‘America’s Got Talent’ competitors iLuminate to turn lights down, light dance moves up at the First Interstate Center for the Arts
Walk into just about any dance studio, and you can sign up for classes in a variety of styles, from tap, ballroom and ballet to contemporary, jazz and hip-hop.
Learning choreography, how to properly care for your body, performance tips and tricks, it’s all part of the curriculum.
What’s rare though, is studios that teach dancers how to perform in the dark.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “If the audience can’t see the dancers, what’s the point of having a performance?”
Enter iLuminate, the creation of dancer and software designer Miral Kotb. Combining her love of dance with her love of technology, Kotb, in 2009, developed a dance troupe that performs while wearing illuminated bodysuits, making each iLuminate performance a feat of dance, light and technology.
The troupe competed on “America’s Got Talent” in 2011 and has also appeared on “Dancing with the Stars,” “The X-Factor” and “Good Morning America.” iLuminate has also performed during the American Music Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards and the BET Awards.
Dancer Alicia Slouffman joined iLuminate in 2023 and will perform with the group when they stop by the First Interstate Center for the Arts on Thursday, Nov. 6.
Slouffman started dancing at the age of 2 and thought she would hang up her dancing shoes after graduating from college. But while in college, she traveled to Las Vegas to see her sister perform with iLuminate.
It is corny, but true, to say that seeing that performance was a light bulb moment for Slouffman.
“I watched the show and saw how much fun she was having and saw how high energy the performance was,” she said. “I was wanting to be up there more than I was in the audience. That was like ‘I’m definitely not going to be done and want to give it a go as well.’ ”
Slouffman was impressed that the show featured such a wide variety of dance styles, including contemporary, hip-hop and jazz. There aren’t a lot of shows or opportunities, she said, for a performer to dance all those styles in one place.
Slouffman also found all the moving parts iLuminate requires, such as dancing in the dark and wearing a light suit, appealing and was excited for the challenge.
iLuminate’s show features dancers traveling through a nightclub, where each room features a different style of music and a different style of dance. On this tour, Slouffman will perform in scenes featuring jazz and hip-hop choreography, as well as a section set to “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
iLuminate dancers learn the show choreography first without the light suits. Once those are added later in the rehearsal process, Slouffman said it can feel like they are learning the choreography all over again with a new body.
Her center of gravity felt different during her first few rehearsals with the light suit, especially with moves during which she was on one leg or while turning. The lights coming from her body also messed with her eyes a little.
“I still remember when I was doing the show for the first time, I have a certain way that I will dance out of the suit and then when I saw videos of myself doing it in the suit, I was not reading the way that I thought it was,” she said. “You make adjustments to make the suit read a little bit better to the audience.”
It only took a couple of shows for Slouffman to get used to the added elements, but if she takes a few shows off, returning to the stage feels just like it did in her early days with iLuminate.
To help the dancers keep their spacing, the crew places pieces of glowtape on the floor, though Slouffman said the traffic patterns on stage are muscle memory at this point, so bumping into another dancer is a rare occurrence.
Taking one thing off their plates, iLuminate dancers do not control the lights on their suits. Those are instead programmed to the music and controlled by a crew member who simply has to press a button to activate each track.
As audience members file in, the venue lights will be up as per usual. Once the dancers are ready, the lights go down, and they step on stage in their light suits. Slouffman said she never tires of hearing the gasps from audience members when they see the suits for the first time. Children especially, she said, are excited, often jumping up and down and singing along to the songs.
She recommends an iLuminate show for people of all ages though, even those who have no background in dance. There is a style of dance and music for everyone, and the show is family friendly.
“The combination of all the different elements is very exciting, like a whirlwind, roller coaster effect,” she said. “There’s a lot of exciting elements in there that at least one thing in the show would resonate with somebody. It’s super exciting, and I would recommend it for literally anybody.”