Kevin Clifton in Burn The Floor at the Hawth - review

This is the first time Burn the Floor has toured the UK. Kevin Clifton told the audience that this was because the US producers thought that the UK audiences would be too reserved for two hours of intense ballroom and Latin dancing. Well that was not true of the Hawth audience this evening.

The Strictly Come Dancing champion returned to the Hawth Theatre for the second time this year having previously impressed audiences with his performance in the rock musical Rock of Ages . Kevin proved for a second time that he really is an entertainer, he can sing and dance, paying tribute to Robbie Williams with an impressive vocal on Let Me Entertain to end act one.

Kevin was joined by Graziano Di Prima and Johannes Radebe also of Strictly fame in this intense and mesmerising show. Kevin’s songs included a lovely ballroom sequence to Mr Bojangles.

The opening of act two with a tribute to the opera Carmen saw Nancy Xu fought over by Kevin and Graziano, the intensity of which was compelling, the Paso Doble for which Kevin is well known on strictly was a real highlight of the whole evening.

The dancers effortlessly fused steps from different dance styles together. Live vocals from Mike Introna, Chase Kamta and Tyler Azzopardi included a powerful rendition of I’m only Human and a reflective Hallelujah and were accompanied by simply hypnotic dances, between dances Kevin, Graziano and Johannes shared their passion for dance and explained the evolution of the Burn the Floor family and the tour, now in its 20th year.

As we left the theatre feeling thoroughly worn out from watching we can only hope that they continue to be creative with their storytelling through dance and creative with choreography for another 20 years.

AJ Dunford