The World Famous Pontani Sisters
Encyclopedia
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
revue based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, consisting of three sisters- Angie Pontani
Angie Pontani
Angie Pontani is a contemporary burlesque dancer, choreographer, producer, and costumer based in Brooklyn, NY. She was crowned Miss Exotic World in 2008.-Biography:...
, Tara Pontani, and Helen Pontani. Recently they have been billed at times as "Angie Pontani and the World Famous Pontani Sisters".
The three sisters, who had danced and performed informally since childhood, got their professional start during the late 1990s swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
revival craze, as a side act of the popular swing band The Flying Neutrinos
The Flying Neutrinos
The Flying Neutrinos are an American jazz band. They released their first CD in 1995. Their lead singer is Ingrid Lucia. Their music has elements of jazz and swing. Their CDs include I'd Rather Be in New Orleans and The Hotel Child. The band has performed in venues in Europe and North...
. They have since taken part in burlesque-style performances and revues on the East Coast and throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The sisters dance in a wide and eclectic variety of styles covering much of twentieth century dance, but often in a high-energy "go-go
Go-Go dancing
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at a discotheque. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s when women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City began to get up on tables and dance the twist...
" style to instrumental Rock and Roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. The sisters perform in a variety of exotic costumes featuring ostrich feathers, tassels, sequins, and fancy headdresses, many of which they design themselves.
The act was conceived by performer/costume designer/choreographer Angie Pontani, the youngest of the three dancing sisters. She described the beginnings of the act in an interview: "The Pontani Sisters were literally born dancing on the boardwalk in Coney Island. I had been performing in a burlesque show in Manhattan almost direct from high school. When that show closed, I didn't know what to do with myself, so I turned my curtains into costumes, made three headdresses out of my plastic fruit kitchen table centerpiece, threw them on my sisters and we went to Coney Island and danced on the boardwalk. Within a month we were performing four nights a week throughout NYC. It was really kismet."
There is also a younger sister in the family named Dana, who- according to the Pontanis' official website- occasionally performs with her sisters as a singer.
The sisters have toured Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the United States extensively, often with Los Straitjackets
Los Straitjackets
Los Straitjackets is an American instrumental rock band that formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1988. Originally comprising guitarists Danny Amis and Eddie Angel and drummer L. J. "Jimmy" Lester under the name The Straitjackets, the band split up soon after forming and reunited as Los Straitjackets...
. The Pontanis appear on the cover of the Los Straightjackets album "Twist Party!!!", also credited to "Los Straightjackets with the World Famous Pontani Sisters and Kaiser George", and appear on an accompanying DVD. They have performed several times with Los Straightjackets on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
. The Pontani Sisters were the subject of a 2004 documentary film by Rebecca Shapiro, Showy and Five Foot Two.
The Sisters have released two DVDs combining dance instruction with aerobic
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. Aerobic literally means "living in air", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism...
exercise- "Go-Go Robics" & "Go Go Robics II".
Recently, Angie Pontani has also been performing as a solo artist, and all three World Famous Pontani Sisters have been prominently involved in a movement to save historic Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
in New York from developers.,.
The Pontani Sisters were awarded the title, "Best NY Based Dance Company", in 2002 by Show Business Weekly, "Best Super Hot Dancing Trio", by The Village Voice in 2006 as well as "#1 Burlesque Attraction in the Nation" in 2006 by AOL.com. They currently appear in the weekly long-running show in Manhattan, "This is Burlesque" with drag-King Murray Hill
Murray Hill (performer)
Murray Hill is a well-known New York City comedian and drag king entertainer persona of Betsey Gallagher although this persona is maintained even in private settings...