The Dancing Queen
Long before the era of reality dance competitions, YouTube shopping mall flash mobs and Natalie Portman’s turn as a ballerina, Argentinean dancer Carolina Cerisola was headlining Ivan Kane’s now shuttered, iconic Melrose Avenue burlesque club, Forty Deuce. In fact Cerisola, who moved to L.A. from Buenos Aires a decade ago to salsa dance, was the original Forty Deuce Girl, scoring the coveted job after working as a go-go dancer at Deep, Kane’s rowdier Hollywood spot, in 2001.
“I was young, I had no money,” Cerisola, now 31, said of her turn on the go-go circuit. She doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Today, long after Forty Deuce closed its doors in 2008, Cerisola has toured with Sting, worked with Bob Dylan’s producer and, for the last 2 ½ years, had her very own music and dance showcase called The Floor, a monthly jam session at the King King in Hollywood that attracts both aspiring dancers and curious celebrities looking for a fun Monday night activity.
But make no mistake, “It’s not a show,” Cerisola adamantly said when we caught up with her at Movement Studio LA, the sunny, Beverly Boulevard space where she teaches burlesque on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. “It’s tons of people in one room and they do whatever they want.”
Sounds like our kind of un-show. During our photo shoot we also learned the value of a good pair of glittery shoes, the proper way to learn a new language and that even Sultry South American’s who have the face of Carmen Miranda aren’t safe from experiencing the dreaded quarter life crisis.
Style Section L.A.: You’re originally from Buenos Aries. How long have you been in L.A.?
Carolina Cerisola: I’ve been here for 10 years. I’ve had some time. The first three years I didn’t speak any English.
Was that so hard?
It was. I was doing salsa back then, that’s what I started dancing when I was 16, so when I moved here I was doing salsa and I was traveling the world, so I didn’t really need to speak English. I was speaking Spanish. But then I stopped doing salsa and it was so hard. I had an American boyfriend, and that’s how I learned.
Ah, we’ve always wanted to learn French. And your method sounds more fun than Rosetta Stone. Anyway, why did you give up salsa?
The guy I was dancing with, we split up. And he was one of the best in the world. So when I stopped dancing with him I was like I don’t want to dance with anybody else. And life kind of took me to a totally different direction. It just happened to me. It’s nice to have a vision of what you want in the future, but anything can happen. I was young, too. I was 20. I had no money. So I started as a go-go dancer to make extra money. I started working at Deep [Ivan Kane’s now-defunct Hollywood club] and [Ivan Kane] ended up opening Forty Deuce the next year — that was 2002. So I ended up becoming the headliner at Forty Deuce. And I helped him to create the whole concept. So my life just kind of changed.
How so?
I went from the salsa world to having my little own show in Hollywood with live music. And that place was super exclusive. So I kind of created a name for myself back then. I loved what I was doing, first of all because of the live music. I have a passion for live music. And I was improvising, I didn’t have to dance with anybody else. I would just get on stage and be me and express myself. And that worked. That worked then and it still works. The whole energy between the music and the dancer is something I can’t explain, it’s amazing.
You were at Forty Deuce for their full six-year run. And that’s a long time for a Hollywood club to stay cool. What was the end like there?
I quit six months before they closed. And I’d had knee surgery so I was out for nine months. And when I went back I noticed that the club was changing, the crowd was changing. And I decided it was time. And I had this freak out like, what do I want to do with my life? The twenties are hard. I think the time between the twenties and the thirties are really hard, you’re trying to figure it all out. I came back from surgery and I was there for four months and I was like, I wanted to dance so bad and here I am not happy. I did it for too long. I was the only one working every single night and they rotate the other girls. It was four nights a week for six years doing the same show on the same stage. But that opened so many doors. I met so many amazing people because of that. People I grew up watching on TV or reading in the magazines, they were there to see my show.
The first time Mick Jagger came, I was waiting outside with my aunt, she came to visit me, and he didn’t even call to reserve. He just walked in. And my aunt, a crazy fan, she freaked out “Mick Jagger’s here! Mick Jagger’s here!” And I ran to get Ivan. He came a couple times after that. Sting used to come. And I ended up touring with him in 2006. It opened doors. Sting, Daniel Lanois, a famous Canadian producer who produced Bob Dylan…I got to mix myself with these people that I actually grew up having them as a heros. It was so far away from my little down in Argentina and I was like what’s happening? People are actually coming to see my show!
Was it sad when they closed?
I think I was ready to move on. I’m the kind of person who’s always looking for the next thing. I always want more. And I don’t mean that money-wise, I mean that I get bored. I want challenge. I can do a show for five years and it can be super successful and great, but I always want to improve. Or change it or be creative. I miss Forty Deuce, but that was one chapter in my life.
Where do you enjoy performing the most?
It’s funny, I’m going through one of those phases. I love what I do, I’m very lucky because I get to work with creative people. But my main thing is improvising. I have my regular gigs during the week – I perform Thursday through Saturday — like around three to four times a week, and then I teach Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I love my job, I get sick of it sometimes. And then I go on tour. And gigs like that — I was in Toronto in October with Daniel Lenoir doing Nuit Blanche, which is a festival on the streets in Toronto. And it was twelve hours. I danced ten times in twelve hours. My favorite gig is live music and myself just improvising.
So what exactly is The Floor?
I started The Floor two years ago [along with still-business partner Sascha Escandon], and it’s an improv night with musicians and dancers. At the beginning it was kind if hard because people didn’t get it. We tried to invite people and dancers would say, “Well you have to pay me to go dance.” And I would say, “but this is our playground!” For all of us to mix salsa with swing with break dancers with tap dancers, musicians, that’s how we started. Two months later, people got it right away. And now its been like two and a half years and we get 300 people on a Monday night.
It’s not a show. It’s tons of people in one room and they do whatever they want. And the energy keeps growing because of the live music. Everybody’s so energetic like a concert show but it’s not a show. It gets packed and you have people spinning on their head and then the tapper comes and the saxophone player is improvising with the tapper. Anything, whoever walks in the door, could happen. Sting’s been there. Craig Robinson, the actor, he’s been coming for the last year every single time. He gets on the mic. It’s very underground, we don’t actually do any publicity or anything. It’s amazing to see how many people we get just by word of mouth. It’s just such a mix of people. You get a lot of dancers and musicians and you get a lot of directors and producers who are just going to watch. I’m really happy with it, and I’m glad I found my way to be creative in a different way. It’s just me and my business partner, and it’s nice to see how little by little it’s growing.
And I also teach. I teach here [Movement Studio LA]. The studio is amazing. Elizabeth [Ordway, a Pilates instructor and owner of the space] used to be a student of mine. And had this idea of opening this boutique studio, very intimate. No guys in here. We do a 6-week series. I teach burlesque to non-dancers. And the last class we get to have wine, very intimate. I bring all my costumes and dress everybody.
Oh now we’re at the good stuff — the costumes. Tell us about your costumes.
A lot of feathers, a lot of glitter. These shoes [the gold, strappy glittery heels she wore on the day of our shoot] are actually my friend’s salsa shoes. I use these normally to go out, not to perform. To perform I use more support. They’re amazing. They look great and they’re so comfortable. It’s almost like being barefoot.
Where exactly do you wear those non-dancing dancing shoes when you’re, uh, not dancing?
You know, I just love the weather here. I love that I can drive to the beach. And then go hiking. I dunno, it’s hard. When I first got it was such a change of culture for me. It takes time to find your real and true friends here, and people that you connect with. But I love the weather and there are so many people from all over the world. It opens your mind to different cultures, different people. There’s so much talent here in so many different ways — not just dancing. And as much as I miss a “city,” I love that everything is spread out.
All right, Miss ADD — what’s next on the agenda?
I never want to stop dancing, ever. Just because it’s my passion and that’s who I am. That’s how I get everything out. But I’ll want to keep going with The Floor, we do a show version once a year, which is a lot of work. And kind of making The Floor the main thing for me. Just putting more energy into the production than dancing. Because you know the truth is, your years go by and your body…I work really hard. I was a gymnast, I haven’t stopped using my body since I was six. You can see that as a positive thing, but it can work against you, too. Dancing is not natural for your body.
Catch Carolina at The Floor on April 18, 9 p.m. at King King, 6555 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-960-9234. Tickets $12. thefloorproductions.com
Or take her next session of Burlesque by Carolina, which begins April 12, at Movement Studio LA, 7409 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-424-7924. $25 per class, package discount available. movementstudiola.com
