Imagine the cast of “Dancing with the Stars” taking a cruise on the Love Boat.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts brings “A Chance to Dance: Secrets in the Stars’ to Langley, an original theatrical show and a ballroom dance showcase featuring 16 original dances choreographed by the USA Dance – Seattle Performance Team and local professional dance instructors.

The comedy unfolds as passengers board the S.S. Stargazer for a cruise to a lost Incan city. The paths of a stuffy socialite, a clever scientist, a snooty widow, a story-telling porter, an injured matador, a Hollywood dancer and a mysterious commander cross on board in this high-seas “dancical.”

The Stargazer passengers dance their way to South America all while showcasing a wide variety of Latin American dance styles.

As the Stargazer sets sail for southern ports, the passengers tell their stories through dances such as a beautifully choreographed waltz, a passionate tango, a sassy Cha-Cha, a macho Paso Doble and a sultry Rumba.

Cast member Steven Reneaud said with the recent ballroom craze in the country, this is a great play for people who like to mix fun with formation and pairs ballroom dancing.

“The ballroom dancers have diverse dance backgrounds and both noncompetitive and competitive experience,” Reneaud said.

“We love sharing our passion for dance with others. We all hope that people seeing this show will indeed decide to take the chance to dance,” he said.

Reneaud slips into the role of hot-blooded passenger Alberto Gorez.

“My miscalculation in the arena might keep me from bullfighting, but it doesn’t keep me from trying my hand at a mean Paso Doble – the Latin dance of the matador and cape. This dance presents the man as the matador and his female partner as either his cape or as the bull,” he said.

“It is a dance filled with the tension and beauty, without the gore, of the bull fight. My cape or bull – your choice – is represented, in this instance, by the beautiful Kate Green (Katya Sedova), who definitely wows the cast and audience with her powerful dancing skills.”

In real life, Reneaud has been an attorney for 16 years.

At first, he had the natural male reaction to ballroom dancing, but he came around.

“I first ran from ballroom due to my perception that it was too confining and conformist. I’ve learned to love it as a means of expressing oneself to music.”

Family ties also helped convince him.

“Through my sister and brother-in-law, Monique and Robert Hrouda, I was directly introduced to ballroom dancing about 15 years ago,” he said.

The Hroudas own Dancesport in Seattle, the home base of USA Dance Team NW.

“Monique is our coach, teacher, and primary choreographer,” he said.

Now, dance is a vital part of his life.

“The more you learn, the more free you can be. To me, dance is a wonderful way to express oneself to music, to perform, to have fun, to exercise – though I still consider ballroom as an art and not a sport – and to escape from work. I have enjoyed competing in Latin and smooth dances and I am loving this opportunity to dance as the character Alberto Gorez,” Reneaud said.

The mission of the USA Dance Performance team is to promote ballroom dancing through performance.

Since 1989, the team has performed all over the U.S. and Canada.

It is a unique organization because the members are all amateur dancers with jobs and families, and they represent a large range of ages, abilities and experience. Working together they produce high-quality productions featuring interesting characters, plots and exciting dances.

They perform West and East Coast swing, waltz, Quickstep, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Cha-Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Jive and more.

The performance and production are a team effort. “A Chance To Dance” is an original production, conceived by the USA Dance Team NW and further shaped by select team members. It was also edited by the team and written into its final form by a professional writer.

This is the second stage-based “dancical” by the team and the second production USA Dance presented at WICA, and they are thrilled to be back at the theater in the Langley.

Some may have seen them in November 2004 presenting “A Dance to Die for.” The show was met with a huge popular response.

“A Chance to Dance: Secrets in the Stars” opened at the Carco Theater in Renton in May. Some of those in the Renton audience vowed to take the trip to Whidbey Island to see another show.

Organizers say it’s a must-see for local dance enthusiasts and for non-dancers with an appreciation for the art and a sense of humor.

“The show is funny, the ballroom dancing will inspire you to dance, the costumes are pleasant on the eye, and the obvious collective effort of all the team members shows the power of a community to create a fantastic product,” Reneaud said. “We would love to share our passion with you. If you have any interest in dance, you will be pleased if you take a chance.”