Show & Tell: Sydney Heath-Williams of Centrifuge

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Q: When you dance on that bar, you’re up pretty high. Do you towel off the bar first?

A: We do, and we make sure there are no spilled drinks or anything (laughs). But sometimes it is like an obstacle course, because there are drinks everywhere.

Q: Have you ever accidentally knocked over someone’s drink?

A: You try really hard not to, but I’ll never forget the time there were, like, eight bottles of beer and I thought I was good to go, and I kicked it. (Laughs) I was mortified, and he was not happy, but life goes on.

Q: How long have you been a dancer?

A: My whole life. Originally I was a ballet dancer. I got started with that when I was 7. My mom and grandma tried to put me in a little combination class, with tap and stuff, but I wasn’t having it. I just wanted to be a superserious prima ballerina from the time I was 7. Around 15 or so I was going to move to New York and dance with the American Ballet Theater, and in high school I thought, “Maybe I ought to go to college.” So I went to the College of Charleston in South Carolina and minored in dance – they didn’t have a major in dance then – and majored in communications and German.

Q: And after college?

A: I was captain and coach of the dance team, and I never really thought I’d continue dance after college. I always thought I’d do this through college and that would be it. I had my last performance my senior year, and something clicked – like, “This isn’t over yet. I’m not done dancing.”

Q: How did you end up in Las Vegas?

A: I had a friend who wanted to move out here and she convinced me to come. … I had been (here) a couple of times, and I said, “I don’t know if I want to live in Las Vegas.” Eight months later, she said, “I hate it. I’m leaving,” and I said, “That’s funny. I love it,” and I just bought a house. And here I am, still, today.

Q: You landed this job fairly quickly?

A: I was just going to come out and do auditions and stuff – I do a lot of freelance stuff, too, all over – but I moved out here in October of 2007 and the audition for this job was that month, and I got hired here and never looked back.

Q: What was the audition like?

A: You do auditions for this job just like any other show on the Strip. It’s a dance audition with choreography. They teach you a number, you do a number, you freestyle it a little bit and go from there. And we also do interviews.

Q: You also do other gigs around town when you’re not working here?

A: I did a magic show recently. It was just one of many, because my first job ever was when I was 14 and I was in a circus in Kansas City. I danced and did different magic tricks, and it was just so much fun to get to do that again recently. What was really cool was I got to ride around in an elephant’s mouth. Not many people can say they did that.