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Spectacular dance action in a variety of styles from 22 world dance championship winners kept the audience toe-tapping and moving in their seats.

Dance Review (Singapore): Burn the Floor by Base Entertainment

Burn the Floor, Base Entertainment’s latest offering, ran from October 9-14, 2012 at Marina Bay Sands’ Theatre.

Billed as a super-charged ballroom and Latin dance spectacular, Burn the Floor lived up to its name, and then more, with 22 dancers (half male, half female) from 10 different countries, each couple having been dance championship winners in their own right.

Waltz, tango, paso doble, jive, modern jazz, swing – the dancers infused pure sexuality and athleticism into each of the dance pieces, their sinewy bodies clad in glittering and sequined costumes. At times they even did costume changes staggeringly quickly, as they took turns performing on stage, sometimes solo, sometimes duo but often as a full ensemble of all 22 dancers grandly commanding the stage as they flawlessly executed their dance steps in perfect co-ordination.

Two powerhouse vocalists and two percussionists joined the ensemble to provide music that ranged from high energy to slow melodies, perfectly accompanying the dances.

Dazzling and energetic, the sizzling Burn the Floor seamlessly moved from one dance item into another. Not all the items were fast-paced; a few were set to mellow ballads such as “Burn for You” and “Do You Wanna Dance?”, which brought out great emotional expressivity from the dancers, both in facial expressions and in body movements.

With its electrifying pace, Burn the Floor had audiences toe-tapping and moving in their seats, and by the time the dancers performed to Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” in their penultimate number, most of the audience was gyrating along with the dancers, who even incorporated Turner’s signature “body shimmy” move into their routine.

Burn the Floor was simply mesmerizing and riveting, with both excitement and pathos. In the end we all wanted to just dance all night long too.

About Sharmila Melissa Yogalingam

Ex-professor, Ex-phd student, current freelance critic, writer and filmmaker.

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