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March 29, 2024

Entertainment:

Exposed: A Caesars’ Shadow dancer steps into the light and talks to us

Shadow Bar

Christopher DeVargas

A “Shadow Dancer” is seen behind a screen at The Shadow Bar inside Caesars Palace, Thursday April 12, 2012.

Shadow Bar

Emma Hughes, dancer at Shadow Bar inside Caesars Palace, poses for a photo, Thursday April 12, 2012. Launch slideshow »

Watch Emma dance

Emma Hughes is a classically trained dancer who has glided across stages in Europe and Las Vegas. But when she and her fellow dancers perform at the Shadow Bar at Caesars Palace, rarely do people ask about their background and experience.

"People want to know if we're naked," Hughes said.

The silhouettes of the dancers who give the bar its name often stop Caesars visitors in their tracks. The sensual movements to rhythms pulsing through the sound system draw some people into the lounge, curious about whether what they're watching is real.

It is. Behind two screens at the rear of the bar are platforms where the dancers perform. Lights and mirrors are arranged on the platforms in a way that casts the dancers' shadows on the screens.

Hughes doesn't want to answer the obvious question. She's creating a fantasy and a sexy illusion. Too many details could spoil the show.

"We're definitely wearing a little something, but not much," she said.

Whatever she's wearing — or not — it doesn't cast any lines on her shadow.

"Often, people don't think we're even real," she said with a beaming smile.

Hughes is proof the dancers are not video images projected on a screen.

Her graceful moves are the product of years of performing. She earned a degree from the London College of Dance. She's danced at the venerable Moulin Rouge in Paris, across oceans on cruise ships and later in Las Vegas with the Latin-infused "Beats of Passion" show at the Venetian. She's spent the past 10 years dancing with Caesars at the Colosseum, in the Pussycat Dolls Casino and, always, at Shadow.

Hughes said she enjoyed the freedom offered by her anonymity.

"There's a lot more classical moves I can do that I can never do in a nightclub or any other kind of bar," she said. "We can be more expressive."

Dancing in the shadows gives more comfort in wearing less. Hughes hasn't danced topless facing the footlights since Moulin Rouge.

"I'm not comfortable being topless onstage," Hughes said. "But this is different. It's a very nice, safe environment. It's sensual, but it's Caesars Palace. They're not going to have anything too risqué or too risky."

Shadow dancers perform for 30 minutes at a time, four hours on weeknights and six hours on weekends. They get quite a workout, dancing constantly for the half-hour, then taking 30 minutes off as two other dancers take the stage. Four dancers work each night.

"We start off the night with slow sensual music, and as the bar picks up, it gets more lively and you'll hear more hip-hop," Hughes said. "We're all trained in different kinds of dance, so we can really move to what the DJ plays, and it varies each night."

There's even a trick to casting the shadows. The dancers do their work in front of a mirror tilted at a slight angle.

"The lights are actually in front of them and bouncing off the mirror," said Richard Carll, production director for Caesars.

Between sets, Hughes and the other dancers will slip into skimpy outfits, emerge from the shadows and mingle with customers out front.

"People on holiday will come back each year," she said. "I've met people returning who took pictures with me when they were here last year. We do get our regulars."

They also get requests.

One man sent his cowboy boots and hat backstage and asked if one of the women could wear them during her dance.

"He wanted her to put them on in the screen," Hughes said. "He got quite the kick out of her putting his cowboy boots and hat on and dancing. We get some unusual requests."

After decades of performing around the world, Hughes said she wouldn't be able to dance forever, even in the shadows. She's developing a business as a personal health, nutrition and fitness trainer. She hopes that will become her new career after she can't dance anymore, helping others get the figure they see in her shadow dancing.

Meanwhile, she'll keep dancing at Caesars.

"This has become like a family to me," Hughes said. "The girls, the bartenders, the DJ. Every night is different, and it's just a wonderful atmosphere. I love dancing, and this is what we do."

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