As figure skating judges put it, two necessary elements in dance are Technical Merit and Artistic Impression. Failing that, missed attempts at robot-like accuracy come off as merely soulless. West Coast Swing couple Dana Solimando and Bruce Lineberry are the only dancers who successfully achieve the necessary level of proficiency to grab the audience with expertise alone. Other dancers, particularly in the ensemble numbers, show a disturbing lack of technical merit. Synchronization between different couples is off, sometimes by a great amount.
Artistic impression is also in short supply.
It only serves to highlight how much better the show would have been had the rest of the dancers invested more of themselves in their performances. The only couple to bring both technical excellence and emotional connection to the stage is real-life husband and wife, Gary and Lisa McIntyre. In their country number, he twirls her so fast your eyes can't keep pace, and their joy in the dance is palpable. If only the rest of the ensemble performed at this level, the show would knock your socks off. Reviewed December 26, 2000.