Darci Strutt is this year’s Klondike Kate.

She and a half-dozen Twin Cities women let loose Wednesday night with larger-than-life performances of sass and song.

Wearing more feathers than a peacock, they shook and shimmied their way across the stage at the Prom Center in Oakdale, belting out tunes across a room full of 400 people.

Strutt’s final performance of the night, a combination of “A Guy What Takes His Time” and “Hey, Good Lookin’, ” was followed by blank gunshots and a roar of cheers from the audience.

“That’s a big part of it, to get the audience to just dig what you’re doing,” the 48-year-old North Hudson, Wis., resident said. “God, it feels good.”

“It’s always a lot of fun,” Paula Berends, coordinator for the Royal Order of Klondike Kates and a 2005 winner, said of the St. Paul Winter Carnival competition. “You don’t know what to expect.”

‘The ability to sing is a key factor,” Berends added, explaining how the judges determine who will walk away with the title. “Klondike Kate has to always be ready with a song.”

Contestants were also evaluated on song choice, costuming, crowd appeal and authenticity in portraying the Klondike Kate character.

Strutt will be a prominent figure during the Winter Carnival and will go on to perform bawdy routines as Kate throughout the year on a volunteer basis.

“It’s easy to make 100 appearances in just your first week,” Berends said of the carnival’s demanding schedule. She added that Kates can make more than 300 performances in a year, from Winnipeg to Florida.

The character of Klondike Kate is modeled after Kathleen Rockwell, a dance hall performer during the Alaska Gold Rush era at the turn of the 20th century. Klondike Kate performers have been entertaining Winter Carnival audiences for nearly four decades and call the character St. Paul’s “mistress of fun, frivolity and good fellowship.”

Strutt works as an information security specialist for U.S. Bank. She has three children, two stepchildren and a grandchild.

The other contestants Wednesday night were Barbara Youngbauer, of St. Paul; Cheryl Lee Peters, of New Brighton; Kelli Pogose, of West St. Paul; Patti Jo Fraser, of St. Paul; and Suzanne Leisman, of North St. Paul.

A group of Kates can be seen at their Winter Carnival Cabaret at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Holiday Inn, 2201 Burns Ave., St. Paul. Tickets are $15 ($13 with a Winter Carnival button).

The Winter Carnival runs from Jan. 22 to Feb. 1.

Copyright 2009 Pioneer Press.