The Portal at Area15 is a big room, nearly 6,660 square feet, with projection-mapped video walls that ripple with texture and color. Up to this point it’s mainly been used for Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience and other special events, functions where those walls have been allowed to be the center of attention. But in Rated: Red, the new, 21-and-over “burlesque-esque” show that takes over the Portal on Friday nights, the room achieves its best use: It becomes a warehouse-like performance space for some of the sexiest, most fluid and muscular dancing seen on a Vegas stage.

“We always wanted to do a burlesque show [at Area15], but we wanted to do something very different from everything else out there,” says Kimberly Beneville, Area15’s director of experiences. “We found our amazing choreographer, Jawkeen Howard, and we just started brainstorming. He was very much on the same page as us.”

Working with Beneville and Area15, Howard and assistant choreographer Starley Ann Carrington created a fast-paced production that admittedly owes less to burlesque than it does to voguing, the Pussycat Dolls, Bob Fosse and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Yes, there’s a chair dance, a pole dance and a singer belting out “Seven Nation Army” while performing a classic striptease, but these burly staples are transformed by the athleticism and brio of Rated: Red’s 16 performers—no two of which look alike.

“Right from the beginning, we talked about inclusivity; we talked about diversity,” Beneville says. “We said to each other, ‘Look, we don’t care about what race or sexual identity or size or shape our dancers are, but they all have to possess their own fire and be able to express that fire in many different ways.’ That was the most important thing to us.”

The “fire” is evident from beginning to end. Aside from a few brief, table-setting spoken word interludes, Rated: Red is all go. Choreographer Howard, who has worked with Britney Spears, Kanye West, The Killers and many others, changes up the action from one set piece to the next—sometimes going close and intimate, sometimes going brash and big.

Small groups of male and female dancers get provocative spotlight moments; a trio of dancers perform a wild BDSM-inspired routine to Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” (Much of the music used during the routines is recorded, through a four-piece live band warms up the crowd and occasionally takes over during the show. It’s a great touch.)

There’s no host or story, but Rated: Red doesn’t need either. The dancing is powerful enough to carry the hour. And those video walls function essentially as a supporting cast; they alternate between virtual sets and pure abstraction, directly on the stage action or modestly behind it, depending on what the choreography demands. Beneville says that the Portal’s visual capabilities were fully considered while the show was in development.

“We have a team of brilliant graphic designers working on this, who really watched each dance,” she says. “They really understood the passion and the intent behind each number, and then they created beautiful artwork to express and complement them. We get to express the emotion of each dance with all of the art on our walls as well.”

The projection walls do look terrific, but Rated: Red’s performers absolutely command the Portal. What was a flexible multipurpose space now has a singular purpose—and a really good one. And Area15, which up to this point has been mostly about outdoor concerts and permanent interactive installations, has taken a big step into the live performance space Strip properties have long dominated. Judging from Rated: Red’s bold debut, it won’t be the last.

“Our cast is so excited to be a part of something different,” Beneville says. “And they’re eager to create even more.”

Rated: Red Fridays, 9 & 11 p.m.; $75-$300. The Portal at Area15, 702-846-1900, AREA15.com/events/rated-red.

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