Burn The Floor Brings Amazing Talent to Jacksonville

[LorraineC]

This past week, Jacksonville hosted “Burn the Floor”, an acclaimed stage show that spotlights incredibly talented dancers performing incredibly choreographed dance routines.  Thanks to The Artist Series for bringing us such an amazing show.

The buzz started early in the day as ticket holders posted to FB their excitement about the upcoming show. The Jacksonville dance community is a wonderfully social group, so upon arriving at the Times Union Center, there was friendly face after friendly face â€" all excited to be in attendance.

Just about every ballroom studio, as well as other types of dance studios, was in attendance.  Megan Wallace, one of the owners of Beyond Just Dance, a studio in Orange Park, was gathering in the lobby waiting for the rest of her party to arrive.  She was joined by several instructors from Caliente’s Dance Studio.   Kaluby’s Dance Club had a large group â€" studio owners, instructors and students waited in anticipation for the show to start.  Alan Alday, owner of Dance Alday was making the rounds, sharing everyone’s excitement.    To students and patrons of dance, seeing BTF is equivalent to scoring tickets to the Super bowl.

BTF flowed seamlessly from dance to dance.  Many times the same song morphed from once dance style to another, ushering in a new set of dancers as the previous performers made their way off stage.  Each dance was amazing in its own way, but I think there were a few standouts.

Act I brought us a rumba that epitomizes how easy you get lost in a dance.  To start, one female dancer dances among 3 male dancers, moving from one to another.   Then she is joined by 3 more male dancers.  It was easy to follow in the fluidity of her movements, so at the point where she became blindfolded, the audience witnessed firsthand how a dancer feels a dance, and then portrays that emotion to the audience.

Act I ended with a quickstep, lindy, jive, swing mix that had the crowd in awe â€" so much so that when the curtain came down the lady behind me exclaimed, “That’s extreme dancing!”

All through intermission I heard the same words over and over…”amazing”…”wow”…  Natasha Wiggins, a student at Z Studio here in Jacksonville, summed it up for most of us in attendance.  She says, “It was amazing. It was SEXY! It was exciting and entertaining! It was everything I could want out of a dance show and then some….The costumes were fantastic and the dancers were perfect.”  Andy Bradfield, a dance instructor at Kaluby’s Dance Club, proclaimed “Amazing!  The amount of talent is astonishing!”

Right you are Andy!  According to their press release, BTF brings the talents of 22 award-winning international dancers from around the globeâ€"England, Italy, South Africa, Australia, Slovenia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Philippines and the U.S.â€"and includes Australian Ballroom and World Latin American champions. The dancers, who collectively hold more than 100 dance titles, move to the vision of artistic director and choreographer Jason Gilkison, former World Champion Latin and Ballroom dancer, and guest choreographer and judge on So You Think You Can Dance. 
Karen Hauer, for example, seemed to be a crowd favorite, and with these credentials, no wonder why:  She won the World mambo Championship in 2008, she was on the US version of “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2009 and she performed in BTF on Broadway.

When intermission was over, there were more dances for the audience to enjoy. Two dances in the second act stood out for me and judging by the audience’s reaction, I wasn’t alone.

Another rumba, danced to “Burn for You” came alive as Peter Saul, the vocalist, sat down on the edge of the stage as he started to sing.  Although the costumes were simple, he dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and she in black bra and shorts covered with a flowy long sleeved white shirt, the movements were anything but.  You could feel the dancers breathe life in to each movement.  One audience member couldn’t contain himself and let out a very loud “WOO!” about half way through.  That audience member verbalized what we were all feeling inside.
The next to last dance, a jive, performed to “Proud Mary”, summed up the energy these dancers brought to every dance all night.  At the point where the music starts jumping, so did the audience!  I could see just about every audience member bopping their head, shimmying their shoulders, and wiggling in their seat.  I know there were some that wanted to jump up and dance in the aisle.  The last number, a cha cha to the disco favorite “Turn the Beat Around” did get the crowd to their feet, moving back and forth and clapping their hands. 

Watching all the performers on stage made me wonder if this is what a party hosted by dancers and attended by dancers must be like, and how can I get invited to the next one!!


What was your impression of the show?  Did any particular part make you say “WOW!”
Email me at lorrainecoversdance@comcast.net or leave a reply here.