With a lust for the flesh, and a need for exploring our darkest, most intimate hungers, it’s no wonder we are fascinated by the creatures of the night. Myths related to the dead, who rise to drink blood of the living, come from cultures all around the world. The vampire has become a popular fixture of theater, movies and literature. Bram Stoker’s Dracula changed the way we think about vampires by making him a sexual character that had power, intelligence, and wealth. The Hunger, starring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, made us visualize the idea of retaining youth and beauty forever. Then Anne Rice came along with the Vampire Chronicles, a seductive and passionate series of books that made us yearn to be immortal and overflowing with unyielding charisma and sex appeal. Louis and Lestat took us on a journey that hooked many of us into the romantic idea of vampirism. Almost thirty years later, what started from a dream became a vampire sensation from author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, a series of four books with a brand new perspective on the amorous love of a vampire. Drawing in a whole new generation of vampire fans that identify with Bella, the mortal who falls in love with the exquisitely beautiful vampire, Edward, Twilight signifies yet another manifestation of eroticism through Edward’s desire for Bella’s blood, (which happens to be the best-smelling blood he has ever experienced). The vampires are young and strikingly attractive, and Meyer takes liberty to change Edward into a modern day brooding James Dean. Women love to be seduced by the eternal bad boy and as Edward says: “Everything about me draws you in, my looks, my voice, my smell, my very presence.” This is what makes us want to delve further into the realm of darkness, the sometimes violent, blatant sex that can be forbidden, yet alluring.

Tim Molyneux has taken the vampire theme to yet another level, by creating and producing a musical version of the age-old myths and superstitions of vampirism with Bite. On Friday the 13th, 2004, the show Bite opened at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino in Vegas. It just celebrated playing five years on the Vegas Strip. Recently I ventured into the sensual world of Bite. The showroom went dim and six shrouded females entered from somewhere behind us and glided up to a coffin at the lower stage right. They then continued up onto the stage, dropped their shrouds, exposing scantily clad bodies, and started writhing and dancing to Guns N’ Roses classic, Welcome To The Jungle. The coffin opens and “Lord Vampire” emerges to check out his bevy of “Erotic Rock Angel Vampires”. His topcoat is cut to flare open and show off his stomach and abs that are granite hard. He exudes not only power and sexual appeal, but also the authority of a Lord who has lived many centuries. He dominates the stage with his presence and charisma. Blue contact lenses that almost glow against his black skin give an unearthly eerie effect that draws you in. He has a superior intellect, and has a talent for everything including martial arts, romance, and especially music, as he composes and plays the piano. The “Erotic Rock Angels” perform for him, each one of the six performing her own personal dance. The coven of vampires includes: “Cat”, “Tush”, “Ice”, “Fire”, “Pain” and “Shimmy”. One more erotic than the other, they are all superior dancers and strive to display their own personalities. But alas, as hard as they try to please and pleasure “Lord Vampire”, he has an unfulfilled passionate longing for his lost love of years past and sends the coven into the audience to possibly find his one true love, his “Queen of the Night.” Finding several volunteers, they are brought up on stage. When a dress is ripped off one of the girls and two people who are together as a couple are bitten and consequently gain incredible powers, you soon realize they are actors and part of the show. The couple, known as “Rocket Man” and “Rocket Wife”, perform an incredibly sexy S&M aerial routine. “Rocket Man”, played by Cees (pronounced “case”), is adorned with leather straps around his body and he is very strong. Cees and his wife Kathy are married in real life, and they work wonderfully in sync. It’s impossible to take your eyes off them as they do their aerial act, turning and contorting while hanging from a chain.

The girl from the audience that had her dress ripped off appeals to Lord Vampire. The Erotic Rock Angels dance for the Lord and his new girl with choreography that includes many different styles of dancing. It’s very evident they’ve all had years of professional training and not only are they incredibly limber, they move in a very sexual way that is a cross between an exotic stripper and a Cirque athletic dancer, making them very seductive vamps.

Classic rock tunes of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are utilized as the soundtrack of Bite throughout the show, giving a sense of excitement and telling the theatrical story through the lyrics. Favorites like Van Morrison’s Moondance, Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild, Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction and Sympathy for the Devil plus fifty-five other classic rock tunes throb and rock while the stage is alive with motion.

During a very dramatic scene, a grand piano is rolled onstage and the Lord Vampire proceeds to seduce the Erotic Rock Angels by brilliantly playing something reminiscent of Chopin. As they hear the music, awaken and become entranced, the cover of the piano opens and all six Angels seductively exit from inside the piano and surprisingly, do a beautiful dance of ballet. As the song ends, they all crawl back inside the piano, as a vampire might close off the day’s sunrise with the closing of her coffin. During the show, the Angels appear again, this time wearing angel wings. Some of the wings are black and some are white, signifying that vampires, much like us humans, have both good and bad within their lives. While the song Sail Away is sung live by the Rockstar Vampire, Lord Vampire tries to seduce his new lady into the realm of darkness with all the alluring traits that a vampire possesses. He dances with his new muse, thinking she will become his one true love. After he leaves the stage, the Rock Angels tear her white dress off and ravish her and she becomes very sexually excited and is ready to accept a sexual encounter with Rocket Man. Lord Vampire sees this and there is a martial arts fight between the two men. After winning the fight, Lord Vampire reigns supreme, crowning the lady his “Queen of the Night”.

StripLV heard the inside scoop from “Pain” Vamp and Dance Captain, Kim Langstaff, in an interview that sneaks us behind the curtain of Bite. This show is not full of just your simple, erotic choreography. It is alluring, strenuous, high-energy and seductive—all at the same time. Kim explains some of the challenges it can pose for the dancers, while sharing with us the many fun and games that this small “family” of dancers play together.

SLV: Describe what your responsibilities are as Dance Captain.
KIM: It’s my responsibility to teach the choreography to any new girl coming into the show. If we have a situation where someone gets injured, I make sure the person stepping in has the proper blocking and choreography and let them know what they’re going to do that night. After everybody knows their parts in the show, I have to keep the integrity, so I watch videos of the show, take notes, make sure that everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and keep the show the way the original choreographer and the producer had seen it the first time around.
SLV: So occasionally there are injuries?
KIM: Yes. The show is very demanding on your body and anything can happen no matter how much you stretch. You have to be in the right frame of mind to do the show; you have to be completely focused because of how demanding the show is. We have had injuries.
SLV: Would it be twisted ankles or pulled muscles?
KIM: We have this thing called “bite-neck” because of all the “hairography” we do, (all the neck rolls that we do). We get these little pinched nerves in our neck or in our back. That’s the most common one. Then, for example, the other day I got my foot stepped on, and since then I’ve rolled my ankle because my foot hurts, and then I’ll twist my knee because I rolled by ankle. Injuries can become cumulative.
SLV: How many times a week do you practice?
KIM: Recently we had three new girls start the show, so right now I’m focusing on them. They’re having rehearsals everyday or every other day. We have full cast rehearsals every Sunday before the show and from time to time on Tuesdays.
SLV: With that schedule, do the dancers have to go to the gym to also workout?
KIM: Everyone except myself has a second job doing something else. Some girls do a magic show; one of our girls is a dance teacher so that is a workout in itself. Since I do gymnastics in the show, I go to a gymnasium every now and then to keep up and make sure I can do the flips every night. We all workout outside of the show, but it’s in our different jobs. We need our rest too, because it’s a late show.
SLV: Because you are so scantily clad, do most of the girls get Brazilian waxing?
KIM: Actually no. I thought I’d ask around when I came into the show because we don’t wear very much, however we do maintain ourselves down there. Because of all the fishnets we wear and the movements we have to make, it can become a little bit of an aggravation to our skin, so we all prefer not to.
SLV: Do you ever get turned on during the show with so much body contact?
KIM: Right now there are three new girls in the cast, so when we get comfortable with each other it’s actually fun to mess with each other. In the past there was one lesbian in the show and it was just comic relief for the girls. The cast is so small and everyone gets so close that when we do something that some audience members might think is crossing the line, it’s just kind of funny to us. Right now we’re letting the new girls slowly but surely get comfortable with us because they’ve only been here two weeks. It’s more like seeing how much we can cross the line with each other, as opposed to seeing if we can turn each other on. But I have to say, from time to time, one of us will say backstage “Ooh, wow! I kind of liked what you did there!” It’s because we’re such a small cast that we’re able to do that. It’s kind of a game and it’s fun.
SLV: If there are arguments or attractions between the girls, what then?
KIM: When we arrive an hour before showtime, we leave our personal lives at the door. Our company manager always reminds us to be professional and courteous to each other and says that this is a Las Vegas show and he’ll expect nothing less.
SLV: Let’s talk about the men in the show. Cees is married to his aerial partner, Cathy. Is Russell, the Lord Vampire, married or single?
KIM: He’s married and has a beautiful wife. I’ve never been in a show or a cruise ship show where not only is everybody straight, but also married. It actually makes it very comfortable on stage. They have choreographed things that they have to do with us and being that they’re married somehow makes it more comfortable.
SLV: I imagine you have a lot of guys waiting for you after the show.
KIM: During our picture line after the show we have security right there and Chris, our theater manager, is always there, in case guys come up and try to hit on us. Basically, they say: “The girls are still working right now,” and they’re the buffer for that. They also tell them that if one of the girls approaches them, then you can speak with them. Most of the comments from the guys that I talk to are that they expected a totally different thing from a topless show and that they are more appreciative of the performance than “Wow, I saw these girls topless.”
SLV: It’s definitely not just about being topless. It’s a show full of top-notch talent.
KIM: I had my mother and my sister watch from one of the front booths and I was so nervous because I thought, ‘Oh no, my mother is going to see me topless.’ Afterwards I was anxious to hear what she was going to say and her comment was: “All of my money went to something. You’re really dancing your heart out up there.” That was the best praise I could have ever gotten. She said: “Yeah, you’re in a topless show, but you’re dancing your butts off out there. Now I know why you’re so tired at night when you call me.”
SLV: Exhausted… but you must feel good, don’t you?
KIM: Yeah, you feel really accomplished after a show. We each have solos. Not many shows in town let you be part of the show and also a featured dancer. In our solos, we try to show the audience what each of us can do, as opposed to everyone else in the show. We pull everything out in our solos.
SLV: It was interesting and refreshing to notice that most of the girls had natural breasts.
KIM: Yes, this whole cast does. I think it just happened, because in previous casts, there have been a couple of girls that have had augmentations. I have a lot of friends here in Vegas that don’t have natural chests, but they won’t go topless. I’m very surprised at that.

Bite is the brainchild of Tim Molyneux: writer, artistic director, music arranger and producer of the show. Inspired by Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, he decided to create a stage production. He wanted to include elements that were exciting to the senses—flying, music, hardcore dancing, and cool, sexy costumes. He wanted the dancing to be different and spectacular and have aerial performances that were suggestive. Using sixty classic rock tunes, he picked certain verses from each one, so they would tell the story of Lord Vampire’s search for his “Queen of the Night”. The original show wasn’t supposed to be topless, but the Stratosphere had an opening for a topless show, so he decided that he would make Bite topless. When casting the show, he went over the storyline with the chosen cast members and told them to watch vampire movies and read about vampires and their ways, so it would help them to create their character. Molyneux fronted all the money for the show and was able to take it from concept to the stage in just thirty days. Living in both Nashville and Vegas, he has worked with stars like Dolly Parton, Elton John, Celine Dion and Michael Jackson.

Shows 10:30 p.m. nightly, dark Thursdays. Stratosphere, Las Vegas

Vampire Trivia

Are you AT RISK of becoming a VAMPIRE?

Folklore has it that you just might become a vampire if:

X You commit suicide
X You are the 7th son
X You died before baptism
X You were born with teeth
X You were once a werewolf
X You were killed by a vampire
X You are victim to any unavenged deaths
X You die without being given your last rights
X You ate the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf
X An unburied body is exposed to moonlight
X A nun stepped over an unburied body
X A cat jumps on a corpse SLV

Issue 47 featuring: Scar, Nevaeh & the Dirty Sirens (former Fuel Girls)