Dita Von Teese "Undresses To Thrill" In Projections

My company, Michael Schwandt, Inc., recently produced and directed Dita Von Teese’s Las Vegas Residency dubbed Dita Las Vegas, which at its inception was an effort in conjunction with Live Nation and Caesars in 2023. The show originally inhabited the iconic Jubilee Theatre at the Horseshoe (formerly Ballys) where we were given access to the massive Jubilee stage & sets, a groundbreaking elevator system for it’s time, floating platforms that descend from the ceiling, and access to the original Bob Mackie & Pete Menefee Jubilee costumes. The show relocated to Voltaire at the Venetian in 2024 and was renamed Dita Von Teese: The Queen of Burlesque, and one of the show-stopping moments continues to be the video mapping body projection costume change and striptease number dubbed, “Undressed to Thrill,” that I created with our video content partners at Monks and, of course, Dita herself.

From the onset, I set out to find subtle ways to infuse technology into the show while trying to remain true to Dita’s vintage aesthetic and the parallel story we were telling between Burlesque and the Vegas Showgirl. This was a constant dialogue back and forth between Dita and myself, as she wanted to remain as pure to the past as possible but at the same time, we needed to offer contemporary, tech-driven aspects to appeal to modern day audiences. Masking that technology infusion was the key to some of the show’s most successful visual moments which often included how to introduce video content (an aspect Dita has never incorporated into her live touring shows previously and had reservations about having in this show) in a way that didn’t feel too off-brand for Dita.
 
The body projection striptease number is quite possibly one of my favorite moments in the entire show, it’s the smallest performance in terms of scale as it’s quite literally just Dita on a black chaise, wearing nothing but Swarovski crystal pasties, a Swarovski G-string, and Christian Louboutins. There are no dancers, no elaborate costumes, a single pin spotlight on her face, and all of the magic is purely technical as a series of painstakingly designed costumes appear & disappear through meticulous animation. It takes the audience a moment to understand what is happening, but once they do there’s an audible collective response and appreciation for the magic that’s happening.
 
Dita Crystals
 
In "Undressed to Thrill," Dita appears lounging on a black chaise with her back to the audience, sparkly particles from her name projected on the curtains above fall down and collect on her back, these glittering crystals take over to form a red dress, one that she previously wore on a red carpet. The red dress begins to slowly unzip before disintegrating into glitter and reforming again as slowing rotating lace patterns from her lingerie line. That lace again morphs into light particles that outline and animate to form the iconic corset and lingerie that she wore on the cover of Playboy magazine which is quite possibly one of the most complex sequences to map to her body in terms of symmetry and angles. This look transcends to a series of multicolored leopard prints, a nod to Dita’s affinity for cats before transforming into a glittering two-piece crystal showgirl costume with immaculate detail of dangling crystals which is, of course, an homage to the Las Vegas showgirl. The sequence transforms into a suite of cards which is a wink to Vegas casinos before transforming into feather plumes that grow to overtake her back before finally ending with an aurora night sky canvas over her entire body.
 
Dita Red Dress
 
All of this was designed and executed in tandem with myself and the amazing animation and technical team at Monks, particularly Charis Mound as lead producer, Branko Jass as both creative and animation lead as well as executive producer, and Matt Christensen on the technical execution side. We utilized a Barco W20 Flex projector type with an added Barco R9862040 TLD+ lens. The original hope was to utilize some sort of motion tracking technology for the mapping to track with Dita as she moved and repositioned around the chaise to ensure consistency, but given the exposed state of her body in that she is 99% naked on stage in tandem with budget constraints, this simply was not possible. This meant that the composition of the video projection and animation had to be as precise as possible, particularly given that each costume/animation occurs with her body in a completely different and unique position, pose or placement on stage.  In the end, the decision was made to run the show's video content  on QLab5 software primary & backup on a Mac Studios with M2 Ultra processors for the original show at the Jubilee Theatre (the new show at Voltaire uses a Barco UDX 4K40 FLEX with a Barco R9862030 TLD+ lens while being sent from Resolume Arena with ArtNet from the grandMA3 controlling both Resolume and the projector presets for shutter, zoom, and lens position).
 
Dita Corset
 
This is where the genius of Dita Von Teese makes this moment happen, she knows her body so well and how to strike a consistent pose with all the right angles that we had to approach this in a very old school way. We first worked with our choreography team and Dita to determine what the positions and sequence should be, knowing that she would have to be able to replicate these exact same poses night after night without any variations. Once this was done the music was selected, I opted for her musical collaboration with the DJ group Monarchy in a recreation of the song "Girls and Boys" with Dita’s voice as the lead vocals. From there we devised a plan with Matt Christiansen to film Dita in a nude bodysuit against a black backdrop to create a high-contrast alpha channel template for the animation team to animate over as a guide. The animation was created, refined and edited with this original video through the development period. Next came a method for ensuring that Dita would hit her mark the same each and every night so we used braille reading as our inspiration and proceed to sew black rhinestones into the chaise. If you were to run your fingers across this sofa it would be as if you were reading braille as there are markers for nearly every part of her body that comes into contact with the sofa, her hands, wrists, elbows, hips, knees, ankles and back all have indicators to ensure her body is properly aligned for the projection to map perfectly to her form. We had hoped for a more sophisticated fool-proof approach but in the end, Dita’s penchant for tactile things is what proved to be the most consistent.
If you were to run your fingers across this sofa it would be as if you were reading braille as there are markers for nearly every part of her body that comes into contact with the sofa
If you were to run your fingers across this sofa it would be as if you were reading braille as there are markers for nearly every part of her body that comes into contact with the sofa. (Dita Von Teese)
 
Once all the elements were in place we were just over one week away from opening the show but had still not yet ever technically validated or rehearsed this performance and what happened the first day we attempted to put it on stage was pure magic. Short of some minor tweaks and adjustments to position, video intensity, lens throw and content nudging - it was clear that our collective knowledge and meticulous planning was ultimately going to work like a charm. We knew instantly we had created something quite special for this particular show, something that would be talked about and written about in the press, something that paid homage to Dita’s legacy but also her own wink and nod to not only the Las Vegas showgirl but Vegas itself. At the end of the day this performance moment is something unmistakably Dita Von Teese that only she could pull off. Dita had performed a similar application of this act at the Crazy Horse in Paris dubbed "Undressed to Kill," which at the time was the first of its kind to this approach in collaboration with Ali Mahdavi. It was wonderful to re-imagine this performance in our own way for a new generation, a new audience and in our own twist for the Vegas landscape.
 
One cannot walk the Vegas strip or visit the Venetian without seeing video and images of Dita from this performance “Undressed To Thrill” as it has become the marquee signature visual which is a wonderful testament to what was created!"