Dancer Ashleigh Di Lello (with partner/husband Ryan) faced a long journey.

One day when she was 13 years old, Ashleigh Di Lello woke up and could barely get out of bed. Pain coursed through every joint and muscle, and she was so weak she couldn’t even hold a book. It took more than two years for doctors to determine she had a rare parasitic infection and another two for her to recover.

One of the toughest things about her physically ravaging illness was that she couldn’t dance. The Provo, Utah, native started taking lessons when she was three, and at 12 was DanceSport’s junior Latin champion. Upon returning to the studio in her late teens, Di Lello suffered another setback, this time a back injury that required more than a year of rehabilitation.

After all that, Di Lello hit the dance floor with a vengeance. The three-time DanceSport amateur Latin champion went on to perform all over the world. This past fall, she and her husband, Ryan, who’s also a Latin ballroom dancer, were finalists on the hit series So You Think You Can Dance. Now, they’re performing in Burn the Floor, the hit dance spectacle that comes to the Vogue Theatre Tuesday to next Sunday (April 13 to 18).

“It was a long journey,” Di Lello says of her forced break, reached on her spouse’s cellphone in California. “I couldn’t even stand up on my own. It was during the teenage years, which is an important time for dancing. But at the same time, it gave me a perspective on life. I understand what’s important. I know that life can change in an instant. I cherish every moment. I have an appreciation for everything—especially dance. I get to be on-stage and do what I love.

“Thank goodness I was born with a stubborn disposition,” she adds with a big laugh.

Although competitive dance has existed for decades, the reality-TV shows SYTYCD and Dancing With the Stars have done wonders to boost the popularity of the Di Lellos’ chosen art form. They’ve also blasted the stereotypes surrounding ballroom styles.

“Before these shows began airing, I’d tell people I was a ballroom dancer and they’d say, ”˜Oh, you wear those big gowns and waltz around?’ The perspective was that it was all older people doing a slow-moving waltz,” Di Lello says. “Now people think of high-energy, amazing movement. And there’s so much variety. A lot of people don’t know that there are 10 dances in international ballroom dance. You’re not just watching the same thing over and over. It’s constantly entertaining.”

She credits So You Think You Can Dance guest choreographer and onetime world ballroom champion Jason Gilkison—who also choreographs Burn the Floor along with his former dancing partner, Peta Roby—with making the show so appealing to such vast audiences.

“He’s added artistry to the competition side,” Di Lello says. “He has such a flair with movement.”

Created by Australian producer Harley Medcalf, who was behind Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance, Burn the Floor premiered in the U.K. in 1999 and has since heated up stages in more than 30 countries, last visiting Vancouver early in 2009. The production showcases an array of dance styles, including the flirty cha-cha, the Viennese waltz, and the quickstep, which evolved from the 1920s Charleston. But it’s by no means a predictable history lesson.

Instead, Burn the Floor is a fresh take on classic dance, featuring performers with strong technique and bold personalities who are encouraged to put their own spin on everything from the tango to the jive. What distinguishes it from other ballroom shows is its Broadway glitz and rock ’n’ roll lighting.

When it’s his turn on the cell, Ryan Di Lello says the show’s dancemakers take ballroom to rip-roaring, rule-breaking extremes—and make it sexy, too.

“You’ve never seen ballroom dance like this,” says Ryan, who worked in the financial-services and public-relations industries before pursuing dance. “It is hot. It’s fast, high-energy, and really keeps you on your toes. It will make you want to jump out of your seat and dance.”

For him and Ashleigh Di Lello, that’s what life’s all about.