She tried out for “City Lights” at the Flamingo and was hit with another unexpected question: Had she brought her ice skates? She didn’t skate but told them she did and that her skates were in storage. They found her a pair. As she pulled them on, Peterson watched the other women on the ice.
“They did a T stop. They did a snake. I told myself, ‘You can do that because you never say no.’ ”
She was hired.
“City Lights” required her to be topless, so, at 21, she bared her upper torso for the first time. After stepping on stage, the apprehension went away and she said it was “no big deal.”
Peterson went on to perform in other shows — “Splash” at the Riviera; “Jubilee, La Cage” (for a brief stint in Los Angeles); and back in Las Vegas, in Siegfried and Roy’s show.
The last one was almost her final day on Earth. One of the tigers, Leo, went rogue during rehearsals at The Mirage and padded over to her. Everyone else eased away, but Peterson stood still, frozen to the spot, and began whimpering for help.
“Everyone was (urging) me, ‘Shut up. Don’t move.’ They hid behind the curtain … I mean, this was a huge animal,” she said. “My eyes were bulging, I was so scared. He stopped 2 feet in front of me when they got control of him.”
Her career has seen her rub elbows with plenty of celebrities — the Rat Pack, Elizabeth Taylor, Sally Struthers, and Michael Jackson. It also took her to Seoul, South Korea, in 1988, when she danced again in the Olympics production.
Many people think showgirls make a huge amount of money. Not true, she said — she was paid $550 a week.
“The $50 was for going topless,” she said. “We used to joke it was 25 bucks for each breast.”
Another misconception is that dancers need to be overly enhanced in the chest department to perform topless.
“They don’t go with the big, busty women,” she said. “They keep them good-sized but so that they’re not flopping around in a gross way.”
Displaying a show-must-go-on tenacity, she danced despite a horrific sunburn after she fell asleep by the pool. She also danced after having her wisdom teeth pulled, stuffing fresh gauze into her mouth backstage with each costume change.
“Nothing stops Mikel. I never missed a night of work on the Strip in eight years,” she said.
She danced pregnant, until she was in her second trimester with her first child, Nick, now 27, and had begun showing. She has a second son, Andre, 17, a senior at Centennial High School.
Most showgirls stop dancing by age 40, as she did.
Now 53, Peterson teaches fitness classes for the Las Vegas Athletic Club, the YMCA and at Sun City Summerlin. She maintains her figure with yoga and Pilates, despite neck and back pain from wearing headpieces weighing as much as 50 pounds.
Storkamp first met Peterson two years ago when he began taking her water aerobics class and was amazed by her flexibility.
“She can still touch her ear with her foot,” he said.
Peterson learned Storkamp was a writer and the pair decided to collaborate on her memoir. They met every week for four hours to do interviews and to ensure he was telling her story in the best way possible.
A former teacher who had self-published five other books, Storkamp said he wanted to get everything right.
“I tend to be an intense writer,” he said. “I can spend an hour on a single line.”
The result is “Showgirl Memoir,” available at showgirlmemoir.com.