NY1 Theater Review: "Burn The Floor"
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Television has "Dancing With The Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance, and now Broadway has its own all-dance show, "Burn The Floor." NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review.Broadway's "Burn The Floor" is hot, hot, hot - and the only thing keeping the floor from truly burning up is the sleek polish of Jason Gilkinson's tremendously appealing choreography.
Remember "Contact," Susan Stroman's Tony-winning dance show? Well, "Burn The Floor" is "Contact" on steroids, minus the story. How worthwhile this is depends on your tolerance for Broadway's steady expansion into mindless mass entertainment. But if you're looking for stimulation beyond the mental kind, this is the show to do it.
It all began 12 years ago with a special performance at Elton John's 50th birthday. That one night sparked the idea for a full-fledged production which has successfully toured the world for the past ten years.
With the onslaught of dance reality shows on TV, the time apparently seemed right to retool the touring production for a 12-week Broadway run.
"Burn The Floor" is a two-hour adrenaline rush featuring some of the best and best-looking ballroom dancers in the world. And this is clearly not your parents' ballroom two-step. Gilkinson, a world champion Latin and ballroom dancer in his own right, conceived of "Burn The Floor" as a sexy vehicle for 18 fellow performers to strut their stuff.
Accompanied by two very talented singers and a four-piece band, mostly percussion, it's a pulse-pounding showcase for some awesome dancing, set to an eclectic playlist of standards both old and modern. The cheesy factor is a lot less than you might expect, although the fog machine gets almost as much of a workout as the dancers.
For three weeks only, the show boasts the guest appearance of "Dancing With The Stars" favorites Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who do add a starry presence to the mix. But in all honesty, their talents are no more nor less than the rest of the extraordinarily gifted company.
There's bound to be a lot of tongue-clucking from Broadway purists who regard the encroachment of such shows as heresy. Some might even bristle at calling it "dance theater." But few can deny that "Burn The Floor" has plenty to offer audiences looking for a two-hour escape in the company of gorgeous-looking people who happen to move to some great music really, really well.