Burn the Floor: Rebels of Ballroom

• Claire Sawers
• 13 August 2018

This article is from 2018.

High energy yet mixed bag of ballroom and more

This is Strictly Come Dancing, sent into hyperdrive. The dancers are put through an incredibly fast-paced hour of extreme lindy hop, breakneck mambo and a tribute to Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' video. Their precision and energy is incredible and they consistently nail the art of working hard while looking like they are hardly working.

But it's the choreography and staging that gets progressively more intense – and baffling. For those who like the Las Vegas style of melodrama, with plenty of air grabs, tortured facial expressions and knee drops, this is the show for you. If the use of a heartbroken Spanish language version of Robbie Williams' 'Angels' and a leather bondage gladiator fight scene straight out of Attitude magazine (but with livid women writhing around too) mixed in with an intense tango to 'Carmina Burana' sounds too much, consider yourself well warned.

A tuneless cover of 'Stairway to Heaven' and a barefoot, tortured duet to 'Hallelujah' don't help matters much, and by the last 20 minutes, things have got so amped up, you're half expecting Siegfried and Roy to appear with their tigers and start setting things on fire.

Underbelly Bristo Square, until 27 Aug (not 15, 20), 3pm, £18–£20 (£16–£18).