Time was, throwing your underwear onto the stage was reserved for the likes of Tom Jones or more recently, One Direction.
With the changing face of sexy, though, it appears that time-honoured tradition is moving from the concert halls into the dance halls, and it takes only a brief glimpse of what the Bad Boys of Dance do onstage to understand why. Though their demographic may be skewed to the young and female, it would be easy to imagine that more than a few jockstraps and boxers have landed at the feet of these six young hunks.
Among those hunks is Vancouver dancer Alexei Geronimo, who returns to his hometown for the first time with dance phenom Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys. The show, which features a fusion of ballet with hip hop, tap, ballroom and some amazing acrobatics set to the music of Queen, Michael Jackson, the Black Eyed Peas and even Coldplay, makes ballet more fun and accessible, Geronimo says.
“People get bored with the classical music in a traditional ballet sometimes, and the music combined with these different types of dance helps to make it more enjoyable to a wider audience,” he says.
Choreographer Adrienne Canterna agrees, working not only to highlight the versatility and technical prowess of the dancers, but to ensure the show remains accessible to an audience that might not otherwise like a ballet recital.
The company may owe part of its success to its gay following. Citing a testosterone-driven energy that more conventional dance companies don’t often embrace, both Geronimo and Canterna welcome the growing number of gay men attending their shows. No doubt the sexually charged finale that sees these Bad Boys strip down and dance to “I’m Too Sexy” has something to do with it.
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