Mirko Sciolan and Nuria Santalucia are among the dancers who left the world of ballroom competition for friendlier audiences and sensual choreography in "Burn the Floor." Photo by Ronda Churchill.

So much for this ballroom dancing as an accessible dream for the average Joe.

The dancers in "Burn the Floor" are in their physical prime, and most of them have practiced for this day since they were pre-schoolers. They are lightning fast. They will tire you out just watching them.

Like ballet dancers, these couples make it look almost easy for one gal to jump on a guy's back, and for him to flip her into a human floor-sweeper in one whirling turn.

So you might just be wondering when Jerry Springer or Emmitt Smith will show up.

It's not like the Australian revue is lofty and inaccessible. It moves swiftly, the music is swanky and the women are stunning. (I think there are guys in it, too. Yep, just checked my notes. There are guys in it, too.)

But the show stationed at Luxor at least through Oct. 26 falls into a bit of a "Catch 22." If you sat out the TV ballroom craze -- the hit shows "Dancing With the Stars" or "So You Think You Can Dance" -- and don't know a quickstep from a cha cha, you're likely to find it repetitive.

But if you do buy a ticket because you've been pumped up by those TV competitions, you might miss ol' Springer as your armchair surrogate, as well as the background on the dancers or the drama of a contest.

Perhaps this should be the rare show to introduce the dancing couples up front, instead of making you wait until the end to learn their names or that they've been assembled from all over: England, Russia, Germany, even Finland.

You do learn the show's central premise, which is stated a couple of times if it isn't obvious enough: Back in the old days, ballroom dancing was stodgy and old-fashioned.

"Dad would be in his tux and mom was a vision," singer-narrator Keiron Kulik informs us. "That was yesterday." Enter the lead couple, Damon and Rebecca Sugden, gliding through an instrumental arrangement of "Tonight" from "West Side Story."

But now, the other singer, Rebecca Verrier tells us, ballroom has become "hot, sexy, provocative, sensual." She may even have said "sexy" twice.

Enter Jessica Raffa, slithering through a rumba with first two shirtless guys, then four, then six, then eight. She is blindfolded, and still there are no unsexy collisions.

For all its suggestiveness, Jason Gilkison's choreography portrays the honed edge of athletes more often than it conjures eroticism. The revue's modest production value isn't a bad thing. The dancers have a clean sweep of the Luxor's stage in front of two percussionists, who punctuate the recorded score.

The first fedora shows up about 20 minutes in, and there is a long, 1940s nightclub scene that's been done in everything from "Ain't Misbehavin' " to the recent Cuban revue, "Havana Night Club." The couples swing dance to "Sing, Sing, Sing." The men posture and the gals get tough in a jealous showdown.

But the longer it goes, the more you are impressed by the dancers' stamina and exuberance. Even Kulik the singer gets in on the act with some tap dancing during the jivey "Ding Dong Daddy."

Music producer Charlie Hull has smoothly combined familiar source music with a few surprises, such as a big-band version of the Soft Cell classic "Tainted Love." It allows Verrier to taunt male dancer Robin Windsor as he's bound shirtless (but not without a necktie) in a chair.

The rest of the cast joins in on the act and the number explodes from the stage, with the sultry Peta Murgatroyd doing a sweeping kick that narrowly misses the chin of Tobias Karlsson.

Las Vegas has so many shows now that a variety revue has mostly gone the way of general interest magazines. If you savor ballroom dancing, the narrow focus of "Burn the Floor" will drive you to meet the cast in the lobby after the show.

And if ballroom isn't your thing? Rest assured that "Burn" is not only value-priced, but there is still more variety than all that tiresome hopping in "Lord of the Dance." And rest easy that the lobby is the only place you meet the cast. No one gets pulled up from the audience to be embarrassed by these pros.