‘Women find me after the show – but I keep it professional' 🤫 One dancer reveals the secrets behind the live show, from dancing for 90-year-olds to what happens when audience members get a little too hands-on...
With a stage full of gyrating men, Ginuwine’s “Pony” on full volume and too many oiled-up abs to count, you could be forgiven for thinkingmight be a lewd performance of overtly sexual masculinity – but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The popularity of Magic Mike is not something anyone could have predicted. The surprise summer smash first hit cinema screens in 2012. StarringMatthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum, it grossed £32.2m in its opening weekend. The 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL, pulled in £23.7m – and a whopping 96 per cent of the ticket-buying audience was made up of women.
“We’re all professional dancers, and part of the performance is making it more of a chase rather than an all-out strip show. I think that’s why people respond to it so positively. We’re up there on stage like, ‘OK, I’m going to show you what I’ve got,’ but it’s not threatening and we’re not taking ourselves too seriously. I’ve had my jeans rip on stage mid-dance, but it’s not a big deal.
Despite the show’s popularity with women – and it must be stated, no penises are ever on show during the performance – Ekperigin says it is not always screaming thirtysomethings on hen parties – the audience is a surprising mix of ages and genders.