Madonna by Lucy O'Brien

Author:Lucy O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

12

I ONLY SHOOT WHAT I NEED

“I DIVIDE MY CAREER INTO BEFORE AND AFTER THE SEX book,” said Madonna. “Up until then I was just being a creative person working and doing things that inspired me and I thought would inspire other people. After that I suddenly had a different point of view about life in general. Sex was my fantasy and I made money off of it. That is a no-no…It’s all part of a strong woman in control terrifying people.” Sex gave Madonna sleepless nights. Unnerved by her confusing and confrontational stance, the public stayed away in droves, and her popularity dipped to an all-time low. Compelled to find a way back into people’s hearts, she chose a medium that for her had always been successful—the live show. Running from September to December 1993, The Girlie Show wasn’t as audacious as Blond Ambition, but it showcased Madonna as a comedienne, an arch proponent of modern vaudeville and burlesque.

The choreographer Alex Magno was impressed with her ideas. “It was a very organic show, based on pure performance. It didn’t rely on special effects and gimmicks,” he told me. Many of the moves were choreographed by Magno, a Brazilian street dancer who came from a poor background in Rio de Janeiro. After making his way to the United States, he formed L.A.-based dance company Personna Dance Theater and, combining ballet with jazz, built up a considerable reputation within the dance community. It was shrewd of Madonna to call him for her Girlie Show. “She picked me out of fifty different choreographers. And she tends not to go for the most famous in their field, she wants something different. She wanted to personally meet me first—she might like your work but if you don’t connect with her on an energy-vibe level, you don’t work with her.”

Among the dancers, Carlton Wilborn was the only one from Blond Ambition to join her for the new tour. “The Girlie Show was my favorite, it was much more elegant, with a more sophisticated visual effect,” he says. There was a stringent rehearsal process beforehand. For “La Isla Bonita,” for instance, where the entire cast were dressed as sailors, there was some complicated choreography. “We knew Madonna had been rehearsing on her own. Alex then brought her in to do her spots. We didn’t realize that she’d be moving as much as we were. There was a lot of motion upstage and downstage, and she knew every single thing. She was unbelievable. I went, Oh shit, that’s why the woman is who she is. She’s got her shit down. Real organic emotion came through that number, with a Latin flair. Madonna doesn’t have to put herself through that, but the side of her that’s pure artist needs to stretch herself physically.” As with Blond Ambition, Carlton took on some leading roles, particularly for the dramatic segment “The Beast Within,” a theme that would reappear in Madonna’s later work. “That was about the ways we hold things within us that can kill us.

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