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Anyone who enjoyed Strictly Ballroom – film director Baz Luhrman's funny, flashy Cinderella story set in the world of competitive ballroom dance – will instantly understand the point of Burn the Floor, a popular production that, like the film, originated in Australia.

For those unfamiliar with "Dancesport", as its aficionados call it, here's the lowdown: it's a fiercely-contested battlefield upon which couples dressed something like Fred and Ginger compete to prove themselves the best at waltzing, swinging or lindying. (There's also a category for Latin dances like samba, rumba and cha-cha.)

Dancesport is Popular Around the World

Despite the evidence of Burn the Floor and Strictly Ballroom, says performer Peta Roby, who joined the show at the very beginning, in 1999 (interviewed during the show's most recent stop in Toronto, Canada), Australians are more active in outdoor sports than in ballroom dancing. However, "There's a big Italian community in the ballroom industry," she says, also naming England ("It's huge!), Germany, where, she says, "it's on television all the time," and Russia." (The Japanese are also crazy about it, and flocked to see Burn the Floor when it hit that country.)

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