Laurel Canyon Ballet Company: The dance troupe that define 1960s Los Angeles
Ever danced at the club so well with your mates that you’ve genuinely contemplated starting a dance troupe? That’s the highest possible level of being the life of the party, and Pamela Des Barres had gone pro.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Des Barres always seemed to have a singular mission, which was to get as close as possible to the people she was fascinated by. Overwhelmingly, that was musicians, as she grew up obsessed with Paul McCartney, and then Elvis, and then the rock and roll scene that was all around her. If you have the blessing of being a teenager in the Canyon during the era where the best bands in history are moving in as your neighbours, the best way to make the most of it is simply to have fun.
And Des Barres made having fun a profession. Dating the likes of Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger, and having rendezvous with Jim Morrison, she was more than just the girlfriend on the sidelines. As a passionate advocate for the fact that ‘groupie’ isn’t a bad word, she and the other girls buzzing around the scene at the moment were basically stylists, creative consultants and even archivists, boosting the careers of what would come to be historic bands.
But all of it started so simply and so purely, on the Sunset Strip, at places like Whisky a Go-Go and the Troubadour, where Des Barres and her friends were just having fun, dancing to the songs they loved, laughing and messing about, and energy like that is not only infectious, it gets you noticed.
Having already made the acquaintance of Frank Zappa, Des Barres would spend her nights dancing and her days at Zappa’s Laurel Canyon Cabin, babysitting his kids while the rock world crashed out there. Hearing music being played from the touring casts of artists coming in and out, she’d be dancing there too. Imagine how captivating you have to be to have the rock world see you twisting and twirling and think, ‘Yes, let’s make this a thing’. But that’s exactly what Zappa did as he saw Des Barres and her gaggle of groupies and shaped them into what was at first called the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company.
They were called that because, at first, they were just dancers. They were stage decoration really, as acts like Zappa but also Alice Cooper would bring the girls on stage to dance around them, like go-go dancers, but for the weird-rock scene.
Soon after, though, it was clear to Zappa that these girls needed to be not just seen, but also heard, as he then transformed them into The GTOs: Girls Together Outrageously. They were a girlband and for a moment the groupies thought they might trade places with their heroes as Des Barres told Interview, “We thought we were going to be world famous, like our rock star friends. That didn’t happen, of course, but it was a real magical time.”
However, the key to it all is exactly like the key to a good night out. The life of the party isn’t someone looking around waiting to be noticed, but is the person living in the moment, having fun. For the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, and then the GTOs, the key was simply their friendship.
“The GTOs, my girl band, were crazy about each other,” Des Barres said, adding tenderly about that group, “We were more important to each other than the musicians were”.
