Reviewed by Jo Wood
UK certification Exempt | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 103 minutes
Conceived, directed & choreographed by world champion ballroom dancer Jason Gilkison
Have you ever seen Strictly Come Dancing? Have you ever seen Riverdance? Well if those two had a lovechild, this is not far off what they’d produce. Jason Gilkison has certainly added a new refreshing twist to the somewhat cobwebby discipline of ballroom dancing, and as an old friend of mine once said, there’s always something mesmerising about watching lots of people doing exactly the same thing at the same time.
However, this is DVD world. And as rewarding as watching 20 scantily clad men and women make impossible shapes, and bend in impossible ways is, to watch it for 103 minutes (was that all it was?) without a plot was ... endless. I’ve never been a massive fan of watching something 2D which was created and performed to be watched live — it doesn’t, by definition, translate. I was irritated the whole way through that I seemed not to be having as much fun as the guy with glasses on in the front row of the audience, tapping his foot and nodding his head frantically to the beat, while sporting a manic grin. But then her buttocks weren’t shaking in my face. From the audience we probably wouldn’t be able to see how outrageously over made-up our heroines were with shocking pink lipstick, glooped-on beauty spots and French manicures. We wouldn’t be able to see that the half-naked men were so oiled up that puddles were forming around their perfectly-placed feet. We could have viewed the splendid choreography from the gloriously stationary position of seat E19 instead of being spun around, swung from side to side, launched into the air and dropped to the ground by ADHD camera men.
While I’m sure the dancing was superbly mastered (I’m no dance expert, you’ll be shocked to hear) some of the dances seemed to come straight out of the darkest corners of Singapores Four Floors of Whores, complete with blindfolds and orgies; the suggestiveness at times was ruder than a 17-year-old boy’s wet dream. The highlight of the performance by far was, just after the retrospective, the first encore danced to Rollin' Down the River, so skip to that if for some reason this reviewer prompted you not just to buy it, but to actually sit down and watch it. Which girl doesn’t dream about being able to rip off her posh party frock only to reveal a sparkly little silver number underneath? Lots of good clean fun, and some dancing in the audience — just to remind you what you’re missing by being a twice-removed observer. But switch off right after that, unless you want to watch the Longest Encore Ever Know To Man.
Dancers who know their stuff will probably gush all over this. The most interesting part of the DVD is ‘Behind the scenes’ where Jason and his lifelong dancing partner Petra are interviewed about how they got to where they are, from a small town near Perth, Western Australia. But someone needs to tell that man that just because it’s your life-long dream, and went down a storm in the theatre, doesn’t mean I want to watch it on DVD.
EXTRAS Just a behind the scenes featurette.