Kinky Boots Cast Members Host "Dancing in Heels" Workshop Benefitting Brave Space Alliance

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We sat down after the class for an interview with Omari Collins and Robert Miller of Kinky Boots.

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Break out those kinky boots and strut down the Mag Mile! It’s Pride Month, and Chicago is overflowing with queer joy as the Broadway in Chicago tour of Kinky Boots rolls through town.

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On June 10, Omari Collins “Scarlett D. Von’Du,” who plays Lola in the Broadway tour of Kinky Boots, and Robert Miller, who is a Swing and dance captain for the show, taught choreography from the closing number “Raise You Up” during a Dancing in Heels Workshop at the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center in the South Loop. The participants donned colorful, sparkly heels to celebrate Pride Month and also brought in boots or shoes to donate for Brave Space Alliance’s Dignity Suite .

The dance studio was filled with glamour as everyone embraced their fierce inner divas and strutted and kicked in their heels. Angel cast members Jonathan Blake Flemings and Peyton Gaida supported in bringing the energy and helping the students learn the choreography, both from the back of the room and rotating with Collins and Miller at the front.

In the end, small groups took turns performing the fabulous choreography that they learned in less than half an hour, and it seemed like they were all ready to go onstage! It was a beautiful, fun time as everyone showed off their new moves with magnetic charm, power, and sass.

The special charity partnership also brought the show out of the studio and off the stage and into the local community. Brave Space Alliance left with two bags full of shoes to go to their Dignity Suite, a free initiative in Hyde Park that centers the needs of the trans and LGBQ+ community, BIPOC sex workers, and folks who have been historically “othered.”

This was more than a free hour-long dance workshop that supported a good cause. There was confidence, there was community, there was empowerment, and there was joy in that room — which is what Pride and Kinky Boots are all about.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Omari Collins and Robert Miller after the workshop to talk about Kinky Boots, Lola, and the power of dance, drag, and a sexy pair of heels. The interview has been edited for clarity.

Omari, you’ve had a long history with drag as Scarlett D. Von’Du, and this is your seventh time playing Lola in Kinky Boots, ranging from cruise ships to regional theater to now the Broadway tour! How has your relationship to Lola changed with each production, and what are you bringing differently to Lola on this tour?

OC: Every time I enter the role, I learn something new. It could be about myself, about the character, or about the people around me. I feel like each time I take those pieces and mix them all together, and it creates an entirely new way I look at Lola. This time around, I feel like I'm the fiercest, the most confident, and the most assured of myself that I've ever been in Lola.

What have you learned from Lola in finding strength, power, and love in the face of adversity, division, and hate?

OC: I think Lola preaches a message of love — just unconditional love and joy — and bringing that to any space that you enter. And I think that's what I've learned, is to bring love and joy into all spaces because that's what the world needs right now. We need love and joy in these terrifying times we're living in.

This is obviously a show about shoes, and as Lola educates us in the show, sex is in the heel. What do you love about a good heel?

OC: Let me tell you something, a good heel accentuates the legs, and it makes it look a mile long. There's something so sexy about a heel that is so attractive to me as a person, just in general. Anytime I'm wearing heels, I feel like I'm on cloud nine, like I'm rising above everything, and I'm strutting my way into life, you know? So I think a good heel is confidence.

RM: I love how it empowers me to strut my stuff. There's nothing like putting on the 6-inch stilettos at the end of the show and being like, ‘Oh, I am the diva now. This is my show. I am conquering the world in these heels. No one can stop me now.’ That's definitely the best part — the empowerment in the heel.

What do you hope the dance students take away from the workshop, and what do you hope patrons of Kinky Boots will get out of the show?

OC: I hope these dance students take away to just have fun, be confident, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and move on, and leave a little bit of life in the room, wherever you go. I hope patrons who come and see Kinky Boots take away that there's more to life than our differences, to receive everyone you meet with open arms and compassion, and to just meet people where they are.

RM: Today, I hope that the students take away from the class just lots of love. The show is surrounded by so much love. It was created and founded on love by the creatives themselves — Jerry Mitchell, DB Bonds, Rusty Mowery — they shared nothing but love for the show. So I hope they leave with open hearts, open minds, and just full of goodness and good energy. And the same goes with the audience for the show. I hope that they leave knowing that they can change the world if they change their mind, like Don says in the show, because it's really important to lead a life that is full of love and peace, especially in this current political climate, which is full of so much malice. It's really important that we inspire others to lead a life of love and goodness, always, always, always.

During a time when homophobia and transphobia are on the rise and we’re seeing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation such as drag bans being passed across the country, what does it mean to be performing Kinky Boots in 2026 during Pride Month and giving such powerful, visible representation to drag culture?

OC: Absolutely. Pride has always been a protest, and I feel like every time I get in drag, I am protesting. I am standing up for what I believe in, and this show does that so well. It is very well written and it doesn't beat you over the head with a message, but you leave with a message. So I think that's what it means, is to keep protesting and keep rising above and always speaking up for what you believe in and advocating for yourself. That's exactly what this means.

RM: Performing this show during this time, and especially during Pride, it honestly feels like a huge blessing. We’ve only performed one show [in Chicago] so far, and the audience was absolutely spectacular. They were electric the whole time. They were engaged from the moment the curtain went up to the moment the curtain went down. It is just amazing getting to be able to perform this iconic work and a work that is so loved by so many audience members, especially those in the LGBTQIA+ community. It's just an amazing feeling to go out there and just be like, ‘Hey everyone, we're here with you and for you. And we're going to keep fighting for our rights and keep fighting on until we die.’

How have dance, music, drag, and art allowed you to express yourself and cultivate a space for both joy and hope, and also protest and resistance?

OC: I feel like drag itself can be whatever the character wants it to be. It can be whatever I want it to be. Like I said, it's always been a protest and it's always been for us to be seen.

Thank you to Omari Collins, Robert Miller, the Kinky Boots cast, and the Broadway in Chicago team for this interview!

Kinky Boots will play Broadway In Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre (24 W. Randolph St.) for a limited two-week engagement through June 21, 2026. Tickets can be purchased at the link below.

Headline photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Article photo credit: Angela Lin

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/article/InterviewFeature-KINKY-BOOTS-Dancing-in-Heels-Workshop-20260610)._