Show&Tell: Meet Natalie Walstead of Cherry Nightclub

Q :So your job title is "go-go dancer"?

A: I go-go.

Q: Is that the verb form?

A: Yep (laughs). You can be a go-go dancer. You can go-go. I can be go-going.

Q: When did you start dancing?

A: When I was 6. (Classes were) my birthday present.

Q: It was a good present?

A: Absolutely. I loved it immediately. I never grew up wanting to be a ballerina or anything like that. I always wanted to, like, be on Broadway or in Cirque du Soleil or something exciting like that.

Q: You continued training throughout junior high and high school?

A: I lived the dance stuff. If I wasn't dancing, I was teaching or just working on my own solo act after-hours.

Q: Did you always know you wanted to pursue it as a career?

A: I've always known. It wasn't a decision. I always wanted to dance, but I always had it in the back of my mind that I'll dance until I'd come across this other thing - just until I get a "real" job. ... (Laughs) I always thought I would be dancing until I got my grown-up, boring job.

Q: So you started on cruise ships after high school.

A: I did six years (off and on) on ships. I lived in Italy for two years. I lived in Australia for a year. I ran out of visas, actually.

Q: You did noncruise ships shows, too?

A: I kept getting hired for these shows. I was in the No. 1 show in Italy. We were on billboards and in the newspaper. ... Then I worked at a mini-version of Disneyland and did theme shows a whole summer.

Q: How did you end up in Australia?

A: I just needed to get away and clear my head and go backpacking for six weeks throughout Australia and New Zealand and evaluate my life in terms of what I want out of life. ... I only took two (dance) classes. I didn't work as a dancer. I wanted to try my hand at hospitality, so I got a job in a cafe and loved that. Then I learned how to be a barista, and I trained at an aerial school. (Laughs) I wanted to join the circus, not be a dancer.

Q: You came to Las Vegas a few months ago and started dancing again?

A: I went to take a dance class (after almost a year) and I never felt so good in my life.

Q: And now you're not just a dancer but an aerialist and an acrobat, too.

A: I can dance, do gymnastics and aerials. (Laughs) I'm a Swiss Army knife.