• Angelique Cassimatis in the Rocky Horror Show. Photo: Brian Geach.
    Angelique Cassimatis in the Rocky Horror Show. Photo: Brian Geach.
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DON'T DREAM IT, BE IT. That's the final message of The Rocky Horror Show, and that's the principle by which Angelique Cassimatis appears to be living her life. A self-described “pocket-rocket”, this pint-sized triple threat performer has just landed the role of Columbia in the Melbourne season of the show.

Cassimatis wasn't born when The Rocky Horror Show premiered in London in 1973. A spoof on B-Grade horror and science fiction shows, with a Transylvanian drag queen as its star, the scandalously camp show spawned a cult following, particularly in the wake of the film version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which opened in 1975 with Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon in the cast. The role of the groupie Columbia – “the most human character in the cast” – involves a lot of tap dancing and some “crazy, head-flicking” choreography, says Cassimatis, with evident delight.

Cassimatis has been dancing ever since she could stand upright. She “was chucked into dance class” by her mother. At first she hated the classes but her mother wouldn’t let her give them up. Her mother loved dance, but she was the daughter of Greek migrants, and was not allowed to pursue it as a career. “Her father was a very good ballroom dancer, but he never let Mum dance with the boys or pursue it professionally.” She never lost her love of the artform, however, and she lived it vicariously through her daughter. She even bought the studio Angelique attended (Dance Work in Brisbane) when it was put up for sale! (She still owns it now.) In her own way, Angelique’s mother is another example of someone who wasn't just prepared to “dream it”.

Angelique's studies covered all styles of dance as well as singing and eventually took her to the Australian Dance Performance Institute in Brisbane, where she completed a Diploma in Musical Theatre. Along the way she won a role in the Brisbane season of Annie in 2000 when she was “12 or thirteen”. It was to be her first taste of music theatre, and it proved unforgettable.
“I was fortunate enough to be in the final show and the energy that came from the audience . . . !” she recalls. “You know those thrill seekers who like to jump out of planes? That night was my equivalent experience. After that, just doing dance [alone] was never the same."

But it was a stint as a dancer on a cruise ship that cemented her decision to aim for the triple-threat fulfilment of music theatre. “I realised I didn't just want to be a dancer anymore. I wasn't satisfied with being up the back, the generic girl to the left, I wanted to be on stage and doing more than swinging a leg. I wanted to do something that could use all the skills I'd learnt.”
Her first role as an adult was in the short-lived High School Musical, but “I was hooked”. Next she was accepted into both Fame and Mary Poppins. She chose the latter, where she met a lot of established artists, such as Phillip Quast, Debbie Byrnes, Judi Connelli and Marina Prior. “It was wonderful to be a younger cast member and watch how these people created these characters. It was like having a free masterclass every night.”

She must have been absorbing her lessons well, because she next landed a role in King Kong, in which she understudied the lead role of Ann Darrow. While in that show she was one of six finalists in the 2013 Rob Guest Endowment Awards.

While Cassimatis counts herself extraordinarily lucky to have “been in enough shows to actually call it a career”, she has not just been labouring away in the chorus. She has in fact already been the star of a one-woman show, Guilty Pleasures. Written by her friend, Josh Robson (who won the 2014 Rob Guest Endowment), with choreography by Amy Campbell (presently dance captain on Dirty Dancing), this clever and original show expands on the song “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago and imagines the stories of five different characters who killed their husbands. The show premiered in Melbourne at Chapel off Chapel and went on to the Hayes Theatre in Sydney. It's the sort of show that makes a star of its performer, and won Cassimatis many plaudits, even comparing her to her idol, Caroline O'Connor. She expects to have a season at the Brisbane Powerhouse in October, and has hopes for an overseas tour.

But meanwhile, she has the Time Warp to learn and a mad transexual scientist to deal with over at the Frankenstein Place. Most of us probably already know her fate. But beyond Rocky Horror, the world looks rose-tinted for Angelique Cassimatis.

This article by Karen van Ulzen appeared in the June/July 2015 issue of 'Dance Australia'.

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