of the Dance and successful spin-offs Feet of Flames and Dangerous Games before retiring from the performance side in 2016 due to injury.

Following in the footsteps of an icon

Credited with reinventing traditional Irish dancing for a popular audience, Michael Flatley is an obvious choice for Morgan.

Dr Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain, Course Director of the MA in Irish Traditional Dance at the University of Limerick says that Riverdance “allowed an affinity group to be created where people imagine they were from Ireland, and I say that with an absolute respect for that desired sense of belonging.” Meanwhile, Morgan regards it as “the pinnacle of Irish dancing” and shows the Eurovision performance to friends when they ask about it.

“I have this amazing, unique opportunity to kind of bridge a cultural gap and bring Irish dancing to newer audiences,” admits Morgan, “but when people say ‘you're making Irish dancing cool’, I say ‘thank you, but it’s already cool.’”

Michael Flatley

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