Latin Dance

Burn The Floor: FloorPlay
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jason Gilkison
Vogue Theatre
Remaining shows Apr 17, 2 and 8 pm, April 18.

Vancouver, BC:  Last night at the Vogue Theatre I saw  Burn the Floor for the third time in eight months . The show has lost none of its impact from the first two times I saw it  in New York and the dancing- and the singing - is as fantastic as before. They got several standing ovations and deservedly so. Anyone who loves dance should see this show and there are only three performances left  before they head off to Toronto.

We were a group of 8 people with very mixed experience in dance,  that met to go and see  the Friday night performance.  All of us, from the 5 who are simply enthusiastic observers of dance shows, to me - a very late starter in ballroom dance, and my two teachers, who are ex-competitive dancers, were wild about the show. 

Earlier this week I had enjoyed the opportunity to chat to some of the dancers and to Preview the cast dancing in three of the numbers up close, but the energy they generated in the dance studio was nothing compared to that  in the theatre, when magnified by the strong percussive music.  You could power a city with the force of their energy.

Unfortunately I had a very large, tall man  in the seat in front of me with a big head that really blocked my view of the overall  stage, except for two numbers when he sat a little lower in his seat. If it was the first time I saw the show I would have been really upset. 

But as it was, looking around his head,  I found myself focusing less on the spectacle and more objectively on the individual dancing- the various steps that I could identify and the awesome precision of the footwork.

Forget about your superheroes. Forget about "swifter, higher, stronger". The fittest athletes not to compete in an Olympic Games are performing in Vancouver this week. It's the cast of Burn The Floor, the  dance spectacular that reinvents International Ballroom and Latin Dance in a show that is absolutely riveting.

They are fresh off their Broadway run - where I loved it so much that I saw it twice in two weeks  - see Burn The Floor - New York Theatre.

And guess what,  I already have my ticket for the Vancouver show.

So what's so special about this show? The music will rock you to the core and the percussion rhythms of Georgio Rojas with vocalists Ricky Rojas and Rebecca Tapia will make you want to get up and dance.

The dancing is amazing.
It's fast and high energy. You won't believe that human legs can move that fast.

It's sexy and passionate. If you've needed Viagra, you won't after this show.

It's sensuous and romantic - like floating in a dream dance.

"I get the performing part - its a dance show after all, but athlete?" you may ask. 

Dancing at Sea: I Could Have Danced All Night

May 9th, 2009

The On-Board Venues:

Since dance is what this cruise is about,  at least for most of the members of the Dancers at Sea Group, the idea is to dance non-stop from after dinner till midnight. On various evenings some folks may choose to attend the song and dance shows which are at 8:30 or 10 pm in the huge Princess Theatre or hit the casino or whatever but dancing is on for anyone in the group who prefers to dance.

There are two main venues we use for dancing, at either end of Deck 7, the Promenade deck. The Wheelhouse lounge features a band called PASSION who play a reasonable mix of music in sets which  run about 45 minutes. The dance area, seen in the photograph,  is a fairly small semi circular space - fine for Latin and Swing but less great for the dances that move around the floor like quickstep, Viennese waltz or even samba. So how does this work?

Well, in between sets when the band PASSION took their breaks, the group would pick up purses,  water glasses and drinks and  move over to Club Fusion. The dance space there was great - a large almost circular floor where one could dance a proper quickstep or Viennese waltz or really flow with an open style waltz and foxtrot. The band in Club Fusion called XTASEA also played approximately 45 minute sets. In between sets  there was either music by DJ Jesse - or else the ship programmers, in my not so humble opnion,  wasted that fantastic dance space by putting on a Karaoke contest or bingo! Both of which could have been better held in the Wheelhouse or Explorer's Lounges

Dancing at Sea: Embarkation Day 

May 9th, 2009

My son is driving me to the Cruise Terminal. We turn it into a family outing so my grand-daughter can see what a really big ship looks like. It's a short 1 hour drive along the highway to the cruise ship terminal at San Pedro from which the Sapphire Princess is to sail. We made excellent time until we got to the last turnoff to Harbor Boulevard where somehow we missed the turnoff. As, far too late,  I yelled "go right, go right" we found ourselves driving onto a very very - yes very - long bridge to the opposite side of the harbor. I looked back with dismay as the Sapphire Princess rapidly receded into the distance.

To make matters worse there was a huge traffic jam on the bridge and  the traffic appeared stalled. I had visions of missing the boat- really. Well, not really - since it was only leaving at 4 and of course we were there hours before.

As the two lines of traffic slowly inched forward and the minutes ticked by, I couldn't help but remember one day on a long ago family visit to Provence, when we were trying to leave Avignon. We kept missing the exit which was admittedly poorly marked and ended up driving over the same wrong bridge at Avignon at least three times. This made it into the family annals of travel stories, remembered with much laughter as our own special version of "sur le pont d'Avignon" at later family gatherings. Well hopefully history won't repeat itself with Keith instead of Bob as the errant driver. Keith assured me, and himself, that it should be simple to do a U turn at the other end and get back to the right exit.

We finally got past a stalled truck which was causing all the problems. the traffic surged and we rapidly found our way back to Berth 93. I handed my suitcase over to a porter and hoped I would see it again sometime soon. And then it was goodbye to kids and grand-kids and time for me to board. Considering the numbers of people that need to be dealt with in a very short time, it all went really quickly and I found my way to my port side cabin. It was great - not too many places for me to misplace things. The only flaw was the paucity of outlets for plugging in my computer and other chargers.