Last weekend, the UTM fashion club Style and Profyle held its 10th annual Fashion and Dance Show in the Blind Duck Pub. This year’s theme was burlesque. The event raised money for the Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre at Mount Sinai hospital.
As an ode to the musical and film Chicago, the show opened with the Catherine Zeta-Jones version of “All That Jazz”, featuring fun and flirty flapper dresses, cigarettes, shimmies, and jazz hands, the girls’ faces decorated with heavy eye makeup and red lips that showed exuberance and high energy.
To the soundtrack of Cher’s “Welcome to Burlesque”, the Style and Profyle executive team (Jessica Zurawicki, Emily Podgorzec, Ani Kilibarda, and Nerissa Inniss-Boston) welcomed everyone, telling them about the fun and excitement of the show they were about to experience.
The night featured a variety of musical numbers. Keeping in mind the burlesque theme, the Style and Profyle girls gave most of the night a soundtrack of the ballads and high-energy hits of Christina Aguilera. With sequinned bow ties, miniature top hats, fishnets, and short shorts, the girls strutted to a medley of Aguilera’s “Show Me How to Burlesque” and Rihanna’s “We Found Love” that pleased the crowd. The girls then moved and wiggled to Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man”, featuring pops of red, lace, and silk in a segment inspired by business-casual style—perfect for the spring weather on the horizon.
The Style and Profyle group also took the chance to inject some culture into the event with the Pussycat Dolls’ remix of “Buttons” for their belly-dancing medley. This was only the beginning, soon followed by beaded shirts in pink and orange that recalled the style of the best of Bollywood, and the sultry, hip-gyrating routine that evoked the Caribbean and the sounds of the islands.
With the help of the charismatic hosting duo, Adrian Beattie and Mark Snetzko, the show moved along rapidly, with the two men playing off each other and enacting a skit in between the various outfits and dance routines. The hosts always kept the audience entertained and involved as the models changed between sets.
Throughout the night, the team kept the crowd happy with an array of topical Top 40 hits and remixes enjoyed by the diverse audience.
A crew of eight women danced to Michael Bublé’s “Feeling Good”, clad in pink and red boas and blowing kisses to the audience, who whistled and hollered. It may have seemed sensual, but the routine definitely appealed more to the various female Bublé fans in the crowd.
The GG Squad also wowed the crowd with backflips, jumps, splits, and foot-stomping in an army-inspired dance routine featuring camouflage pants, black tanks, and attitude. The crew of male dancers moved to a dubstep-like remix of various Drake songs mixed with machine gun samples, chainsaws, and soldiers yelling, evoking a gruesome battle. The song’s bassline perfectly synced to the boys slapping the ground, and the routine remained one of the most playful, entertaining, and surprising moments of the night, and thrilled the crowd right before intermission.
The night stayed playful as the males of the show collaborated to present a delightfully humorous lip-sync performance of the Backstreet Boys’ “Quit Playing Games with My Heart”. Sporting suits from Tip Top Tailors, the boys excited the crowd with the campy ’90s moment. Their efforts to exude sexuality put a smile on the face of everyone in the audience.
Some of the most enjoyable moments of the night veered a bit from the burlesque concept. The aerobic performance of patterned stockings and pastel crop tops set to Gwen Stefani’s “Yummy” alluded to the ’80s workout tapes of Jane Fonda and Suzanne Somers, and the high-waisted, neon American Apparel-esque attire worn by the models in the disco set drew energy from the crowd as they jived to The Miracles’ “Love Machine” and Patrick Hernandez’s “Born to Be Alive”.
Even though some of the dancers missed their marks and some of the models briefly faltered, the high energy, fun, and general good vibes made the night a success, with the effort the group put into it becoming increasingly more evident every minute. The girls of Style and Profyle ended their show with Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Maya, and Pink’s “Lady Marmalade”, and each dancer, model, and coordinator for the show came out from behind the stage to give the audience a farewell. The night was a success, with a good cause at its centre to boot.
http://youtu.be/o9fbnigMnQQ
