Not strictly Ballroom

Now we know why Elton John needed that pacemaker. Two days before his dizzy spell while playing tennis in Nice, he surprised guests at a charity ball in his Windsor home by dancing in public for the first time in years. Twenty cast members from the new, high-energy, ballroom show, Burn the Floor, had just finished entertaining Liz Hurley, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Fergie, Sporty and Baby Spice, when the sultry Latin American champ Tonia Kosovich decided the rocket man could do with a quick blast around the dance floor.

"It's probably Tonia's fault," admits producer Harley Medcalf, with a snigger, "but it was great to see him having fun." It was Elton himself who inspired the £10 million touring spectacular. He laid on a ballroom display for his lavish 50th birthday in March 1997, the party went wild, and Medcalf's imagination started firing. "I had never considered that there could be such chemistry and electricity between dancers as there was displayed that night," he recalls.

Two years on, he has assem-bled a company of 22 world-class young dancers from 11 countries, in a rock concert-style production that aims to bury ballroom's cheesy associations with sequins, satsuma tans and startled grins. In Australia, 150,000 people have already lapped up the two-hour extravaganza, encouraged, no doubt, by the success of the film comedy Strictly Ballroom. Next comes a European tour and 200 dates across America. Will it do for the foxtrot what Riverdance and Michael Flatley have for the Irish jig? Universal Pictures thinks so - it has invested £3.5 million in the television and video rights.

The show comes to the Royal Albert Hall on 1 November (for two nights), having made its UK debut in Bournemouth this summer. There, the blue-rinse brigade, doubtless nostalgic for the heyday of Come Dancing with Judith Chalmers, loved the jiving, cha-cha-chas and flamenco, but the most riotous whoops of approval came from the younger members of the audience following the sexy Latin finale.

Everyone involved in Burn the Floor is aware that ballroom has a naff image and the production wisely does not take itself too seriously. The "industrial" section, for example, is pure Janet Jackson circa Rhythm Nation, with its fetish costumes and slam-dancing choreography. The Hollywood musical sequence finds the men in silver lamé suits, while the flamenco - with its stamping studs in leather trousers and vinyl capes - is Ann Summers meets Joaquin Cortes. London audiences will lap up the kitsch - and Medcalf is quite happy with that. "It's about having fun," he says.

It is also full of sexual energy, especially when it goes all Ricky Martin at the end with the frenzied pelvis-wiggling. Australian star Jason Roditis, Tonia Kosovich's partner and husband, puts it down to the cast's chemistry. "Most of the couples are married or in long-term relationships together and the others are just partner-swapping from city to city," he quips.

The most remarkable thing about Burn the Floor is that the couples - now a synchronised company - had been rivals on the international-competition circuit for years. "Usually, you don't want them to look good," admits Matthew Cutler, who with wife Nicole makes up the UK's number-one amateur couple. "In fact, you want them to look bad. But here, we work as a team."

Nicole says it is a relief not to compete - and not to pile on the traditional feathers, sequins and heavy make-up. Fake tans are banned; the look is "natural and fresh". For Essex-born Matthew, who started dancing at eight, it signals the start of ball-room's rehabilitation. "I don't know how I survived those teenage years - the costumes looked ridiculous," he says. "Burn the Floor is showing people the image has changed. The guys wear clothes you could go clubbing in. The whole thing is a lot cooler."

Not that the pros ever had doubts. "At the underground Latin clubs where we do our training, it's all dark lighting, black clothing and steamedup mirrors," says Roditis. "It's hot and sweaty. You could be in any exotic club in the world, but it's London." Burn the Floor, he reckons, has "got in touch with all the primal instincts of dance and crossed it with rock and roll. It's not about one particular style; it's about how to dance. There's a huge urge for contact. People want to touch and be able to express themselves."

As for the dancers, they just want to be able to support themselves after their tour is over - competition prizes rarely amount to more than a couple of hundred pounds. They are hoping a new dance craze will take off, so they will have an audience to teach. Maybe Sir Elton will sign up for lessons.

Royal Albert Hall box office, 0171 589 8212.