Making their first appearance this year, Powell River’s Kit Kat Girls chose to vamp, appropriately enough, at the opening film of the recent Powell River Film Festival, entitled The League of Exotique Dancers.
The performance, more improvised than choreographed, came together quickly, according to founder CaroleAnn Leishman.
“We had one meeting and only three people showed up, and then we had the snow so we had to cancel two practices before the opening of the film festival,” said Leishman.
She said there are eight new recruits in the group this year. One of them is Angie Davey, who said she decided to join because she thought it would be fun.
“I had one rehearsal and then two days later I was on stage in a corset,” said Davey. She added that getting cinched up in a corset for the first time, with the able assistance of her husband, felt “delicious.”
Melissa Call is one of the original Kit Kat Girls. She said that apart from the Kit Kat Girls, she wouldn’t normally be seen in a sexy costume.
“You can be someone else in a way,” said Call. “You can take that persona of yourself that you kind of keep hidden and let it out there. I enjoy being out there.”
According to Leishman, the company of femme fatales started as a fun class of showgirls who had performed in her “fabulous” production of Chicago for Far Off Broadway in 2009. They enjoyed being in the famous vaudeville-themed musical so much that they wanted to keep camping it up, she said.
“Then what happened was the Vancouver Olympics was coming the following February,” said Leishman. “I had this group of ladies that we got together just once a week for fun and feather boas, and did some dancing and I suddenly said, ‘Hmmm, I’m the director of special events for the Olympic torch relay celebration, so do you guys want to dance in it?’”
She said the reaction was not overly enthusiastic, with some of the women a bit mortified.
“They weren’t sure what to expect and what were people going to think,” said Leishman. Some of the dancers were concerned that their boss might see them, or what might happen if they saw somebody they knew and were recognized.
“For a lot of the women, that’s a thing,” said Leishman, “but you’re going out there as one of the Kit Kat Girls and you just vamp it up, because if you look embarrassed or shy or nervous, you’re going to make the audience feel the same way.”
According to Leishman, a dancer has to find their own character, an alter ego, and have fun.
Davey said her Kit Kat character is her “naughty-girl persona. I haven’t developed it yet. There’s lots of room to grow.”
She added that being a Kit Kat Girl is indulgent in a vain, kind of sassy way.
Leishman said she is always surprised by the fact that some of the women, including longtime friends who are in the group and who have never done any type of dance, theatre or performance, are out there performing in “skimpy little sparkly costumes.”
Kit Kat Girls’ next show will be as part of the annual Powell River Academy of Music Cabaret on April 21, and then on May 5 and 6 the troupe will be in a vaudeville, burlesque and cabaret show as a fundraiser for Patricia Theatre.
