Dance Challenge 1/50: Belly Dance Intro

To start off the new year, I've taken a page from the burly book of Red Snapper and challenged myself to do 50 dance classes over the year to expand my horizons as a performer. Why only 50? Well...

1. I want it to be a challenge, but within reason.
2. Time and money are an issue.
3. There are surprisingly fewer opportunities for dance classes in my neck of the woods than you'd think.

Since I obviously can't always go to legit dance classes, I'm also allowing myself to use dance DVDs, which can only count towards one class, no matter how many times I may watch or use them.

On Saturday, Bre Von Buxxxom, Ro Manic, and myself went to the open house at MidSouth World Dance Center for their open house, where we could take a free half-hour intro to belly dance. When we got there, we were given coin belts to wrap around our hips and put in three lines (the class was really big! almost 30 people!). LaVinnia London talked us through posture and pointed out the muscle groups we would need to focus on for the next few moves (mainly the obliques). We learned several hip bumps, both vertical and horizontal, and some upper body/torso movements that could be used with several arm positions. By the end of class, we combined all the moves we'd learned to perform a routine with an entire Rihanna song (fun!).

I loved this. It worked muscles that desperately needed to be worked, and it really got my heart rate and breath up. Plus, I loved concentrating on isolating the movements in one part of my body at a time to draw more attention to it. I definitely want to check out a few more instructional books and DVDs, especially after talking to Bombshell LaBoom at Saturday night's show about how many varied types of belly dance are out there. (On a side note, she got me very interested in checking out Bollywood dance as well!)

In short, great workout, great experience, and will definitely look into further.

BURLOCALYPSE!

Just got back into town from Memphis, where we danced in the Burlocalypse! show with some Tennessee and Mississippi performers. I debuted a new zombie act to Rob Zombie's "Living Dead Girl" (YouTube link coming soon!) that was very well received by the crowd. Ro Manic burned the place down with Sublime's "April 29, 1992 (Miami)", and Puss Powerbottom absolutely broke everyone's mind with "You've Got AIDS/Fever." I am so proud that our little troupe is bringing boylesque to this region! Sadly, Bre Von Buxxxom had to bow out of this show due to injury, but she'll be back for...

DUN DUN DA DAHHHHH!!!

Diamond Dames Burly-Q Revue presents: Eternal DAMEnation! The first of our shows at Juanita's, our new home! Hoping everyone can make it January 21, because you'll be in for a treat: all new numbers from the Dames, plus performances from the Memphis Belles, Cinnamon Twirl, Lady Doo Moi, Somerset O'Neil, and a few more surprises. Personally, I've been working my costuming mojo overtime to make some of the sparkliest outfits I've ever worn onstage.

How I Lost and Found My Mojo

So, last month's fan show with Red Snapper was an enormous success, one that ended in us sealing a deal with the venue to become an exclusive deal with them. So happy to say that our little troupe has its very own home at Juanita's Cantina in Little Rock! WINNING!

Before the show, though, I must admit that I'd lost my costuming mojo. Normally, I absolutely love putting costuming together for a show, but I just couldn't make myself motivated enough to work on costumes for this one. I finally FORCED myself into the fabric store and made myself sit down and start stitching. Lesson learned-- when I lose my mojo, gotta force myself to start working. Unfortunately, I didn't force myself in enough time to really get the costumes looking the way I wanted and was stuck tweaking them until the day of show. Looking at the pictures from the show, I'm satisfied, but not overwhelmed with joy at how they turned out, so I plan on doing further work before I present those numbers again.

After the show, got incredibly sick (read: mono AND strep simultaneously; I hit the medical jackpot), which left me on bed rest for nearly a week. Whilst in bed, I scrolled through a ton of vintage advertisements and pin up pictures and ended up getting a TON of inspiration for new acts (one even hit me so hard, I nearly jumped out of bed).  And, of course, now that I have my costume mojo going, I can't leave the house to get anything to work on. :)

So, lesson learned again-- when stuck for inspiration, scroll through old pictures to get my brain moving.

Just a couple of thoughts for anyone going through something similar.

When things go wrong

There's a great moment in the documentary "A Wink and a Smile" in which Miss Indigo Blue talks to her Burlesque 101 class about things that could potentially go wrong onstage. As a lifetime performer, believe me, I'm well aware of how easily things can go wrong.

Well, Thursday night, we experienced this firsthand. First off, during my solo, I couldn't get my first glove removed and finally resorted to using my teeth, leaving black lipstick on part of my white costume. Not bad, not too noticeable (well, it was to me), but could have been an omen of things to come. When we debuted our new group number, it seems the burlesque gods smote us with a plague of technical glitches: tear away pants that didn't tear away, missed choreography, costumes ALMOST revealing more than they were meant to, bras catching on fishnets, and so on. Afterwards, we all said "WTF??" But we had fun and we all hit the ending choreography just fine. Afterwards, people told us how much they loved the new number. Yep, we MEANT to do it that way. :)

All you can do is just keep going and hope for the best the next time around.

Burly-q Pimping Ain't Easy

This has been a CRAZY weekend, burly-wise.  Ever have a show that just sneaked up behind you and bonked you on the head? It wasn't until halfway through the week that it sank in that I have a show on the 13th, and I'm nowhere near finished with my costuming, nor do I have my final choreography set. Normally, I'm done waaaay ahead of time, but that pesky day job is sucking my will to get anything done. ::sigh::

And so, I finally sat down Thursday night and sewed and glued until my poor shoulders and neck were stiff. Managed to get a few more touches done today at practice (more on that later), and still have a pair of shimmy panties to finish tomorrow after day-job time. On the drive from rehearsal on Friday, I listened to my music over and over until I had the choreography set in my brain, then walked through it at home and again at today's rehearsal. Still need to practice with ALL of my costume elements, now that the costume for that number is finished.

So, costume-wise, I have my solo costume finished, my duet costume finished, and my group costume almost finished. And I realized today that I will be changing into three separate pairs of pasties through the course of the show. Ouch!

Here's a quick rundown of our weekend pimping our show with Super Happy Funtime on the 13th (at Juanita's! on the River Market! Come see us!):

Friday: Rehearsal for our new group number!

Saturday: Spent the entire late morning into the afternoon running burlesque errands (i.e., shopping for supplies to finish costuming) and visiting the venue to discuss setting up dressing areas and seeing the overall stage size. Then, made ourselves all sparkly and headed to LittleRocktoberfest (free beer!) to serve root beer floats and hand out handbills for the show all night. We were pretty wiped out by the end of the day.

Sunday: Slept in a bit, then off to more rehearsal! To make it easier and more efficient, decided not to make it a dress rehearsal. Afterwards, spent an hour getting interviewed about burlesque on the Pow Wow with Amy Pannell show.

We're taking the day off tomorrow from rehearsing, but I'll still be costuming! Then we're rehearsing every night until show. Never let it be said that burlesque is not a major investment, both time-wise and money-wise. Oh, and I still have to go to that pesky day job.

Exhausted burly girl signing off for the night.

Updatage

Yeah, I know I've been horrible about keeping up with this blog. Forgive me?

The biggest news is that I competed in my first showcase-- the Memphis Burlesque Showcase, just right across the river. I felt more nervous that I have in a long while (and that's saying something); questioning my costume, my choreography, my props, and feeling generally outclassed. But, I swallowed it and focused on just getting through my routine. Had one major wardrobe malfunction, but I had our handy butler help me out (which most people said they thought was part of the act!) and finished by going full pasties for the first time (I had previously confined myself to a net bra). Special thanks to awesome fan and burlesque supporter Kat for making my beautiful skull pasties, by the way!

Met some amazing dancers, who I would love to work with again soon (I mean it!). And, at the end of the evening, the judges awarded me the Most Classic award. I was seriously shocked, as I figured it would easily go to someone more experienced than I. It was a wonderful and unexpected cap to the whole evening.

I also had the opportunity to be a stage kitten for the Dragon*Con Cabaret in Atlanta, GA. The theme was comic book heroes and villains, so I put together a Black Canary costume for the occasion. Again, met some amazing dancers, some of which I was almost too shy to talk to because I was in complete awe! But I met the likes of Big Momma D, Blaze, and the one and only Scarlett Letter. Huge props to Stormy Knight for putting the whole show together. I had a blast and came away inspired to make more costumes and add to my choreography.

The following day, I attended Talloolah Love's forum on Belly Dance, Burlesque, and Orientalism, which led to some lively debate from the burlesque dancers seated on one side of the room and the belly dancers seated on the other (not being cliquish! it just worked out that way!). Again, felt some serious costume inspiration afterwards, and felt really good about the future of burlesque, what it means, and where it's headed.

After that, came home and performed in a 9/11 tribute show, which gave me a chance to break out the costume and music for "Vickie and Mr. Values" again. This one's fun, but I was a little off my game due to my red gloves disappearing somewhere between my house and the venue. Thankfully, Bre Von Buxxxom let me use her black gloves after her number.

Next on the agenda: working on my costume for the October 13 show with Super Happy Fun Time Burlesque. Can't wait to actually get my hands on the material and start creating, and waiting for a paycheck can be murder sometimes (lol). Also waiting for the feathers for my first set of fans to arrive-- the other ladies have been very nice about waiting to put their fans together until my feathers get here so we can all work on them at the same time and help each other out.

That gets you pretty well caught up! More later!

Summer and Silent Films

It's oppressively hot here in Arkansas. I mean, more than you'd imagine. We've got temperatures over 100 degrees, and once you add the heavy humidity to that, it's not unusual to have temperatures in the hundred-teens. It's too hot to think! So, it's not unusual that I've been slacking on my exercise (sweat MORE? why??) and diet (but ice cream HELPS!) and feeling like a bloated slug. Snapping back into maintenance mode as of tomorrow to get in better shape for the Memphis Burlesque Showcase.

Speaking of Memphis, I've had several people asking what act I'll be using. The answer: I will actually be debuting a new piece! I'm in the midst of fabulous-izing my costume pieces (read: adding glitter and rhinestones), and will be wearing a couple of custom pieces. Our fantastic stage butler, Puss, is working on a black and white outfit for me, and uber-fan Kat has agreed to make some sparkly pasties for me, which I'm very excited about. Still have a prop or two to locate, but the choreography is already locked into my head and ready to run.

I've been feeling particularly inspired by silent movies lately. It started when I was was looking to see if there was anything with Clara Bow on Netflix (anybody who knows me knows my obsession with Clara), and I fell in love with the acting style used in older films.  Burlesque dancers, take my advice and watch some classic movies. Since the audience couldn't hear vocal tone, they had to express all emotion with their faces, which is EXACTLY how dancers need to use their faces while dancing! Plus, I'm loving the 1920's slang used in the title cards.