Dame Arlene Phillips: Tina Turner wanted women to 'feel empowered'
Tina Turner wanted women to feel "empowered", according to Dame Arlene Phillips.
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Tina Turner wanted women to feel "empowered", according to Dame Arlene Phillips.
The 80-year-old choreographer worked with the late Queen of Rock and Roll - who passed away last week at the age of 83 - on the music video of her 1984 hit 'Private Dancer' and explained that getting to work with the superstar was one of the "best experiences" she has ever had, as she recalled Tina encouraging other women to "make their own choices" after managing to escape her own abusive marriage to Ike Turner.
She told The Daily Mirror newspaper: "Working with her was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with an artist, with a star ever. She had emotion, literally in every pore of her body. And yet she was empowered. I knew her as a woman who was taking charge. She was lovely. She sat with the dancers, chatting laughing. There was something special about her. The Rivoli had just been condemned because asbestos had been found in the roof. There were no backstage facilities. It was so rundown, there was a toilet, there was a dressing room that just had a curtain across, but Tina wasn’t bothered."
"Tina sat on a wooden box, talking to us, chatting to us, just having a good time with all the dancers, talking about her love of dance and music. How it fired her up. She was talking about Private Dancer, how women can feel empowered by making their own choices. She was telling us the stories of her life."
Arlene added that the music video for 'Private Dancer' will always conjure up memories for her and insist that the "spirit" of Tina has remained.
She said: "We were almost knee to knee, just talking about movement, about dance. And watching that video brings back so many moments. The spirit of Tina remains here, without question."
