1. Bey's eight female and two male back up dancers all do their own hair and makeup — next to Blue Ivy. They're allowed to experiment with their looks and don't have to get them approved. "Although, Beyoncé will tell us if she liked our hair better in one show, so we'll do it that way the next time," one told me. They also revealed that Blue Ivy does makeup with them. "She'll come into our dressing room and do makeup with us," the dancer said. To keep their makeup from running while they dance and sweat, the dancers use setting sprays from companies like Mac and NYX Cosmetics, "That way we don't have to touch up too much during the show."
2. Speaking of dancing, Blue Ivy can already dance. "She is really advanced for not even being 2," her dancer said. "She even knows how to twerk!" 3. Beyoncé "watches the show on film every night." One dancer explained, "There was this one night in South America — it was an open stage and it was raining and a few of us slipped. She watched in on repeat, laughing hysterically. She didn't yell at us or anything though — the whole stage was a puddle."
4. Beyoncé has two stylists that assit her with costume changes her throughout her performances. The dancers have to share an additional two dressers.
5. Beyoncé's tailors alter outfits after they receive them from the designers. One tailor told me, "They come in as couture and we have to make them into more of a costume, since hidden zippers and buttons don't really fly when it comes to quick changes." She wears Dsquared2 as her opening outfit, Givenchy, David Komo, and a bunch of other designers during her show.
6. To keep the crazy costumes from moving around on both Beyoncé and the dancers, the tailors — who previously worked on Madonna's tour — use TopStick tape (a toupee tape) to keep the outfits in place and prevent nip (or worse) slips. Her back-up dancers have seven outfit changes and Beyoncé herself has seven or eight depending on the set that night.
7. The dancers have like 1000 choreographers. OK not that many, but one dancer said the "Run The World" routine had 20 choreographers.8. Dance routines can change hours before a show. Dancers said they rehearse "until it's perfect," but, "Beyoncé always is wanting to be better and more innovative" so routines constantly change, sometimes just hours before a show. Some things like stage size — which affects how many dancers can do each routine — have to be sorted out last-minute.
9. Beyoncé sometimes adds impromptu moves to the choreography — and her back up dancers just have to go with it. "We just have to stay on our toes," one told me. "We just make sure we're always watching her and each other."10. When it comes to hair removal, "We have to deal with the local spas wherever we are," one dancer said. (Their leotards aren't exactly conservative.)
11. Each shoe is repainted after every performance to make sure it looks new for each concert. B and her dancers wear Stuart Weitzman lace-up booties during the show — among other designer shoes, like Christian Louboutin, that Beyoncé breaks it down in.
12. The dancers — who all have flawless figures — don't work out. "We get a lot of our activity onstage, so we're already pretty active."
13. The dancers had no idea Beyoncé was about to drop her latest the album. One said, "We were filming music videos with her and we knew she had new songs in the works, but we didn't know it was going to be dropped like that — we learned about everything on Instagram just like everyone else did!"
14. Dancers have to audition many times before landing a spot. The audition process was different for every dancer, but one girl told me she had three auditions, then tried out in person in New York, and then she was hired for the Superbowl, and has been dancing with her ever since.
15. The dancers felt intimidated by Beyoncé when they first met. "It's Beyoncé," one said. "She is someone we look up to and want to model our lives after."
The dancers wrapping presents backstage for kids at the Bronx Neighborhood Shelter.
16. Beyoncé's three backup singers, who Bey calls "the Mamas," have been singing with her for ten, eight, and seven years respectively. They say "she keeps going, and going, and going," and (like all of us) wonder if Beyoncé runs on batteries.
17. The Mamas spend an hour and a half getting ready for each show and do their own makeup and hair. "People assume that there is a makeup artist or hairstylist for every show, but we do all of our makeup and hair ourselves," one said. "We had a pro come in and give us tutorials on how to do both."
18. A member of Beyoncé's all-female band won her spot after a BATTLE in the Sony studio. Beyoncé's private American Idol.
19. Her dancers spray new fragrance Beyoncé Rise (coming out in February 2014) — a blend of orchid, freesia blossom, jasmine, musk — in their dressing room every time they enter it.
20. The dancers relieve stress by "drinking a lot of wine." 21. The entire team loves their fabulous Beyoncé-filled lives. When asked what it's like to live life behind Queen B, the dancers said, "Amazing! No complaints." They added, "The real Beyoncé is really humble and down to earth — a real country girl. She's sweet"
There, now you're beyond educated on all things Beyoncé.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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