Night Clubs Reviews

Apr 14, 2002 - "Burn the Floor" Ignites at the Eldorado Hotel Casino

By Jack Neal

"Burn the Floor" is a sizzler of a dance show that can't help but endear itself to audiences. Growing out of the ballroom dance tradition, "Burn the Floor" asks the question, "Would you like to dance with me?" One look at the cast of 26 dancers and the answer has to be a resounding yes. Who wouldn't want to dance with, or touch one way or another, a gorgeous looking collection of people like this?

As it turns out "Burn the Floor" is not strictly ballroom. The show, which opened at Reno's Eldorado Hotel Casino Friday, April 5 (2002) and is scheduled to run until September, has all the flamable ingredients to catch fire with local audiences and tourists visiting the Biggest Little City for an extended run. That it's playing in one of the world's finest and most intimate night club theaters only enhances its chances for being the season's biggest hit.

The look of the show and its drop-dead good-looking troupe of dancers is fantasy land. That they do much, much more than just stand around so onlookers can gawk only adds to the show's attractiveness. "Burn's" 70 minutes simply fly past as these dancers waltz, cha-cha, tango and jive their way through an energized presentation that rarely stops for a quick breath of air. Those rare stops are not stops at all, but slow-downs that allow the velvety and jazzy sounds of singer Angela Teek to wrap lush melodies around the show like a satiny red ribbon wraps its way around a gift from Tiffany's. Miss Teek has rhythm, a touch of sass and a soaring voice that fills in all the phrases of eveything she sings with just the right dashes of what's naturally right for each song.

The dance portions of the show are battery powered by a range of movements that excites the imagination of what ballroom dancing can be like for practitioners, although not likely managed with the skills and pizzazz of the 13 championship couples on stage.

Australian producer Harley Medcalf's lavish undertaking makes a direct appeal to the rug-cutter in all of us. The production is conceived as a theatricalized dance time machine, transporting viewers through various eras and styles. Some of the jewels in Medcalf's string of production numbers are more artful than others. All are terrific in their own way.

One of the most memorable is set to Richard Rodger's "Carousel Waltz." It's a soft invitation to romance from a handsome collection of masked human mannequins who swirl their way though the most rapturous moments of movement and music. As elegant garb is ripped away, dancers thrust their way through tiers of dance before segueing into a blast of 1940's boogie-and-jive jitterbug. Then, keyed to a medley of peerless Irving Berlin tunes, the show's tribute to the sophistication of Fred Astaire's stylishness and 1930's movie musicals is awash in nostalgia for a time of grace and beauty rarely seen these days. With the men dressed in formal clothes of light grays and the ladies dressed in gowns of soft pinks these artists of glide whirl about in dreamy movements of hipnotic dance.

"Burn the Floor's" dancing is, without exception, superb.

Jason Gilikson, the show's director-choreographer, knows how to make mass movement into a thrilling mosaic of color. Gilikson's choreography, while never blazing new territory, certainly mixes the tried and true with a shrewd eye to what works. "Burn the Floor's" only flaw, a mild one given its successes, is Gilikson's penchant to push energized choreography unrelentingly.

Colin Dwyer's firstrate rock-concert lighting gives the production a glossy sheen. Daryl Carmen's sound levels are several notches too loud. Regardless, the reproduction of the impressively orchestrated pre-recorded 90-piece orchestra used for "Burn the Floor" remains relatively unimpaired. As is the case in all such shows, a collaboration with live music would make the production even more exciting. Best of all in production values are Janet Hine's witty and stylish costumes, a smogasbord of color and invention that adorns and promotes all about "Burn the Floor" as only terrific designs can.

"Burn the Floor" plays at 7 and 9:30 p.m. nightly except Mondays at the Eldorado Hotel Casino, located at fourth and Virginia Streets in downtown Reno. For information and reservations call 775-786 5700 or 800-648-5966. "Burn the Floor" is scheduled to run in Reno until September 1, 2002.