Choreographer Joan Palethorpe
In 1965, Royal Ballet-trained Joan Palethorpe headed to Las Vegas on a short 6-month contract as a Ron Lewis dancer in "Vive Les Girls." She never left. "I came for six months and that was it." The short contract led to another Ron Lewis show, ""Casino de Paris," where Palethorpe was a lead dancer and later, assistant choreographer.
"Working for Ronnie was such a treat and such an education. Assisting him was an education, as was dancing for him. I learned to certainly appreciate staging, which was a marvelous thing, that it's not just the steps."
But, as is often the case in show business, the best preparation sometimes needs a break. "I didn't start choreographing in this town. I met George Reich through Pat Merl. He was supposed to come over and watch a class so I invited all my friends. 'It's free, it's free," you know. Of course, he missed it. He didn't get there." Undeterred, she invited him to her house for a demonstration. "So he sat in my kitchen, we had a couple of vodka tonics and he hired me."
Palethorpe started with two numbers for George's show in Montreal, Canada. Twenty-five years later, she's still working with him. "I went to Montreal and I left the Dunes. I mean, they didn't cut me off and say, 'You can't come back' or anything like that, but then they offered me something else immediately so I thought, 'Oh well. I guess this is what I do now.'"
"On an average, I do the show in Palm Springs every year, which is a very happy thing, for as long as it lasts. It's for older people. They're all over 55. And I do, on an average, one or two cruise ship shows a year."
Palethorpe's inspiration begins with the music. She said, "It's necessary to really like the music... I've never had music forced on me that I didn't like. By and large, it's been left up to me so I've been lucky that way. And sometimes other people have presented music and they've been nice enough if I've said, 'I don't think I can dance to that' to go, 'Oh well OK.'"
From there, the steps take shape. Palethorpe said, "I will never be able to choreograph out of a chair. That won't happen. I know there are people who do that, but no. Couldn't."
"I have to be by myself. I dance in my living room. I listen to music for hours. I plan the whole shape of the number, the staging of the number and then I have to get up and dance. I get up and dance and when it's done, I film it from the back to counts and then from the front so I can see if I like what it looks like."
"I know that not everyone comes in prepared but I think it's really important to be prepared. I know some people who come in and they just do it off the top of their head and I know as a dancer, I always hated that." Oddly enough, even with all the preparation, Palethorpe is not always completely happy with her work. "Sometimes you're not quite sure, you know. Sometimes you're stuck and you just sit and listen to the same piece of music for hours and hours and hours and think, 'I can't do anything to this.' And sometimes you know that you're not really doing something as good as it should be but you can't come up with anything better. And then you have to go away from it and come back."
"Usually, the best gauge for me is when I go to choreograph a number, if I'm trying to convince myself, 'It's fine.' But I know that when whoever the powers that be see it, they're not going to be all that thrilled. I don't know why I even go there. Might as well just change it."
And so change it she does, until it's right where it ought to be. Then she expects to see fire in the dancers and heat in the steps. That only happens when they work full out. "If you've got all the technique in the world and you don't sell it, then no, it doesn't work." The worst thing a dancer can be, she said, is "lazy. They learn it and then they'll mark at every opportunity. You've got other people that even when you say, 'Oh, you can mark this now,' they don't. They never do."
A good choreographer puts in her own work before the dancers set foot in the rehearsal studio - mentally, artistically and physically. She then expects the same degree of dedication from the professionals. In Joan Palethorpe's case, it pays off every time.
Choreographic credits:
Las Vegas, NV (Aladdin, Marina, Arizona Charlies and Lady Luck Hotels)
Lake Tahoe, NV (Harvey's Casino Resort)
Atlantic City, NJ (Showboat, Taj Mahal and Bally's)
New York, NV (Cafe Versailles/Blue Angel)
Montreal, Canada (Hotel Chateau Champlain)
Nassau, Bahamas (Cable Beach Casino)
Baltimore, MD (Plaza Hotel)
Glen Mills, PA (Encore Theatre)
Finland (Sally Cruise Lines)
Miami, FL (Sheraton Bal-Harbor, Marco Polo and Fountainbleu Hilton Hotels)
Puerto Rico (Caribe Hilton, Sands and El San Juan Hotels)
Sun City, South Africa
The Gap (Television commercial)
Palm Springs, CA ("Fabulous Palm Springs Follies")