Exposing Laurie Miller

by Jennifer J.H. Pierce

"I meant I wanted vegetables for dinner, not as a side dish..."

When the waiter left, Laurie Miller turned to talk to me again.

They don't consider you a serious customer unless you order meat. I'm a vegetarian...."

Miller was tired, having spent the past few hours transforming Club Mirage into the Purple Grotto.

For you unsavvy clubbers, Laurie Miller heads up the outrageous costumed performers seen around Facade, Club Boca and the Purple Grotto. Call them exotic dancers and they'll tell you to bite your tongue. Miller started and now leads this company of dancers she calls Xica (say Sheeka) Productions. There's more....

Her background includes schooling at the Fort Lauderdale Academy of the Performing Arts, singing, dancing, and motion picture and TV commercial credits. She also was one of the original members of the pop group Exposé.

Exposé?

It occurred to me that I was picking through steamed vegetables with an international recording star.

Everyone knows that all stars get that one big break. Miller's came while she was still in school on a scholarship at the Academy of Performing Arts in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. One day while in the dance studio, the choreographer came in and asked whether she would like to go on a European tour with Frankie Kein, the flashy impersonator. Working with Frankie gave her the energy she described as the driving force behind her today. She says he injected her character with a solid professionalism.

Upon her return, Miller became involved in a Top 40 house band in North Broward County. Along with composing music, she did makeup, staging and choreography for the group, giving them their original flair that helped make them one of the most popular Show Bands in the area.

It was during this time that Miller became involved with Pantera Records. They were putting a girl group together where all three girls would sing lead. Through this project Laurie was able to integrate her talents, giving birth to Exposé.

She was the only one of the three members who had a solid theatrical background. It was her artistry that gave the girls the makeup and costuming that soon became their trademark.

"One day I was watching 'Star Search,' and there was a bunch of little girls dressed up like us and lip-syncing," she said. "It was wild, because they'd copied our makeup and costumes to the last detail. It was very flattering."

And there were competitive imitators, too. Miller remembers the Cover Girls sitting on the floor by the stage in New York, taking notes on Exposé's every move. "We were the Supremes of the '80s" she said.

Two years with Exposé had gone by, and stardom was setting in, along with interested outsiders. Miller described the group as being taken over by "shrewd businessmen" who stifled her spirit and tackled her creativity. She knew she had more to experience in life than just being a mouthpiece. So instead of being a puppet singing songs that weren't written for her, she left and immediately released her own first record on the "Meet Me in Miami" label.

So how did the dancing group start and where did these people come from? While dancing at the Parallel Bar in Miami as a side venture, she met Paul (the Samurai/Adam Ant dancer).

Paul had been dancing as a patron in nightclubs with no professional training. A musician as well as a dancer, Paul Luckey is one of the most inventive dancers I've ever seen. His look is a mix between Adam Ant and Kiss! Soon after, they discovered Herb, the mechanical "Silverman," who was performing in South Broward doing an original act that was something between robotics and mime.

With the addition of women performers, Xica Productions integrated itself into the backdrop of Facade in North Miami, which Miller thinks of as home base. More than 20 dancers now make up the group, which also appear at Club Boca and the Purple Grotto as well as nightclubs internationally in Mexico and Canada.

After we finished eating, Miller and I went out to her car to listen to her new eight-song demo. This was some hot, danceable, jazzy funk, highlighted by her own smooth and sexy vocals. My favorite was "Allegiance," an intricate mix of the Pledge over house music: Miller's war support effort.

And Miller's dream in the making? To create a "theatrical concert experience" to incorporate dancers, music and staging.

As I watched her dance that night in a funky bride's costume (pictured above) I knew she didn't need any more projects to make her famous. She was already there.

XS Magazine
March 13, 1991