Queens of 2012! Hooray!

Evening Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes!

Given that tomorrow we ring in the new year, I thought we should go over some of the women who have made Burlesque more dazzling and delightful this year with their amazing wins in their respective competitions!

First Up, I've been dying for an excuse to put this one, because goddamn she is smoking! This years "Queen of Burlesque" at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival 2012 was Angi B Lovely, her routine is to a live band is amazing, in fact all contestants used the live band which I think is awesome! Her bumps and classic startup still gets me, so enjoy!

Next up, we're skipping across back home to Australia to this years winner of Miss Burlesque 2012, Briana Bluebell, who made a bang with her winning James Bond routine! Given that I'm entering the 2013 competition, you know what kinda of caliber of dancer we have in Australia!

Now we travel back to the motherland for the World Burlesque Games 2012 in the UK and we find ourselves the winner of the Female British crown, Eliza DeLite, who looks radiant and beautiful and her costume makes me giggle with girlish glee! I don't what it is but I can't embed this baby either! So go to the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBh7BZjohT8

Now we head back to America to the 10th Anniversary of the New York Burlesque festival, where while many people's choice awards are voted for, the one I am personally most excited about is "The Cutest Geek in Burlesque award" this year won by Dangrrr Doll, and after watching this, for good reason! Sorry guys, still can't embed with this website still!

http://www.burlesquestars.net/video/dangrrr-doll-at-nybf-2012/5541

And now finally, the reigning queen of Burlesque for 2012 deserve the last spot on this list. She really is such an amazing performer in Burlesque in Australia, Imogen Kelly has paved the way for Aussie Burlesque dancers for the future I hope, and while I couldn't find a video of the Flamingo routine (which I have seen and loved!) I found the next best thing, her Marie Antoinette routine! I'm adding this version purely for my own love of Paul Mcdermott!

So keep well and don't get too drunk lovelies! We'll see you in the new year ready to tease and excite at Miss Burlesque for you lot!

DD xxx

Burlesque History Lesson: We'll dance the Hootchie Coochie!

Hello Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes!

I've gotta say, with a lot of delving into the information highway called the internet, I've found that a lot of the Victorian Era really got their raunch on in the late 1880's and 1890's and have been dubbed by some as the "Naughty Nineties"! I cant wait to look into this more!

That being said, one of the raunchiest dances that became synonymous with the strip is the cooch dance, also known at the hootch-kootch, hootchie-kootchie, and many other spellings, but essentially its all the same dance.

Cooch dancing is basically Belly Dancing, but again, Victorian spinmasters got their hands on it and it became quite a popular dance to do during burlesque shows, there was a lot of shimmying, shaking and the belly movements were an unusual trick not seen in western countries.

While the first listed time the dance was performed is in the 1876 in a convention in Philadelphia, however it didn't take off until the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 when it was included as part of a main section called "A Street in Cairo" where at one end you could get a Camel ride and the other end you could watch the girls dance their dance from 10am until 10pm every day of the fair! They were definitely more covered up that their burlesque companions, they wore baggy pants and some veils, however, it was the bare stomachs and bare feet that caused the most scandal, as well having their hair out and hanging down their shoulders, having your out in public had you considered to be a wild woman with loose morals!

What came out of it though was that there were women called "Little Egypt" who would then perform similar routines. Funnily enough, it's never been clear who "Little Egypt" was as the organisers never named any of their dancers that name. In fact, it wasn't until 1895 that a dancer in Coney Island New York actually called herself "Little Egypt" when dancing the cooch dance, who , of course, got arrested for her gyrations, which boosted sales for the attraction at Coney Island.

Here's a video of one such cooch dancer, names Princess Rajah, who does it with a chair in her mouth (this video is part of the Library of Congress video archiving project, there is some really great stuff on their youtube channel!)

 

The dance stayed popular in theatres, but didn't get really popular until the raunch was kicked up a notch in St Louis' Expo in 1896 where the first "strip" cooch dance was performed by a dancer named Omeena, more than likely using veils. Veils were very popular and Oscar Wilde's interpretation of the biblical story "Salome" came out at the same time telling how she did a dance of the Seven Veils strip to get John the Baptist released. These dances became popular in the period of 1904 at another St Louis Expo and 1907 and the strip started to really come in then.

Of course, the most famous interpretation of this dance is Rita Hayworth's performance in the movie "Salome". And of course I'm adding because well, it's fabulous!

       

    

There are quite a few parody songs about Salome and Coochie dancing that were written at the time, it seemed that the fad which had come into the 21st century was here to stay....However in 1908, the idea of "Venus" in her clam became the new fad, and the shimmys and shakes of the cooch dancing did not come back in vogue until the 1920's thanks to the flapper lifestyle, which became included in your basic bump, thrusts and shakes you see in early burlesque routines!

That's all for now but I am going to be doing my fave queens of 2012 before NYE for you all in between rehearsals for Miss Burlesque and I am also going to review an interesting book which was part of a Kickstarter I supported recently!

Keep on Dazzling!

DD xxx

Miss Burlesque WA Heat Tickets are now on sale!

Hello Dazzlers & Dazzler-ettes!

As you all know, I'm competing in Miss Burlesque Australia this year and I'm competing in the Western Australia Heats first on March 9th, and if I get into the finals on March 16th! (If I don't I'm still going to be cheering them all on!)

Well *Ahem* Tickets are on sale now!!!

Facebook Event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/421975461207218/
Buy Tickets at: http://www.flybynight.org/
And don't forget to check all us sexy ladies out at: http://missburlesqueinternational.com/

DD xxx

Burlesque Shows at Fringeworld 2013 Perth!

Hello Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes!

I'm practicing for Miss Burlesque and sewing in between at the moment, but I've seen the Fringe world shows slowly trickling out and I gotta say, I am really excited about whats coming to Perth for 2013!

I had planned to see about 10 Shows, but I've brought it down to 7, mostly because some were on when I had to go to Melbourne!

Shows to see this year are:

*Trixie and Monkey - Flipping and stripping! (Yay! I've been dying to see these two!)
*Club Velvet - Lady Velvet Cabaret
*Comic Strip - Various Artists (including Captain Kidd!!!!)
*Lucha Royale - Azure Entertainment, These guys won the peoples choice award in 2012!
*Aardvark Variety Hour - One of a few Boylesque shows which makes me happy!
* The Chronicles of Burlesque - Sugar Blue's fringe show which is ALWAYS a sell out!
*The Birdcage - Twisted Vaudeville Circus Feat. Inga Ingenue from the US! they are also doing a circus sideshow and a boylesque version of the Birdcage!

If I have missed any PLEASE tell me! I want to know so I can perve on you all!

Get your tickets at: https://www.fringeworld.com.au/

DD xxx

Photoshoot With David Woolley: The Steampunk Showgirl Shoot

Hello Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes!

So a couple of Sundays ago, I finally spent the dollars and booked myself my first photo shoot!

I booked myself in with David Woolley, Pinup photographer extraordinaire and who also specializes in Steampunk photo shoots as well! He's been shooting Pinup photo sessions for a few years, but it's in the last year he's started the Steampunk photo shoots. Perth's really lucky to have a photographer that can do both and do both well!

I chose two types of looks, both contrasting, one light and in lingerie, the other darker in my showgirl costume. I had my hair and makeup done by Siouxane, A really really talented FX artist here in Perth whose work I've quietly fangirled over in the past. Listening to her and getting her tips is always a great thing.

The light and lingerie photo shoot came out very femme fatale/Saloon girl, I don't consider this a bad thing, Steampunk western has intrigued me of late, or at least deep south American steampunk!

(c) David Woolley

The next part of the shoot, I went dark hair with a wig, and went all out with guns and exploring looking for treasure, all in my Rhinestone encrusted  goggles! My favourite and unconventional accessory! It looks like I can't see in them, But I actually can!

The costuming I made the majority of, using both modern and vintage reproduction patterns, my favourite is the corset cover, made from a vintage repo 1897 pattern from www.vpll.org, go there, her patterns are amazing! some of it will need tweaking for dancing in I've discovered, but they are surprinsingly light for a bustle skirt and corset cover. I've got more coming in the series, but I wanted to show these because they really are some of my favourite photos, and it's exciting to do these kind of shoots, and I'd love to do more in the future!

The full album is here on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.382874458466850.95373.362402200514076&type=3

You can find David's work and book him for your own Steampunk/Pin up girl session at: http://www.davidwoolley.com.au/ and http://www.vintageglamourphotography.com/

You can drool over Siouxane's work at: http://www.siouxanemartincic.com/

DD xxx