Illuminautians Club Dancers Use Flames, Sparks and Artistry-a-Go-Go

Miami is nothing short of party central, and with all that partying comes a lot of fun to be had — and money to be made. The party scene is brimming with opportunities for clever entrepreneurs with something to offer, like Kyle Head, aka Antic Icon, head of the Illuminautians (pronounced Illuminati-ens).

Since he brought the nine-member visual performance group together about a year ago, they’ve performed on stages like Dayglow, Ultra, Dancegiving, and have a regular thing going with Vice Lounge.

At face value, they’re go-go dancers in raw outfits, but when you take into account their use of cryogenic guns, spark grinding, fire throwing, and balloon dropping, you start to see they offer more than just hip shaking. Icon spoke to us about the growing market for performers like him and his friends, his inspirations, and taking go-go dancing to a whole new level.

New Times: Where did the idea for the Illuminautians come from?

Antic Icon: Some

of my friends, they do Dayglow, and when it was really small, I would

just go out there and throw fire and whatever. They started to get

bigger, and they started to book the Devil from Acapulco. I saw him and

was like, “wow, he’s like a visual performer, I’ve never seen anything

like that.” He was really my first inspiration.

I

saw a window of opportunity to create my own character. It was first

just going to be me and it was Illuminati … Then I started to use Ill

Ra (his partner) and I was like, “it can’t be Illuminati anymore, it

should be plural,” even though Illuminati is plural. And I didn’t really

want to keep with that name because of everything else that comes with

it. So I thought of Illuminautian.

Really,

Dayglow has helped make who we are. They have supported us the most, so

I think a lot of credit is due to them. They’re working with all the

biggest artists. They give me the opportunity of getting my girls to

perform with them and then everybody else gets to see it, so they’ve

really helped with the exposure of it.

Each performance features the girls in different costumes. How do you decide the themes?

I

call it inspiration from false prophets … For instance, the jester

outfit came from somebody telling me, “Oh, I can get you into Louis,”

and I thought to myself, “What can I provide for Louie?” That’s kind of

1600s king style … I created the outfits and then we didn’t get into it.

But I ended up using them for Dayglow and using them for other things. 

I

started with clothing. I experimented with that first … Then my friend

got into Dayglow and I really wasn’t making money from the clothes so I

wanted to shift my creativity towards creating outfits for girls, and

outfits for me as well… 

I

knew that this was going to be a market that would be able to make

money. I knew this was going to be the next level of entertainment for

clubs. I was just sick and tired of going to a club and they got the DJ

playing and there’s no visual stimulation.

It seems like the electronic music scene has become a venue for a lot of new businesses.

Monetarily,

I feel electronic music is really starting to become commercial and

generating a lot of money. There’s bigger budgets for more things, and I

think it inspires more people to be able to jump into it. 

How this is bigger than just some girls dancing? You use

the term “visual performer.” What does that entail to you?

Most

go-go divisions, they’re strictly just the dancer … I’m creating more

of a theatrical performance where, like I said, these girls are going to

come fully dressed. I drop them off right in front of the club. The

minute they walk out, their wings are open, they’re taking pictures and

interacting with people. They get instantly into the window and they

start performing. And then that’s the same way that they leave. I want

it to almost be like a bank robbery. You don’t know who these girls are —

they do their thing and then they leave. 

We’re

typically more expensive than most, but we charge that because all the

outfits are hand-made, they’re all original. They’re really works of art

that they’re wearing. What I’m really doing is, I’m starting my own

industry, and it’s called performance production. Instead of having the

pyrotechnics and the cryogen effects with all these things that are just

hidden and then you press a button … you have an actual character

that’s holding the cryogun on stage, providing more visual.

What

are your plans for the future? Do you see your guys ever breaking off

from the DJs and doing something on your own artistically?

We

actually got a call from America’s Got Talent to be on the show and

they’re inspiring me once again to put together my full package. We have

our own Illuminautian DJ. I have a friend, Diego Val, that’s a super

talented singer, put them all in character, even have a guitarist that’s

shooting cryo, a drummer that’s grinding. The DJ will be grinding,

shooting cryo. Everybody instead of just being a musician is a visual

performance musician. Like Blue Man Group kind of, but a little more

extreme and sexy at the same time.

Anything else?

My

overall goal with the Illuminautians is to somehow construct a way of

awakening more people, pushing them to become more creative. Pursuing

real passions instead of the kind of slavery system we have here where

you just are a monetary slave. I don’t really know how I’m going to do

it, but that’s in the back of my mind the whole time. I’m developing a

tool which is the Illuminautians, which is the entertainment which will

capture their eyes, and then after I get that I want to use that power

to awaken people, make the world a better place.

Catch the Illuminautians at Vice Lounge Fridays and Saturdays.

— Kat Bein

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