April O'Peel - Vancouver Burlesque Performer

We did it!!!! Yay!!! Greece does Grease has finished its 2 week run and the reviews were great!! Oh my gad YAYYYY!!! We can say that we were a critical success! I honestly was in tears when I read Colin Thomas’ review in the Georgia Straight. Serious tears. I was so happy!!!! The blurb about the choreography from the Straight reads as follows:

“Thanks partly to the energetic choreography of April O’Peel, the big group numbers have the most sass. In my favourite, “Vile Underworld”, the demonic chorines wear tiny aubergine tutus, glittering black collars, and spider-shaped pasties. So far, I’ve enjoyed every show I’ve seen in which the chorus members wear spider-shaped pasties.”

YAY! Like I mentioned in my earlier post- I can’t take credit for all the choreo as we work really well collaboratively. HOWEVER the one dance that I can say IS mine all mine was the Underworld dance and that a good chunk of the Choreo in the large numbers came from me. YAY!! The other really great review the choreography received was from PLANK magazine. It read:

“The dances have been choreographed by April O’Peel, and they are hilarious, not to mention ‘in your face’, as the ideas that we are often only alluded to in main stage productions, are overtly played out in front of us with no holding back! And it’s clear from the very beginning that the performers are having a ball!”

Now Vile Underworld was a new piece since the first incarnation of Greece in February. We needed another number to portray how Persephone was coming into her own in the Underworld. And the direction was for it to be sex-ay! This was a fun challenge for me because I’ve been typecast (by myself as well) as the weirdy funny one. Alot of my strongest pieces have been comedic in nature so this was a chance for me to prove my abilities in terms of more erotic choreo. And I think I did pretty okay! 

The song was chosen for me. It had to be from Grease 1 or 2 and to be honest- there wasn’t alot left that we hadn’t covered already!! We settled on Grease is the Word from the opening credits of the original Grease. Step one. Check. Now for my influences I must must must give credit to my friend and mentor Melody Mangler. No other person has taught me more about the art of erotic movement. Except for maybe one other. Now don’t laugh- but as a teen in the 90s, my Madonna was Britney Spears! So maybe you don’t like the music, and ok she kinda lost it there for abit but the girl in her day had MAD sexy dancing skills. You can see a homage to a piece of hers in our dance. I seriously have been waiting about ten years to use it for something. Oh my god, hot!!! I also found inspiration in the warm up for my Luciterra Tribal Fusion bellydancing class I’ve been taking. During the class I found myself thinking that certain yoga stretches we were practicing would look pretty sexy if they were to be used in a dance. See if you can  find them in the preview below!

Overall I am really happy with the number! I’d say my weaknesses were that some of the moves might have looked like I stole them from a Carmen Electra workout video (cheese my friend. total cheese.) and my usual issue with not enough emphasis on the tease. I will point out that they weren’t wearing much to start with and we didn’t receive the costume pieces for Miss Fitt until after the dance was finished. Excuses, excuses- but I hope you enjoy my attempt at the sexy!!! I want to again thank all the cast and crew for all their hard work and especially the ladies of the Underworld Dance for making me look so good!! Reowr! xoxox!!!!