Burn the Floor

Dates and Venue 13-18 Apr @ 8.00 pm & mats.17-18 Apr @ 2pm | Vogue Theatre, Vancouver

Reviewer Ed Farolan

This Aussie spectacular first came to Vancouver in the Spring of 2003, and it has been touring yearly to Vancouver and around the world with some changes to the repertoire. Just last year, it was here at the Queen Elizabeth, and this year, it plays at the classic Vogue Theatre, known for its Broadway productions and other musical and dance spectaculars. I'd say an even better venue for this type of dance nostalgia.

Talking of nostalgia, contemporary foxtrot, jive, chacha and all that goes with ballroom dancing is given that extra sizzle in today's style of dancing than what it used to be. It burns the floor more, so to speak, using the motif of this troupe of seasoned and veteran dancers.

Among the featured dancers is Latvian dancer Anya Garnis who has appeared in So You Think You Can Dance. and has also been a guest dancer in Dancing with the Stars, Superstars of Dance and the Academy Awards. She has been a ballroom superstar for the last ten years.

Pasha Kovalev born in Siberia , Russia, has had a successful career in ballroom competition, and has also been featured in So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars and Superstars of Dance. Ashliegh Di Lello has performed and taught in 19 different countries and has most recently made it all the way to the 2009 finale on TV’s So You Think You Can Dance with her husband, Ryan. She was a DanceSport Junior Latin Champion and a United States Junior American Latin Finalist .

Ryan Di Lello has been teaching and dancing in professional shows throughout the world with his wife and dance partner, Ashleigh. They auditioned together for the 2009 sixth season of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance where they were not only the first married couple to be selected for the show, but went all the way to the finals.  Ryan began dancing at the age of nine and was a two-time amateur Latin runner-up and the Youth American Champion. Two other featured dancers worth mentioning are Venezuelan Karen Hauer and Russian Artem Chigvintsev whose high-level performance delighted the crowd.

The whole lot of 20 or more dancers and singers, as well as the live percussionists accompanied by recorded music--you'd think, with high tech sound, that a live orchestra was playing-- got the audience swaying and cheering to the beat of the rumba, the sound of castanets as the flamenco was danced with precision by the women, and the men danced the exotic pasadoble as dancing matadores with their undulating colourful capes, then those jerky movements to the weeping bandaleon of the sensual Argentinian tango--Burn the Floor literally heated and sizzled the stage with these fabulous international dancers Damon Sugden, Rebecca Sugden, Robin Windsor, Patrick Helm, Sharna  Burgess, Jeremy Garner, Sarah Hives, Sasha Farber, Melanie Hooper, Gary Wright, Ashleigh Hunter, Santo Costa, Emma Slater, Mirko Sciolan, Nuria Santalucia with vocalists Mig Ayesa and Rebecca Tapia.

Three more perfomances to go-- better get those tix before they're sold out!

© 2010 Ed Farolan