Las Vegas Weekly

March 31, 2009 · 10:46 AM

Le Reve dries off for Dancing with the Stars

By Melissa Arseniuk

One of the dance scenes recently added to Le Reve that has enlivened the production.

Photo: Tomask Rossa

The Wynn’s watery show spectacular, Le Rêve is drying itself off and trimming itself down.

No, the critically acclaimed showcase is not the latest to fall victim to recession-related cutbacks; the show itself isn’t changing at all.

The production is shrinking for one, one-time and very special, small screen debut.

A condensed patchwork of Le Rêve’s signature stylized choreography will be featured on an upcoming episode of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.

Nineteen of the show’s cast of 90 performers will travel to L.A. next week for the prime time filming.

The three-woman, 16-man troupe has been working for months to prepare for their Dancing with the Stars debut.

“We’ve been rehearsing this since September,” the show’s artistic director, Brian Burke, said.

He said the on-screen performance was a long time coming.

“This is three years in the making,” he said. “Three years ago (ABC) producers came to see Le Rêve and they were interested in doing something.”

The man who helped incorporate ballroom dancing into Le Rêve a few years ago, choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, currently works on the hit ABC show. Unsurprisingly, Burke said his friend and former colleague played a key role in getting the Wynn’s stylish production on Dancing with the Stars.

It wasn’t until this year, however, that the stars aligned and schedules allowed for the collaboration to work.

Before the folks at Dancing with the Stars saw the shortened sequence, however, Burke knew they had no idea what was coming.

“They were trying to visualize how we would cut our 75-minute water spectacular down to two-and-a-half minutes,” he explained.

After months of hard work and practice, he’s happy with the end result.

“I feel (the performers are) ready and I feel like what we’re giving is an accurate representation of the choreography that’s in the show, the style that’s in the show and the essence and the energy of the show,” he said.

He designed the sequence to be a shortened version of Le Rêve, but with “a different flavor for television.”

“I tried to incorporate three segments of the show, the most exciting, the most dynamic (and) dance,” he said. The two-and-a-half minute snapshot combines ballroom dancing with banquine-style aerial effects.

“We’re taking all the best parts and condensing it,” dancer David Oliveri said. Still, he admitted, “doing it without water is definitely taking an element away.”

Despite the lack of H2O, Burke hopes what his team has created will convey “what people feel when they come to see our show, that intensity, that impact, that energy (and) that momentum” to TV audiences across the world.

The prospect of such a large audience seeing their short performance has the cast excited and, at times, slightly nervous.

“Pretty much everyone I’m in contact (with) is going to be watching,” Oliveri said. He joked that his mother has been calling all of her friends, family members, and long-lost acquaintances to tell them to tune in on Tuesday night.

“I’m not really nervous, I’m just excited,” said Marcia Moreno, who plays “the dreamer” in the full-length show.

But, she conceded, the performance will have its challenges. “The choreography is fast,” she said. “Really, really fast.”

Moreno, Oliveri and the other Le Rêve performers will appear on this coming Tuesday’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars,” which at 9 p.m. on ABC.

Share This