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Burn the Floor Last night, Dallas Summer Musicals opened a new production titled Burn The Floor, which is not a "musical" per se, but a two hour packed evening of sizzling dance - sensual extravaganza that is indeed a feast for the eyes. The troupe of dancers (over 32 in the company) comes from all parts of the world, including Italy, Australia, Ireland, Norway, and Great Britain. Let me say straight off that you may need a cold shower after you see this dance/performance art piece. The guys and gals in this company are all gorgeous, with chiseled bodies of marble muscle, flowing locks, and they ooze so much erotic lust and sex appeal that you will feel a little faint! Their dancing technique is flawless and precise to the last flip of the leg and extension of the arm. The troupe dances to all flavors of dance: ballroom, tango, jazz, modern, sock-hop, and even disco to boot! I have always held dancers with high respect and admiration within the musical theater world. They create emotion and visual beauty with their bodies that I could never achieve. They use their bodies to create language for the music or lyrics, giving incredible subtext to the material in which a singer or actor cannot do. In Burn the Floor, these dancers bring the emotions to the dance mat in abundance. Out of this large core of dancers, the best of the evening is Trent Whiddon, a blond dancer whose energy and talent easily fill the massive Music Hall. The guy never loses energy within his dancing, and he always dances with facial expressions that show just how much fun he is having on stage. The guy truly brings you into his bouncing-off-the-walls-energetic world of dance with his dazzling performance. The theme of Burn the Floor is a trip through various eras of dance, with a principal couple that is the thread that connects each dance sequence. For the most part it works, but a few dance scenes feel flat and anticlimactic. My personal favorites include the opening - which was created like a hot Miami nightclub filled to the brim with hot, sweaty, dancers; and the gorgeous "Carousel Waltz" - which uses the music from the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical of the same name. Add to my list the sexually intense "Passionata" sequence, the dramatic "Light My Fire" duet, and finally the all out disco-fest of "Last Dance." It should be noted that within the dancing they have a live singer. For this, we see Star Search winner Angela Teek, who sings with full gusto and breathy tones to add another layer of fun for the evening. But the production does occasionally trip and stumble on itself within the evening. One of the major flaws is the awful lip-synching that is done in the Jump and Jive" and "Last Dance" numbers. Three blonde girls do simply horrific, over the top lip-synching that wounds both the number and Miss Teek's live singing. Another misstep is the act one finale of "Sing, Sing, Sing." This jazz flavored instrumental is used as the finales of two other dance musicals - Fosse and Swing!. The best out of all of them is the rendition in Fosse. But for Burn the Floor, the choreography just doesn't match the music's tempos and jazzy horns, thus they seem to be a beat off the music, never to recover. Finally, a couple of the dance numbers wear out their welcome. Such numbers as "Passionata" and the whole homage to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers seems to run out of steam midway their dance pieces; they beg for cutting. The evening is filled to the brim with mouth-watering lighting and an endless parade of costumes of every color and hue. The way these dancers sweat up a storm, their dry cleaning bill for these costumes must be a major expense! If you are a dancer, this is a required show for you to see. Even if you’re not a dancer, you should still take an evening of this dance spectacular. You will marvel at the beauty of dance, brought to life by this truly incredibly talented of fantastic dancers. Burn the Floor runs through April 20 at Music Hall at Fair Park. |
