Rome Champion knows how to trust the moment.
The 19-year-old dancer has just won Red Bull Dance Your Style, a freestyle battle where there is little room to hesitate. The music is unknown, the crowd is close, and every round depends on instinct.
“Winning Red Bull Dance Your Style reminded me that one of my biggest strengths is trusting my instincts,” he says. “You can’t plan everything in a freestyle battle, you have to be present, listen to the music and really back yourself.”
That instinct now enters a different arena. In Burn The Floor: Luminous, Champion joins a company with a 26-year history, alongside world champions, television artists and performers with major international touring careers. Battle culture rewards immediacy. Theatre demands stamina, discipline and the ability to return to the same emotional pitch night after night.
“In freestyle battles you get one chance to make people feel something and every round is different,” Champion says. “Theatre is different because you have to recreate that same energy every single night while staying true to the choreography.”
The learning curve has been sharp in the best way.
“The biggest adjustment has been learning that consistency doesn’t mean losing your flavour and personality,” he says. “It’s about finding little moments where you can still bring yourself into the performance while serving the bigger picture.”
For Champion, joining Burn The Floor has meant paying close attention to dancers who understand the long game of a professional career. He has been watching how they rehearse, recover and maintain performance quality across a demanding season.
“The people around me have years of experience touring the world, performing many elite shows and looking after their bodies and minds,” he says. “Watching how professional everyone is, from rehearsals to recovery, has taught me there’s another level beyond just dancing well.”
That openness is part of what makes his place in Luminous interesting. Champion’s own movement language draws from freestyle, Hip Hop and South African cultural storytelling. Burn The Floor comes from ballroom and Latin. The forms may look different from the outside, but he has found common ground in rhythm, musicality and presence.
“People see different styles, but at the heart of it they’re all about connection and storytelling,” he says. “Whether it’s ballroom, Hip Hop, freestyle or my South African heritage, we are all trying to make people feel something. The steps might look different, but the purpose feels the same to me.”
The ballroom and Latin dancers have also shown him a level of detail he is still absorbing.
“Every hand placement, every line, every timing has a purpose,” he says. “Watching the trust between dance partners has also been really inspiring. It’s something I’m still learning.”
Champion belongs to a generation of dancers raised on many influences at once: battles, social dance, street styles, Afro, commercial work, screen, fashion and stage. For him, movement does not need to sit inside one category to be taken seriously.
“We don’t really put dance into boxes anymore,” he says. “We move between Hip Hop, Afro, street styles, social dance, freestyle and commercial work all the time. Audiences today connect with authenticity, and I think we’re bringing that freshness while still respecting everything Burn The Floor has built over the last 26 years.”
That breadth is already part of his career. Champion has performed with artists including Billie Eilish and Sampa The Great, and worked across music, television, fashion and commercial performance. Theatre, however, brings its own charge.
“Theatre takes people on a journey,” he says. “In concerts or TV you might have one song to make an impact, but theatre gives you the chance to build emotion over the whole show. The audience is right there with you every night and you can actually feel their reactions.”
For audiences who think they already know ballroom and Latin, Champion expects Luminous to shift the picture.
“I think people will be surprised by how athletic, emotional and modern it feels,” he says. “The production is powerful, the music is incredible and there’s so much intensity. Whether you know dance or not, you’ll leave feeling something.”
His advice to young dancers is as direct as his dancing: back your own style, and stay teachable.
“You don’t have to fit into one box to make it,” he says. “The thing that got me here wasn’t trying to dance like everyone else, it was embracing who I am and where I come from. At the same time, you have to stay teachable and excited to learn. Every opportunity is a chance to grow.”
For Burn The Floor, Champion’s presence speaks to the direction of Luminous: a production carrying the force of its history while making room for a generation that moves across styles, platforms and audiences with ease.