Burn the Floor

Burn the Floor was a ballroom dance production that a friend took me to last night. I adore watching dance, so the whole evening was already a real treat for me and was compounded by the fact these dancers were of international caliber; unlike the many student productions that I'd seen before. Their energy in both their steps and their souls was entirely contagious. Most of the routines involved a group of 10 dance partners on the stage that was so spectacularly coordinated, I felt like I couldn't watch anything closely enough. It was exciting. The star-studded lighting, sumptuous costumes, skillful steps, and quick beats aided by two live drummers (it was like the Allman Brothers, man!) left me with grin as wide as a cheshire cat through most of the first half. There were also two singers that occasionally participated in the fun and drama, which added a bit of a cabaret kinda feel to the scene. I enjoyed how they moved through the different styles of dance and with it, depicting different eras through costume and song.


I was a tad underwhelmed by the second half of the show. The singers got a bit more involved and I felt they were kinda out of place. Also, there were a lot more slow dance numbers that I didn't find so engaging. I shy away from anything remotely corny (I laughed through most of Titanic, for instance.) and those songs were really filled with it. Another disappointing factor were the entirely too mainstream musical choices. It didn't match the uniqueness of the choreography. How many dance routines have we already seen to American Bandstand and Tainted Love? And finally, the ending reminded me of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King (although I do love that movie): Is it over yet? Are they concluding now? To make matters worse, the crowd made a standing ovation at the second ending (I detest standing ovations. They're on my uncomposed list of top 10 petty things to hate.), so we were forced to stand through the very last number. And then people attempted to clap in sync with the music (and that's in my top 5 of frivolous abhorrences), but I just tried to focus on how much I loved the dancers' spicy movements. I did. I delighted in it.