La Traviata At Folkoperan - Finally!!!

Last year I told you I would be part of the opera La Traviata at Folkoperan (The People's Opera) here in Stockholm. We rehearsed for about a month. But since Folkoperan got severely water damaged and had to spend all of last fall drying up, we had to wait a whole year to actually be able to put it all on stage. Now the time has finally come though, and last week we started rehearsals again! I'm one of the nude models in act one - but clad in a transparent black dress in act two. This will be a crazy, wonderful, powerful mix of nakedness, drag queens, fabulous singers, sex, death and emotions. I can assure you La Traviata has never been done like this before... I'm really proud to be able to work with all the amazing people working so hard together to create this opera. The director, Mellika Melouani Melani's ideas are incredible, and I don't think I have ever laughed so much during the creation of anything on stage before! Like for example when Mellika told a few of us nude models to sit down on a bench, and then burst out the idea presently in her brain: "Imagine a fuck-tree. Now we're going to try to create a fuck-tree!" Haha!

As your faithful reporter I decided to sneak around the opera and take some pics to show you a bit what it looks like backstage. The bottom pic is taken by someone else though, and shows part of the second act. Last year a little trailer was also shot while we rehearsed. This one was removed from nudity-shaming Facebook though, but I've put it at the end of this post so you can see it here! The opera premieres September 16, and 17 (yes, there are TWO premieres). To read more about it, see what days it runs, and get tickets, please go here!

The stage looks really good with it's simple, yet very stylish scenery. This is the mechanical horse used in act one. Riding it naked makes me feel like Lady Godiva!

This is the hair and makeup room. We models and the drag queens do our makeup ourselves, but we get help with our hair and wigs. The pink wigs in the pick are used by the drags in the second act.

In the costume atelier you find many treasures... Here are the drag queens' shoes, and a detail of one of their costumes for act one - the white act.

After last year's water damage, the dressing rooms got a new look. The second mirror to the right is my place!

And here is a pic from the second act! The fabulous drag queens don't just entertain the audience, but also the rest of us on stage. I love this moment in the opera! And then we have the - according to Facebook - very provocative trailer... I think it's beautiful though! Enjoy...

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

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!

Arabian Nights

So. Remember I promised you a video of my burlesque performance at last weekends Burleskloppis 5.0. I did my Arabian Nights number, which - as the name tells you - is inspired by the book Arabian Nights. The music I use is called Beauty Beats, by the band Beats Antique. I end my act by calling out the "genie" from an Aladdin lamp, which comes out in the shape of golden glitter that I pour over myself. During this performance I wasn't allowed to use glitter though, so I went with tiny golden, star shaped sequins instead. But that worked fine too! Fanny captured my performance with my iPhone, and here it is! Need to get good studio videos of my numbers some time though...

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...