Renowned Australian ballroom dance company Burn the Floor has for the very first time collaborated with the hugely talented First Nations star Mitch Tambo to create a brand-new dance production that will tour the east coast of Australia from 21 July to 13 August playing Melbourne, Maryborough, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Port Macquarie, Newcastle, Canberra, Wyong, Sydney, Penrith and Chatswood.
This ground-breaking and inspirational journey embraces a mix of Indigenous culture and music with favourite ballroom and Latin styles, from waltz, foxtrot, samba, rumba, tango, to swing and jive, mixed with Mitch Tambo’s unique sound, accompanied his vocalist wife and partner Lea Firth who will be joined by First Nations’ outstanding, contemporary dancer, Albert David.
Mitch will perform his own musical compositions, joined by the energy and passion of 20 dancers, vocalists, and musicians. They will be backed by a soundtrack of Australian rock classics including Midnight Oil Power and the Passion, INXS Never Tear Me Apart, ACDC Highway to Hell, the Bee Gees Staying Alive, Cold Chisel Khe Shan and Archie Roach anthems, plus You’re the Voice will be sung by Mitch in the Gamilaraay language and Walanbaa along with other brilliant songs he has written.
Australian resident dancers in the 2023 tour cast include Jorja Freeman, Gustavo Viglio, Jemma Armstrong, Lily Cornish, Julian Caillon and Robbie Kmetoni. Veteran cast member Jessica Raffa has also just returned after a long break. But it will be newest member of the cast Sophie Holloway’s first season with Burn the Floor. She spoke with Dance Australia about her experience so far.
Sophie was born and raised in the south of Sydney. She trained with Bernadette Langshaw-Clarke and Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, beginning her professional career at just 16.
Her credits include Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby, performing with Katy Perry, Cher, Opera Australia’s Salome, Baz Lurhmanns’ Elvis, and television’s The Masked Singer, The Voice and Australia’s Got Talent. In 2014 Sophie successfully auditioned for the prestigious Rockettes in New York. Her eight years with the company included performances at Radio City Music Hall, plus The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the ‘71st Annual Tony Awards’.
Sophie has been familiar with Burn the Floor since she saw it live as a high school student.
“I went with my mum and a couple of girlfriends. I remember thinking, maybe one day I could do that - but it felt more like a dream and I didn’t really know if it would be achievable… but then, as soon as I got the job, those same friends texted me and said, “Do you remember that time in high school when we went and saw the show?!” So this is a full-circle moment for me.”
Describing herself as, “coming from more of a jazz background, I treated Latin dance as my hobby… so in my first rehearsal yesterday – doing the quick-step – I actually welled up with tears at how lucky I am to be in this show.”
In comparison with her experience dancing with the Rockettes, Sophie feels that there is more room in a show like Burn the Floor for all the cast members to be celebrated for their uniqueness and to highlight their own individual qualities, saying, “For the first time in my career I get to be me.” She thinks this is perhaps a result of the competitive atmosphere in which ballroom and latin dancers develop, whereby each couple is competing against another.
It's a contrast with the absolute precision required by the line-up of Rockettes in some of their numbers but Sophie is thankful for her time in New York where she, “learnt some amazing skills. The similarities between dancing with the Rockettes and a show like Burn the Floor are the teamwork and camaraderie of the company as well as the legacy of the show itself. Being part of something with such prestige and history is a real joy.”
This will be the first time since the pandemic that Sophie has danced onstage in a theatre show in Australia and she says, “Dancing in NY is amazing but it means ten-times more performing for family and friends here in Australia.” Actively involved in teaching, Sophie is also aware that being in a stage show like Burn the Floor will give her students a chance to come watch her.
Sophie is thrilled to be performing with a live band again and to be working with music artists like Mitch Tambo. She is almost lost for words when describing his music as, ‘just beyond…”
In Burn the Floor Sophie is also reunited with Robbie Kmetoni. Both alumni of the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, Robbie was two years ahead, “but just an amazing dancer I looked up to back in high school… I remember when he was on So You Think You Can Dance, and then, when he started working with Burn the Floor a few years back I thought – wow, good on him – he’s made it.”
And of course, now, she has too.
You can catch Sophie Holloway, Robbie Kmetoni and the rest of the cast in the upcoming Australian tour of Burn the Floor.
https://www.burnthefloor.com/AUST-2023.html
TOUR DETAILS
The Palms at Crown, Melbourne | Friday 21 – Sunday 30 July
Brolga Theatre, Maryborough | Tuesday 1 August
Empire Theatre, Toowoomba | Wednesday 2 August
Powerhouse, Brisbane | Thursday 3 & Friday 4 August
Glasshouse, Port Macquarie | Saturday 5 August
Civic Theatre, Newcastle | Sunday 6 August
Canberra Theatre, Canberra | Wednesday 9 August
The Art House, Wyong | Thursday 10 August
Enmore Theatre, Newtown | Friday 11 August
The Joan, Penrith | Saturday 12 August
The Concourse, | Chatswood Sunday 13 August