Nordic Light Burlesque Festival

This weekend - 15-16 May - I'm coming to Östersund to perform in the first annual Nordic Light Burlesque Festival! This is a festival that showcases some of the best burlesque performers from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark, and it will take place at the magnificent old theater (Gamla Teatern) in Östersund. The festival is produced by Cherri von Leigh (the founder of NLBF), Lady Francescca and Kenta, and a few of the performers taking the stage (except for me...) are:

 LouLou D'vil!

Duchess Dubois!

Miss Rita Regrets!

Mr Gunner!

...And many more... 

For more info, visit the festival's web site here! With this said I'm taking a week off from blogging! I've had so much to do lately that I feel completely worn out, and my to-do list is still being added to. I need a vacation... Haha! Really looking forward to performing during NLBF though, and I'll see you all here again in a week! Ciao!

(PS. After writing this post I learned that this burlesque festival had been cancelled...)

Moonlight Sonata

I can't believe it's already a month since I performed at the 4th International Stockholm Burlesque Festival! Wonderful events like this sort of linger on in your body and mind for some time afterwards... Every act was filmed, and as I just received my video, here it comes! I did my Moonlight Sonata act, to the beautiful piece by the same name, by Beethoven - but here remixed by E. S. Posthumus. I managed to slip on something on the floor once, but when I saw it on the video, it looked like a much smaller slip than it felt. Haha!

Photo: John Paul Bichard

The 4th International Stockholm Burlesque Festival - Friday Extavaganza

The 4th International Stockholm Burlesque Festival - produced by Fräulein Frauke and John Paul Bichard - just went off with a big bang! The first, completely sold out, evening - the Friday Extravaganza - took place at the beautiful Södra Teatern. This theater was inaugurated in 1859, and is Stockholm's oldest playhouse. As I LOVE old theaters I was happy to be one of the performers on this evening! When we arrived to our dressing rooms, we all made sure to spread all our stuff out as much as possible, to create that feeling of burlesque mayhem that usually goes on before a show. Then we got ready, while drinking wine and snorting lines of glitter. Then it was showtime!!!

Conférencière of the evening was Reuben Kaye. This gorgeous man was probably born on a stage. He sings beautifully and I fully believe he could talk constantly until the the world ends, without ever be at a loss for words. I have no idea where he gets it all from, but when it was my time on stage, he gave me the best introduction I've ever gotten! I do think it's a bit mean to hire a conférencière who outshines the rest of the performers though... Haha! Oh well, here are a few of the evenings other 24 acts!

Blackbird Burlesque Cabaret!

Me! I did my Moonlight Sonata act, and I like the fact that in this pic the moon on my head looks like two horns! Haha!

Anja Pavlova - who made me want to learn how to dance the charleston!

Roxy Diamond!

 

Colette Collerette!

Sydni Deveraux!

Natsumi Scarlett!

And Tigger - who did his Father McTigger act! I'm now a believer... The next evening I asked him if he wanted to be the priest when I got married to Reuben. But then Reuben said he's allergic to cats, so then I put a stop to it right there and then! The fact that he's gay I see as a smaller marital problem than the cat thing. Oh well... Still have a huge crush on him though!

And here we all are on stage after the fantastic show. The audience was amazing too, screaming and shouting throughout the whole evening! Thank you audience!!!

Then we spent the rest of the night dancing our asses off, until it was time to go home and fall into bed - only to get up and get ready for the second day of the festival. But more about that on Wednesday...

To see photos of all the performers click here!


Photo: John Paul Bichard

Arabian Nights

Last fall, when I performed at Caput Mundi International Burlesque Award in Rome, a camera crew from Fizioni Entertainment was there to film everything in 4K. As a thank you for letting them shoot this project, all performers got a video from their respective acts. They had three cameras, and filmed each act two times - first during the rehearsal, and then during the show - which resulted in videos shot with six cameras from all angles. It's so nice to get professionally shot videos of performances, and as I received mine yesterday, here it is! I did my act Arabian Nights, and I think that was a very appropriate choice, since I use an aladdin lamp filled with glitter in that number, and an aladdin lamp is exactly what Fizioni Entertainment use as their logo! Haha!

Full Moon

Photo: Don Hong-Oai. Source

To get some better videos of my burlesque acts than the iPhone videos from performances I already have, I recently had two of my numbers filmed in a studio, with the help of photographer Qbike. As my newest act is all about the moon, I thought it fitting to post the video of that one in today's Full Moon post! The music I'm using is a remix of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, done by E.S. Posthumus. I had to speed it up a little bit though, to make it better to dance to. I've noticed I've made it very difficult for myself by always using pointe shoes in my acts, as ballet might look a bit ridiculous if you can't take out the steps properly - and many stages you end up on as a burlesque dancer are quite small (which was also the case with this studio stage), and the floor of the stages vary a lot, sometimes being very non-pointe shoe friendly... The stage floor in this video was wholly carpeted for example, which screwed up my balance a bit. But I guess all of these challenges make you a better dancer in the end. I mean, why should anything be easy here in life?! Haha! So here it is - my Moonlight Sonata act!

Stage Fright

My best friend - and landlady - Fanny started a project she calls Stage Fright a few months ago. As she loves the sparkling world of burlesque, but actually have stage fright, she decided to put part of herself on stage by sewing costumes for other burlesque dancers instead. And so her project began... Fanny has a degree in Fashion Design and is very talented at coming up with ideas for incredible costumes! As we both know many burlesque dancers, she quickly got a full sewing-schedule, as many of them wanted costumes created by her. These last few months the apartment has looked like burlesque heaven, with sequins, pearls and feathers flying around everywhere! Here are some of her amazing creations, designed, sewn, and meticulously decorated - often by hand - by herself...

Photo: John-Paul Bichard

The Circus Dress for Fräulein Frauke.

Photo: Darklark

Black dress for Elegy Ellem's Bat Night act.

Part of a costume in progress for Contessa Blackbird.

30s inspired New Years Eve dress for Elegy Ellem.

New Years Eve dress for Fräulein Frauke.

Detail of the dress above.

Belly dancing outfit for Yvette Les Fesses.

Harley Quinn dress for Elegy Ellem.

Carmen Miranda hat, modelled by gorgeous Fanny herself!

Hat for me!!! I didn't even ask for this, she just made it anyway!

As you can see, Fanny makes creations that doesn't have to be used on stage too. If you feel like you need a costume, fancy dress, or maybe a hat, you can always contact Fanny on her Facebook page Stage Fright here! 

Roma, Roma...

So. If you read last weeks posts, you already know I went to Rome to perform in Caput Mundi International Burlesque Award. Me and my sister did get some time over for sightseeing though. So here is what we did and saw in the beautiful, romantic city called Rome...

We saw the ancient Colosseum...

...and killed a gladiator! Some things just have to be done...

The we celebrated our victory with gelaaaato. Italian ice cream is seriously the best in the world!

After climbing down the Spanish Stairs, we met a whole bunch of horses ready to drive around tourists. Of course I had to cuddle a bit with one of them!

Rome becomes even more beautiful after dark, when all the buildings and fountains are lit up by light installations. Here is the Pantheon. You don't realize how massive it is until you're actually standing there among those huge columns... It always impresses me how people could build such amazing buildings such a long time ago, without the modern equipment we have today.

Then we had a very romantic dinner! My sister told me to drink my Prosecco slowly, because she had hidden a ring in the glass. I didn't find it though. So I guess it went down in my tummy together with the pasta. Haha!

Sister got a bit cold, so I let her borrow my fake fur stole I had just bought at Zara. She liked it so much I was afraid I wouldn't get it back. Or, as she said when she put it on; "It's so cozy! I just want to curl up in a fetal position and cuddle with it!". Hm...

Then we found a spot to take cool light-pictures at!

Here is another photo from my performance at Teatro Centrale Carlsberg - the reason I came to Rome in the first place! This was taken just when I pour glitter over myself. Sparkle, sparkle... After lots of walking, lots of ice cream, lots of Prosecco, and lots of burlesque, it was time to say goodbye to Rome and all the new friends I met there. Hope I'm able to go back some day...

Caput Mundi International Burlesque Award - Part 2

Saturday morning - the second day of the burlesque festival - I woke up in a heap of glitter! After a later breakfast, and a bit of Rome sightseeing, it was time to get ready for the evening's show. Most of the performers of the festival stayed at a hostel called The Yellow, and when it was time to head over to Teatro Centrale Carlsberg, we were all picked up by a long row of Fiat 500 cars from the 50s!

The cars then drove us in parade through Rome to the theatre. At one time the engine died in the leading car, so the drivers of the three following Fiats ran out to run-start the first car, and then rushed back to their own cars to continue the parade. Haha! These old Fiats might not be so trustworthy, but now I really want one too! My dress is a vintage one from the 50s, by the way. From vintagebluemoon on Etsy. And yes, I know I'm smoking in the bottom pic. Bad! BAD! Don't follow my horrible example! Anyway. Moving on...

When we got out of the cars outside the theatre, there was a red carpet (which was actually black and sparkly) with photographers lined up to let us bask in the camera flashes before we stepped inside. I could get used to that! Just like the night before, Jack Woodhead started the show by singing a lovely song! The other Saturday performers were:

Our fabulous conférencière, Vibrissa Eccola Qua!

Fräulein Frauke!

Lilly Bulle!

Nuit Blanche!

Bana Banal!

The producers of the whole festival - Dixie Ramone and Albadoro Gala, here together with Jack Woodhouse!

Mrs Rose!

Bianca Nevius!

Raven!

Greta Qamar!

Eliza DeLite!

Clea Cutthroat!

And the evening's guest star - reigning Queen of Burlesque 2013 - LouLou D'vil!

A big applause to the creators of Caput Mundi Burlesque Award - Dixi Ramone and Albadoro Gala (pictured above), aka The Missunderstanding! We had two amazing evenings at the theatre, ending on the Sunday with a laid back farewell party at The Yellow. I hope this festival will take place next year too, and that I will be able to go back and see all - or at least some - of these wonderfully crazy people again! And Rome itself of course! Me and my sister did have time for a bit of touristing, but more about that another day...

All photos marked "Bichard" by John Paul Bichard.