"Burn the Floor"
State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, 6 January
"Burn the Floor" is celebrating its twentieth year of bringing a dynamic mix of “international style” ballroom dancing with live band and vocalists to the stage. Founder and producer of the show, Harley Medcalf describes the fusion that makes up the Burn the Floor alchemy by saying "We draw from the wonderful ballroom art form, styles, history and traditions, and we deliver them all with a complete 21st century makeover." He characterises the dancers as "rebels from the ballroom world". In the current iteration of the show, there is a very punk sensibility infused into the dance and this is played out as a literal battle between the feisty and energised ballroom styles and a theatrically anarchistic challenge to “punk it up” and break the codes of those dance styles.
The show is broken up into loose narrative sections that correspond to the Latin and standard ballroom dance styles. Latin rhythms segue into jive and swing stories. The quality of the dancing and the theatricality of the presentation are superb. Peta Roby and Jason Gilikson's choreography is executed by 12 extraordinarily talented dancers with flawless performance quality and larger than life theatricality in their selling of the dance.
The dancers are drawn from around the world and are all ballroom champions but have developed beyond their specialisations to become versatile performers. Many have been competitors on So You Think You Can Dance or performed in versions of Dancing with the Stars and have transcended their Dancesport roots.
Roby and Gilkison have ballroom ingrained into their DNA. They are second and third generation ballroom champions respectively. Gilikon's grandparents opened the first Australian ballroom studio in Perth, way back in 1931 and Roby and Gilikson have been dance partners since childhood. Together they performed in the first Burn the Floor production in 1999 after years of competitive dancing and many championship wins.
This is a show that is recommended for those drawn to spectacle and great technique and who respond to slick razzle-dazzle. They will not be disappointed. For all the wonderful flourishes and grand showcasing of technical accomplishment, however, I found the mix of singing with dance and the very looseness of the narratives rather unsatisfying. The sound balance, for one thing, meant that the vocals could often not be heard over the bass so it became difficult to discern their purpose in the "story". The show's concept did not match the quality of the dance but was more of an excuse to string the styles together and mash them up. That said, the effort and talent of the dancers can't be faulted and there is no doubt that Burn the Floor will delight many audiences for years to come.
- Susan Bendall
