The Incidental Tourist

[The Incidental Tourist]

Unique challenges faced by Las Vegas dancers reinforce their essential art

Image
Jabbawockeez
Courtesy

It didn’t hit me with full impact until August, when I saw a clip of the Jabbawockeez performing on America’s Got Talent from a Vegas rooftop with the Strip skyline behind them.

The breathtaking scenery was matched by the choreography, set to a hazy portion of Teyana Taylor’s “Bare With Me.” It was an electrifying blast of something I’d been missing for months, a taste of what these artists do every night in one of the Strip’s most dance-centric shows.

It was also a beautifully produced, all-too-short segment for a network TV show, and thus a reminder of what dancers in Las Vegas have been separated from during the era of coronavirus—not just jobs and careers, but art, self-expression, individuality and identity. Big life stuff.

There’s no question that thousands of entertainers and performers who’ve been decommissioned by this pandemic are struggling through similar issues. But Vegas dancers, of all sorts and styles, have faced a particularly tough conditions.

Most musicians can practice their craft at home, write and record, maybe post a performance video online or even livestream some sort of concert. A dancer can do a version of those quarantine things, or try, but the resulting rehearsal or performance feels further from what it’s meant to be.

“Dance definitely does not have the options,” says Anita Mann, choreographer for TV award shows and other events and producer of the long-running Fantasy revue at Luxor.

Nevada Ballet Theatre

Nevada Ballet Theatre

She points out how the show’s singer, Lorena Peril, has developed a sort of musical roadshow during the shutdown and continues to perform.

“The internet also gives musicians different opportunities to perform, but dancing does not always translate. We are lucky to have a great fanbase and to be able to communicate with them in some way, but certainly it’s limited our ability to do so as dancers.”

Dance-focused revues like Fantasy (which was announced this week to be returning to Luxor on November 6, the same day Jabbawockeez will perform again at MGM Grand) have long been part of the Strip’s entertainment landscape, and those shows might be leading others back to live performances. X Country will be back on its stage at Harrah’s on October 22, becoming the first returning show at a Caesars Entertainment property. 

“We spent the past seven months living two weeks at a time, because our producers told us we could be back in the showroom at any time with just one week or two weeks’ notice,” says Shelby Diana Jordan, the newest full-time cast member in the show with one year in. “It’s nice to know the hotel wanted us back, and it wasn’t like on Broadway, shut down for a whole year with no shows. But it was like being in limbo.”

Jordan is also in the cast of MJ Live at the Strat and could be called back to that show soon. Teaching extra pole fitness classes at a local studio helped keep her fit and focused during the shutdown. It was “just helpful to get that energy out and stay moving, and to have a job,” Jordan says.

Many of her colleagues are going to beauty school, getting real estate licenses and finding other backup gigs or new careers to get them through the obviously sluggish return of full-scale live entertainment.

“With dancers, the difference is how it’s marketed,” Jordan says. “Vegas is the live entertainment capital of the world. Anything we would do on film or video just doesn’t read the same. It’s supposed to be this big experience you’re having in person, not through the camera.”

Maybe sexy revues like X Country are the type of entertainment that comes to mind when you hear the words “Vegas dancer,” but the reality is there are few shows of any type on the Strip that don’t depend heavily on talented dancers.

Cirque du Soleil spectaculars have always combined dance with acrobatics and other physical artistry to create unforgettable visuals, and headlining music residencies almost always incorporate a cast of talented dance professionals. I’d argue that the wildly successful residencies by Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez at Planet Hollywood’s Zappos Theater (formerly Axis) were definitely dance shows that happened to have some singing from their titular stars.

“If you count all the different artists in this city that call themselves dancers, it’s truly unique, and I can’t think of any other city in the world where you have the melting pot of dancers that you have here,” says Roy Kaiser, artistic director at Las Vegas’ 48-year-old dance institution, Nevada Ballet Theatre.

“The [pandemic] has hit dance very hard,” Kaiser continues. “It’s an art form that historically has required people often in large groups to be in an enclosed place with a lot of physical contact. That’s how we create. That’s where all the work happens, in those studios, and you run into a lot of the same conditions when you go into a theater to perform.”

Like every other performing arts organization, NBT has been attempting to pivot and figure out how to use technology and other resources in a creative way while live performance isn’t an option.

There will be no anchoring holiday production of The Nutcracker at the Smith Center this year, and the organization estimates it will lose $2.6 million in revenue from that and other canceled performances. The Dance On with NBT donation campaign was created to help offset those losses.

Kaiser says teaching dance classes over Zoom has become “oddly comfortable,” but as a former dancer himself, he recognizes how tough it is to make that work. Still, he believes artists in general and dancers in particular have a built-in perseverance.

“The art form teaches you to be resilient. You have to be resilient to be successful and just to survive as you’re going through your career,” Kaiser says.. “It’s kind of in our blood, and that is the one reason I’m confident all these performers and dancers in particular will be back, and ready to be back, and their careers will move forward. The only question is when. That’s the big unknown.”

When the dancers in Vegas shows take the stage again, they’ll likely be wearing masks, unless they’re performing alone for a solo segment. But you won’t need to see their faces to understand their art. They’ll be expressing themselves using their whole selves, like always, passionately contributing their craft to your Vegas experience as only a dancer can.

Share
Photo of Brock Radke

Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of managing editor at Las Vegas Weekly ...

Get more Brock Radke
Top of Story