If you look into a stranger’s eyes and he tastes your trembling skin like morning dew kisses the earth; and she touches your naked soul like the first hint of dawn caresses the sky; and he gives his life for you like crisp night air surrenders to dayspring; and she opens to you like a rosebud, whose petals fall apart to reveal the full bloom . . . you fall into divinity’s outstretched palm: the lap of bliss.
Such a pure, animal-orgasmic dive into bliss is the plunge Burn the Floor: Gala delivered at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House on the 28th July.
Choreographer and Director Peta Roby explains: “The creative directions behind Burn the Floor are to. . . re-invent the Ballroom dance style, bless it with youthful exuberance, release the dancers’ rebellious spirit and ignite on stage the chemistry between the dancers.”
“The original concept of Burn the Floor grew from an ecstatic display of Ballroom and Latin Dancing at Sir Elton John’s 50th Birthday Party in London in 1997. There, producer Haley Medcalf discovered the Ballroom Dancing world and its charismatic people with their intensity, commitment, discipline, burning passion and their total love of the Ballroom art form” and its gutsy capacity to evolve, to embrace innovation and to brazenly re-invent impassioned storytelling.
Twenty years on, Peta Roby and Haley Medcalf, together with their extraordinary team of dancers, creatives, producers, and Sydney Conservatorium of Music Music Theatre Ensemble, brought the fiery stage extravaganza to the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
Medcalf aptly describes the Burn the Floor experience: “We create and thrive on the new, stylish, youthful energy that is driving dance today into new and challenging areas, pushing all the boundaries.”
The blaze of dancers spellbindingly sizzled pure animal sensuality. Alberto Faccio and Lauren Oakley ignited each other’s fiery cauldron of lust, beautifully held by a fervent composure devoid of pretence. Nancy Xu was pure brute refinement, a tantalizing paradox of bestial grace executed with earthy finesse and torrid heat.
Tristan MacManus (Dancing With The Stars judge) hosted the show with consummate charm, intelligence, magnetism and humour.
Viki Bull’s incomparable, emotion-charged vocals were handsomely complemented by Mikee Introna’s fiery singing, Tyler Azzopardi’s arresting, soulful voice and percussion, and Daniel Maher obliged with ballsy rifts of rock lead-guitar.
An additional soft, gentle coupling between dancers fleshing-out deeply intimate, seductively lyrical interplay, like a rosebud whose petals fall apart to reveal the full bloom, would fulfil an already irresistible show.
Production photography by Prudence Upton.
