Burleskloppis 6.0 - Stockholm Burlesque Festival

On the last day of the International Stockholm Burlesque Festival I went up at 5:30 am to get ready to both work and perform at the sixth Burleskloppis (Burlesque Flea Market), which this time collaborated with the burlesque festival.

After spending a few hours moving around tables and chairs, and getting the place ready for the flea market, the sellers started arriving with all their stuff. Some of the very stylish people trying to make more room in their closets were photographer Emmelie Åslin and model Calamity Amelie... 

...Fanny and Ruby Luscious...

...and Herr H, John Paul Bichard and Fräulein Frauke!

As I'm addicted to Swarovski crystals, I really liked Push La Kokett's extravagant jewelry. 

But no burlesque flea market is complete without some burlesque performances, so here is the mastermind and organizer behind the market herself - Marika Smith - introducing the performers, which were:

The Royal Roses Burlesque Troupe!

Kitty Sincane!

Mystique Luna!

And me!

It was great to finally be able to premiere my "Moonlight Sonata" act, and I hope to do it again soon - preferably in a dark place with good stage lightning, so the audience can see the sparkle of all those goddamn 7200 Swarovski crystals I spent a "few" hours gluing to my costume. Haha! After performing it was back to work at the flea market for me, and at the end the day I felt a bit like a zombie... But I love being part of Burleskloppis, and this time of the whole burlesque festival. I had such a good time!

All photos marked "Bichard", by John Paul Bichard.

New Burlesque Act!

So, as I told you before, the International Stockholm Burlesque Festival is going to take place here in Stockholm next weekend. I'll be performing during Burleskloppis 6.0 on Sunday, and for this occasion I have created a new burlesque act, called Moonlight Sonata. It will be a homage to my favorite celestial globe - the moon - and a while ago I teamed up with photographer Jan Persson to take some pictures of it. Here is the result!

There will be lovely music, lots of sparkles, feather fans, and - as usual - pointe shoes. I'll be on stage at 3 pm, so come see me and some other lovely ladies take our clothes off, at the same time you can do some real bargains at the flea market!

Here is the event of Facebook!

Paris - Part 2

So. Let's continue yesterday's Paris - Part 1 post with the second part of what happened during mine and my sister's trip to this romantic city!

On our third day there we were glad to see the sun was shining through the curtains when we woke up. This whole day we spent in Montmartre, starting off in the red light district, among the serious amount of sex shops, and of course - La Moulin Rouge! At one point we felt we were being followed by a man. And we were! It turned out to be French fashion photographer Wilfrid Azencoth who liked what I was wearing, and wanted to take a few pictures of me for his street fashion blog. So we did a very short, impromptu shoot in the shade of some trees.

Then we exercised a bit by climbing all the steps to Sacré-Coeur. The view form up there was marvelous!

The evening ended with dinner and big desserts back in the red light district. Then we went through some sex shops...

New day. New monument. L'Arc de Triomphe! Close to this arch lies a Swarovski store. I remember seeing pictures on the net of a staircase filled with Swarovski crystals some time, that was supposed to be situated in one of their stores. I had forgotten about this though, but when we stepped into the store - there it was!

As usual with sparkly things, the camera can never so them justice. In reality this was amazing!!! When I get rich and by a castle to live in, I want a grand staircase that looks like this!

Then we had lunch at Ladurée. Yep, this was lunch! There are several Ladurée restaurants in Paris, and we went to the one on Champs-Élysées. I highly recommend anyone who visit this city to go eat here! We sat downstairs, but you can also go upstairs, and the whole place looks like an old fashioned mansion. Lovely!

This was our last day before going back home, and we had hoped to be able to by a bottle of champagne and some other goodies, and have a picnic. But then it started to rain again... So we went to a restaurant and drank champagne there instead! There we met a dove who ate peanuts straight out of my hand! And that concludes the story about our week in Paris! I really want to go back some time when the weather is a bit better though. Paris is a wonderful place...

Performing at Bonden Bar

The day after Valentine's Day I was booked to perform at Bonden Bar, at Burlesqueer's event Swinging Valentine! One of the organizers - Pippi - had asked me to do my Diamonds are Forever number, but to a different piece of music - the aria Voi che sapete from Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro. 

Photo: Fanny Kellerman

Pippi sang the piece herself, and on piano we had Erik. I love performing to live music - and in this case song too! The funny thing about this though, was that the whole number - including the very ballety costume I wear when I come out on stage - looked so classical that the audience didn't really expect me to start stripping in the middle of it...

Photo: Fanny Kellerman

When I unhooked my tulle skirt and let it fall to the ground, I heard some surprised "wohoos", and also one "oh YES!!!" Haha! After that I swiftly skipped backstage to change pasties, because I was also going to premiere my new number Arabian Nights that evening.

As you can hear from the name of the act, my costume is inspired by Arabian stories, and is made of black, transparent fabric and dark red and golden Swarovski crystals and beads. Above are the pieces of clothing I'm left with after taking off the rest!

And a closeup of the pasties! I love making these costumes, and spending hours decorating them crystal by crystal!

So when my music - Beauty Beats by Beats Antique - starts, I go out on stage. And the first thing I notice is I can't balance on the tip of one of my pointe shoes because there is something wobbly there! At that moment it's too late to do anything about it, and I don't even want to ruin my performance by looking down to see what was wrong. But I just continued and did most of the choreography without actually getting up on my tip toes as much as I was supposed to. Since I'm a perfectionist the fact that I couldn't do it the way it should have been done annoyed me a lot! But none of my friends had seen anything that looked weird when I danced though. I guess they were too busy looking at my boobs to notice what was going on down at my feet...Anyway. As you can see in the picture above, one of the little crocheted thingys I had sewn on the tip of the shoes (to make them last longer, and make the shoes less slippery) had gotten loose on one side and bundled up. That little platform needs to be flat to be balanced on! 

At the end of the number, just before the music stops, I shower myself in golden glitter, which I pour out of my Aladdin-lamp. Everyone should take a glitter-shower now and then! It feels great! 

Here is a very good - not grainy at all - iPhone picture my sister snapped of me exactly at the moment for the above mentioned glitter-shower! Even though I tried to get most of it off me after my performance, I still woke up with a whole heap of glitter in my bellybutton the next morning...

My Burlesque Debut

On September 29 it finally happened - I threw my clothes off in front of an audience, and can now proudly add "stripper" to my CV! What I'm talking about is my debut as a burlesque dancer! It all took place at an event called "Burleskloppis" in Swedish. I have written about it before, and it's simply a burlesque flea market, where people gather to sell their old burlesque stuff, newly produced stuff, vintage stuff, and other vintage/burlesque related stuff! Every hour, on the hour, there is also a burlesque performance.

Photo: Burleskloppis

Here is NyponStina, Tifa, and Magdalena, at one of the tables. I got up at 5:30 am to glue my lashes on, because I had promised the organizer of the flea market, Marika Smith, that I would be part of the crew making everything work during the day! That's also the reason I didn't really have time to take any photos myself. I was the one performing last, at 4 pm, but since I was busy working all day, I didn't really have that much time to get nervous.

I had spent lots of time making my own pasties, and glueing Swarovski crystals to everything - including my pointe shoes. So everything was ready to hit the stage! 

Fanny had appointed herself my coach/stage kitten (the girl picking up the clothes from the stage - a man doing the same thing is called a "glitter boy"), and she really excelled in her job! First of all - she brought champagne!!! Alcohol + pointe shoes isn't the best combination though, so I just drank a little before the show - and the rest after...

Photo: Fanny

So I taped my pasties in place, tied my corset on, burped a little (champagne bubbles + corset), and went out on stage!

Photo: Fanny

This is my whole costume before - with corset from What Katie Did, and a lovely stole from Vivicore...

...and after! 

Photo: Burleskloppis

As some of you may know, I've been living with chronic pain for almost eight years now, from a dance related injury. So this was the first time in over seven and a half years I went up on a stage. Eight years ago I was literally crawling on the floor, because I was in too much pain to stand up, and now I have managed to work away so much of my pain I can do this! So it was a big day for me, and it felt marvelous! Can't wait to perform this - and other burlesque numbers - soon again! Fanny also filmed my show with her iPhone. Those of you following me on Facebook might have seen it before, but for the rest of you, here it is - Diamonds Are Forever: