Partially clothed fun

Aussie dance show takes Broadway with sexy choreography

Competitive ballroom dancing is hot, and “Burn the Floor,” the Australian touring production directed by Jason Gilkison, is positively smokin’. I wanted to run for the exit, while all around me, fans — many probably practitioners of this “dance sport” — whistled and cheered.

Actual smoke roils on the stage, a huge disco ball twirls, and the performers are as likely to snake down the aisles or pop up in stage-side boxes as to boogie onstage. Buy an orchestra seat, and you may get spattered with sweat.

Ten champion couples, tops in their classes from Lithuania, Malaysia, England, Australia, Russia, the Ukraine, Slovenia and even the U.S., take “closed hold” forms and open them for the crowd’s delectation. They also take off their shirts, bare their midriffs and backs, and generally behave like unusually gifted porn stars. Mostly upright, they swivel their hips and infuse their repertory with well-developed jazz dance chops and cliches.

While many began their careers as ballroom dancers, these handsome specimens have gone on to perform in musicals on four continents, as well as for “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance.”

The 25 numbers whip by in a cloud of faux romance, sometimes sadistic, rarely tender — too much of a good, often crude, thing.

‘Burn the Floor’
Through Oct. 18
Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St.
$59.50-$175, 212-239-6200
www.burnthefloor.com