Kylie's Showgirl Homecoming: Greatest Hits Tour opens in Sydney on Saturday 11th November 2006. Plans for the most anticipated concert event of the year have been underway for some time with rehearsals for the tour started back in August.
The original idea was for Kylie to complete the postponed Showgirl (Greatest Hits) Tour by bringing the show back to Australia this summer. Instead, Kylie has pulled out all the stops and used the 2005 concert as the basis for a completely revamped show entitled Showgirl Homecoming.
Although remaining true to the original greatest hits theme, there'll be new songs in the setlist, new costumes, new choreography, new staging, new lighting...the list is endless!
Kylie has been reworking, rehearsing and overseeing each element of the new show to ensure this tour will be of spectacular proportions. The Showgirl Homecoming: Greatest Hits Tour will capture Kylie's excitement and desire for her, and her audience, to have a truly unique concert experience.
"Every tour has its own feeling and its own atmosphere. Each tour is a moment in time. Showgirl Homecoming will be about the people and the emotions on the night - it's that element which will be the most unpredictable and the most beautiful." - Kylie Minogue
The revamped production will feature:
- Kylie has engaged not one, but three of the most innovative choreographers in the world. Kylie has brought together Michael Rooney, Rafael Bonachela and Akram Khan, three diverse and internationally renowned choreographers from the worlds of contemporary dance, Kathak and pop music. Michael Rooney is the leading American choreographer responsible for Fatboy Slim's famous dance videos, as well as the classic choreography for Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head (recently voted best pop video ever in Smash Hits UK TV poll). Contemporary choreographer Rafael Bonachela, who has a longstanding association with Kylie, and notably worked on her 2002 Fever tour, has also come on board. Equally impressive is her engagement of the sought-after British-Bangladeshi Akram Khan, for a special new section of the show.
'The dancer/choreographer Akram Khan, sets out to blur boundaries. Mr. Khan gives a 500-year-old Indian dance tradition a contemporary flair. But if anyone could merge such drastically different elements, it's Mr. Khan, who is one of the few dance-fusion artists to have achieved vocal acclaim. The 30-year-old British-Bangladeshi artist was singled out as "the greatest new hope in the dance world" by the Observer and has been hailed by critics as one of the most exciting fusion choreographers in the world.' The Asian Wall Street Journal, 11 June 2004
- The world's leading designers are working on new, show-stopping costumes, including:
Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel Couture
John Galliano whose previous work includes Kylie's trademark Showgirl corset and feathers
Dolce & Gabbana building on the celebrated collaboration that resulted in 2002's Fever tour
London avant garde fashion maverick Gareth Pugh; the enfant terrible of the London fashion scene
Perth born young designer Richard Niccoll
Matthew Williamson for Emilio Pucci. This will be the first time that Pucci have lent their iconic and precious prints to be used on such a scale, which will help create Kylie's breathtaking finale
- The famed Lido of Paris are loaning Kylie's thirteen dancers spectacular headdresses and classic feather costumes, never before seen outside the Lido in France!
- Kylie is travelling with a video department who are responsible for a visual extravaganza comprising four separate video displays and an unprecedented $10 million of video hardware. Hollywood's Oscar-nominated Cinematographer John Matheson (Gladiator and Phantom of the Opera amongst others) has filmed this never-before-seen footage.
- The $2.5 million stage, which is already in Australia, is being rebuilt to accommodate the new elements in the show.
- Rehearsals will continue in London until the end of October when the entire production, including equipment, wardrobe, performers and crew of over 100 personnel, will be transported to Sydney.
Kylie's highly anticipated Showgirl Homecoming Tour kicks off in Sydney on November 11.
