Dance
Fever - The half-hour series dance show DANCE FEVER/SYN/1979-87 was
filled with dancers competing for a grand prize of $25,000 (and later
$50,000). Hosted by Deney Terrio, the program featured a panel of three
guest celebrities who judged the dance contestants as they bopped to the
disco beat and other recorded melodies popular at the time.
The show also starred a dance group called "Motion" including hoofers
Dianne Day, Flo Solder, Toni Yuskis, Janet Marie Jones, Debra Johnson,
Jeanie Thompson, Debby Harris, and Cindy Milican.
Adrian Zmed replaced
Terrio as the host of the show in 1985. Zmed had previously been a
celebrity panelist on the show.
Prior to hosting DANCE FEVER, Deney Terrio had choreographed John
Travolta's moves in Saturday Night Fever. He later appeared on several
television shows and specials, including "Soul Train," "The Roberta Flack
Special," and "Dick Clark's Good Ol' Rock 'n' Roll Special." He also did
choreography in the films The Idolmaker (1980) and A Night in Heaven
(1982).
In 2005, Graham Norton hosted a British show called STRICTLY DANCE
FEVER/BBC/2005 that searched for talented amateur dancers who competed for
the chance to win £50,000.
TRIVIA NOTE: A similar group of dancers (a la "Motion") appeared weekly on
the syndicated musical countdown program SOLID GOLD/SYN/1980-88. Known as
"The Solid Gold Dancers," this group of sexy male and female dancers
bounced and strutted their athletic bodies to the tunes of the top ten
records of the week.
