大象传媒

Andrew McGibbon talks to Anne Behringer, Tina Turner's dancer in her touring band at the height of her fame as a solo stage performer during the 1990s.

Tina Turner remains one of the greatest R'n'B singers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her partnership with Ike Turner produced one of the most electrifying live acts in the 1960s. After her split with abusive husband Ike, her career revived in the 1980s. The spectacle of Live Aid and the explosion of corporate CD rock in that decade led Tina to an astonishing level of global success in sales and on stage. It made her an international star and, critically, a universal performer, appealing to both black and white audiences.

Anne Behringer was born into a liberal New England family brought up to believe that everybody was equal regardless of tribe, colour and religion.

Anne was also a serial dancer from a very early age - almost, it seems, since she could walk.

During the most significant time in Tina Turner's career, Anne, having recovered from major drug and alcohol abuse, was then offered work on Tina's world tour. This meant exposure to the drugs and alcohol all over again.

Could Anne cope with being on a world tour, a dry singer in a world surrounded by temptation?

She went on to set up the internationally renowned Promises chain of rehabs. But, as Tina's white dancer in a US tour, she experienced first hand the racism still alive in America's deep south.

Written and presented by Andrew McGibbon.

Producers: Nick Romero and Louise Morris

A Curtains for Radio production for 大象传媒 Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2015.

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