Beginning at 10 p.m. every Friday and Saturday night, Jessica Powell helps set the scene at the Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay. The Texas native is the dance captain for the MVP Dancers, with Melissa Vargo Productions, who perform at the lounge every weekend.
Dressed in beautiful costumes, Powell and four other dancers “perform freestyle, go-go dancing—very tasteful and sexy,” she says.
Powell has long had a passion for dance ever since she learned to walk, eventually studying at a studio in her home state for 16 years. She’s schooled in ballet, lyrical, hip-hop and her favorite, jazz. “That’s my forte, that’s my jam,” she says.
Powell was such a strong dancer that she eventually ended up teaching at the studio where she got her start and went on to competitive dance. She also danced professionally at some of the biggest conventions in town. By 2014, she decided to take a chance and move to Las Vegas.
“I knew Vegas was very me,” she says. “I’m flashy, I’m sparkly, I’ve always loved glitz and glam, big lights.”
Not knowing a soul, she moved here sight unseen and landed her first gig at Foundation Room in 2015. “I’ve met a lot of people working here, from all over the world,” Powell says. “I love that it’s a small venue. I’m very comfortable being here. I love it. And when 10 p.m. rolls around, we pump up the nightclub vibe and now, with the nice weather, it’s prime time on the rooftop patio.” (Powell is right—Foundation Room has long had one of the best views of the Strip from its balcony.)
Photo by: Christopher DeVargas
Libation: Aged Fashion Cocktail
Foundation Room offers a stellar cocktail menu, with specialty cocktails like the Aged Fashion Cocktail. For this libation, the bar barrel ages its own bourbon in-house for 30 days—a combination of Rittenhouse rye, Buffalo Trace, Calvados and Hennessy V.S. The bourbon is then mixed with demerara syrup and Angostura bitters.
Benefit: Picture time! A few of the bars at Foundation Room are made from retrofitted wedding chapels from the 1800s.
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