A bit contemporary dance, a bit Vegas, a bit hip-hop, a whole lot of attitude and a dash of silliness. You can’t really pin down these Pin-Down Girls, but know this: SOhO loves them and is having the “variety dance troupe” back tonight for another evening of sexy dance routines.
“People like to jump to the conclusion that we’re a burlesque company,” says Devin Fulton, executive artistic director and one of the eight Girls. “And I like to say we’re not. At all.”
According to Fulton, her crew has more skill that any pole-dancer (“We’re as hot, but we bust our (butts) onstage. We sweat.”) and more interesting than any retro-burlesque show. “There’s only so long you can watch girls prancing around in fishnet tights with red lipstick and curls before it gets very mundane,” she says.
So what is an hour with the Pin-Down Girls like? Fulton says there are 10 costume changes in 50 minutes. No blackouts between acts, either, just a constant mix. Each dancer gets a solo or a featured moment. They earn laughs as well as whistles.
It all started in 2008 when Fulton, by then a veteran of State Street Ballet and L.A. Contemporary Dance, received a call from an event coordinator for the Playboy Mansion. Hugh Hefner needed a female dance group for a ’70s party, a “hot group of girls who could bust some sweet disco moves,” according to the request. Did Fulton have one to audition? Sure, she said.
She didn’t. But after a quick round of calls and favor-pulling, she did. From former Laker Girls to dancers just off the Gwen Stefani tour, they all met 45 minutes before the audition, shook hands, practiced a six-minute disco medley and some vamp formations and landed the job.
Since then, the Pin-Down Girls have been working as Ventura and Santa Barbara County’s premiere sexy dance troupe in cities that didn’t have one, but just north of a metropolitan area that has too many. That keeps the Pin-Down Girls local and proud.
Annie Marostica also lives in Ventura but has been a part of Santa Barbara’s Hip Brazil and a member of L.A. Contemporary Dance. The other Girls hail from Los Angeles.
“We’re homebodies,” says Marostica of Fulton and herself. “We’d like to establish more of an art scene here and to keep performing locally.”
Their dreams include a Pin-Down Girls lounge space. In the meantime, SOhO offers the seats.
For those who may think this is titillation for a male audience, watch the videos on thepindowngirls.com. The loudest catcalls from the crowd are female.
“We take pride in the fact that women love us, too,” says Marostica. “A lot of jealousy can be involved in that, but that has never happened at our shows. The women are more like, ‘Babe, we’re going to the show.’ It’s not that men have a hard time coming, but it’s the women who bring them.”
ONSTAGE
PIN-DOWN GIRLS
When: 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday
Where: SOhO Restaurant and Music Club, 1221 State St. (upstairs)
Cost: $20
Information: sohosb.com or (805) 962-7776