Before Latin ballroom dance became the popular craze it is today, the dance troupe Burn the Floor had one of the most innovative ballroom-style dance shows in the world. On June 6th, they come Jacksonville with their newest show, FloorPlay. I got the chance to speak with the producer, Harley Medcalf, who started it all in the late 90s.
EU: What makes this dance show unique?
HM: I think the culture that exists in Latin Ballroom dancing is pretty unique. There is, within this genre, an interesting heritage and history which the younger dancers have inherited, projected and nourished… [They’ve] brought it into a modern twist with a youthful exuberance …It’s the people that really got me going with the show.
EU: What made you decide to produce the show?
HM: Well, it’s bit of a silly story, but – most of my career I was sort of a rock promoter/producer in Australia and I’ve worked for many, many years with Elton John…I happened to be invited…to his birthday party in 1997 and it was sort of a costumed evening of six-hundred jaded entertainment people, the sort of event where you’d think nothing would stop the action. Unbelievably, the entertainment that Elton had selected for the evening was ballroom Latin dancing. In almost impossible circumstances this young dance troupe…absolutely captivated the room with their…vitality, energy and chemistry. I was quite taken with how anybody could come and make such an impact in difficult circumstances…Then I wanted to meet these dancers, and after talking to them, discovering their wonderful qualities, that was the basic inspiration. I went to a few dance competitions after that, to see what it was all about and again, I saw this incredible talent in circumstances that were poorly produced…(the sound was not great…the lighting was not great) they were sort of working their heels off without support. I thought ‘What if I could harness all these incredible assets…and put it together with modern theatrical technology?’…That’s what started me on the road…[to producing] Burn the Floor.
EU: After eight years of touring Burn the Floor, you’ve decided to launch FloorPlay, what’s the difference between FloorPlay and the old show?
HM: We were always tinkering and trying new ideas to challenge ourselves…We almost had the kitchen sink on stage [so]…we decided to strip away all of the extras and focus on the dance. The more we focused on the dance…the better the show became, so in 2005 after we’d been through a lot of the markets two, three, four times, we really needed to create something new.
EU: Have you found that the perception of ballroom dance has changed since you started?
HM: Now ballroom dancing is like rock & roll with tens of millions watching it on TV every week. It’s very popular and current, so we can actually come out and say ‘hey, we’re ballroom’ and everyone goes ‘Fantastic! I love it.’
EU: But that wasn’t the case when you started in the late 90s. Have shows like Dancing with the Stars helped with that?
HM: Absolutely, no question. [Now] the audiences are informed. They know what you’re doing. They know it’s a tango or quickstep or foxtrot…or waltz…It’s such a relief, it’s a total change for us…It’s been totally rediscovered…When we began in 1999 our audience was well into their 50s and 60s. They loved it, but we had no young people. Now we get screamers who love the dancers, young people who just love it…It’s brought a whole new image into the audience and that’s inspired us even more.
For tickets call (904) 632-3373 or go to artistseries.fccj.org.
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