Fans of the recently very popular television dance-show trend will love Burn the Floor, Floorplay. With its fluid blend of athletic prowess, delightfully gaudy costuming, Las Vegas style lighting, live percussion and a hefty serving of over played cheesy emotions, this show is a sure crowd pleaser. Director/choreographer Jason Gilkinson helms this ballroom dance based extravaganza at a full throttle pace from beginning to end. With its aspirations towards Las Vegas, The Palms at Crown is the perfect venue for this style of touring show.
20 dancers, 2 vocalists and 2 percussionists take to the stage, putting their seemingly limitless energy into the business of demanding audience attention. They pout, they scowl, they flirt and they fight, all on a hugely exaggerated scale. Why, they even dance! These performers are firstly undeniably, stunningly talented and well trained dancers. Floorplay utilises them as an ensemble, with no one consistently standing out more than the others. There is a little audience interaction (nothing scary, don’t worry) and these performers take every opportunity to acknowledge the audience’s presence, giving the impression that they are dancing just for you, and each other.
There is certainly a focus on displaying the sinuous, snake-hipped allure of dancer’s bodies in Floorplay, and at times it is a little too reminiscent of a manpower revue.
But, as each oil soaked, sweat drenched dancer announces their scantily clad presence upon the stage the audience squeals with gratification and that is, after all, part of the reason why they call it Floorplay.
On the downside, the narration is terrible. It doesn’t appear to make sense in the show, either stylistically or contextually. It is distracting, there is an uncredited quote and I believe it serves to ‘dumb down’ the show. Also, I don’t know if stating that this is ‘ball room for the new millennium’, as the show does, is really an appropriate preface for a Tina Turner impersonation. Cutting edge, Floorplay is not.
What it is though, is a big budget spectacular with a big Las Vegas style vision and a huge heart for entertaining.
Burn The Floor
Floorplay
Venue: The Palms at Crown
Dates: from February 14 for a limited season
Bookings: Ticketek www.ticketek.com or 1300 795 012
