Ballroom With a Twist spins 2 different shows

Here's an interesting twist: Two touring shows called Ballroom With a Twist will be on two different Arkansas stages this week.

Both will feature performers from TV competition shows Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol and both feature choreography by Emmy-nominated Louis van Amstel.

One version of the show, featuring two-time Dancing With the Stars champion Cheryl Burke with So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol finalists to be announced, and under the auspices of Celebrity Attractions, will stop in at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center, 100 Victory Lane, Maumelle, for performances at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Jan. 18.

The show replaces Hal Linden and Barbara Eden reading A.R. Gurney's Love Letters on Celebrity Attractions' schedule, canceled "due to the producer's licensing issues."

Tickets are $42-$63; if you hold a season ticket your Love Letters ticket will be good for this show. Call (501) 244-8800 or visit the website, ticketmaster.com.

The other will make a flying visit with shows at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday in Baum Walker Hall of Fayetteville's Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., part of the center's Coca-Cola Night Out Series. The cast includes dancers Dmitry Chaplin, Tony Dovolani, Lacey Schwimmer and Anna Trebunskaya and Idol singers Gina Glocksen-Ruzicka and Jacob Lusk.

Tickets are $26-$56. Call (479) 443-5600or visit the website, waltonartscenter.org.

"We have about three companies of the show," says publicist Scott Stander. "The show was designed for all the Dancing With the Stars pros, So You Think You Can Dance [performers] and American Idols to rotate with the very busy schedules they have."

Reach for the Stars

Burke notes that the show's cast being drawn from three different shows allows "a mixture of talent from the top variety shows of the past 10 years." And like the ice shows that bring together former competitors, the atmosphere is more collaborative than competitive.

"I'd say 85 percent of it is dancing, and you've got two American Idol singers, and sometimes we dance to their songs -- lots of solo numbers and lots of high-energy group numbers," Burke says. "I'll be hosting the actual show, so we're always open for Q&A; we love to hear what our fans want to know, behind-the-scenes questions.

"We're ready to hear any question; every question will be answered somehow."

Burke has primarily shone in Latin dancing, but says she does a variety of styles in the stage show: "I do a Viennese waltz, and I'll do a rumba and a samba, so you've got all kinds of different flavors."

Burke, who took home the Dancing With the Stars mirror-ball trophy at the end of seasons 2 (with partner Drew Lachey) and 3 (with former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith), was the first professional dancer to reach the ABC show's finals six times and the semi-finals nine times.

Dancing, she says, "is my first love, my first passion." The San Francisco Bay area native, five months shy of her 30th birthday (in May), started taking ballet lessons when she was 4, but "I grew out of my tights at age 11," she says, when her parents introduced her to ballroom dancing.

"My mom and dad actually did it socially before I even knew what ballroom dancing was," she says. "They took me to my first dance competition and I saw kids my age dance. They were wearing fancy costumes and makeup and the music was so fun and high energy, [and] I knew exactly I'd found something I wanted to pursue, especially the Latin type of dancing."

Within a couple of years, she was traveling and competing throughout the world.

The TV show recruited her when she was 20 to be Lachey's "pro" partner. "It's almost been a decade; I started on Dancing With the Stars when I was 20 and I turn 30 in May, so it's great to be celebrating that," she says.

Don't look for her, however, to show up on any anniversary show; she and DWTS parted company after the Nov. 25 broadcast. And she has just gotten involved with another show on another network.

"I just got a new show on NBC that starts taping around February," she says. "I can't reveal too much information; it's a super-secret project."

(People magazine reported a few weeks ago that she'll be one of several stars on what will be a new variety show, the title of which the network has not yet announced. "I never thought I'd be able to walk away, but after a decade of something, it's time for me to move on and try something different, to be challenged, to feel inspired," she told the magazine.)

As she approaches her 30s, Burke hints that perhaps she can see beyond her current full-time career as a dancer to doing something else.

"It's nice to get back on road and perform in front of our fans and it's kind of like my last hurrah, so I'm really excited to get back on stage again," she says.

Not that she'll necessarily be retiring from live performance entirely.

"I don't mind doing a few tours now and then, but I've been doing it for almost 20 years; dancing will always be a part of my life, the way I express myself. I'll continue to dance. But there's so much else ahead.

"It's time for a change. It's nice to be able to see what else is there."

Style on 01/11/2015