MIPCOM 2012: Harvey Weinstein and Michael Flatley Launch World Dance Awards

CANNES – The King of the Oscars meets the Lord of the Dance as producing giant Harvey Weinstein teams up with Irish stepdance superstar Michael Flatley for the launch of a new awards show  - the World Dance Awards – which will honor the stars of the dancing world.

Weinstein and Flatley took the stage at international television event MIPCOM in Cannes Tuesday to announce the new project, which The Weinstein Company and Flatley will produce and TWC will sell worldwide. The show marks a further move into television by TWC, who set up shop at MIPCOM for the first time this year.

Weinstein said the World Dance Awards would be "a big red carpet gala like the Golden Globes, Oscars or the Grammies"  which he said would "hopefully become an annual staple of television programming around the world."

While the date for the inagural awards is yet to be set, Weinstein said it would be after the Oscars and Grammys, most likely around April. Flatley, calling the project "a dream come true " said the show would honor both the best in current dance talent as well as the great dancers of year’s past, from Fred Astaire to Michael Jackson.

" I think people have underestimated the popularity of dance around the world, » Flatley said. « But it is huge and it is only growing."