As a former Irish Dancer, I think the version that they did was much more traditional than the one that Michael Flatley ran. Once of the core structures of traditional Irish Dancing was that the upperbody remains ridgid, the hands must be tucked and only the feet moved.
When I used to take lessons, we were required to dance with a ruler behind our back, level with our butts.. If our hands moved off the ruler, we were slapped with it
As an audience member, I much prefer the entertainment value of what Michael Flatley and crew brought to the the table. I knew several dancers in the show and the fiddle players for Lord of the Dance and Celtic Tiger, and the shows were really pretty awesome to go to. Heck, 30 years later and the show is still running!