I'm back to the blogging world after a busy couple of days and I'm blogging about the busiest day of the festival today for me!
The day started with two amazing classes, firstly with Banbury Cross and her fan dancing class. While a lot of this was the basics, for me it was about learning a new way to use fans and really practicing/experoimenting how I want to play with my fans, it was a real eye-opener for me and it's raised my confidence with the fans now as well. This bodes well for the fans I'm about to start making for myself as well!
Next Session was Perle Noir's dance class and it was quite fantastic! All booty shaking and thrusting (I now feel the need to hip thrust whenever I can into my routines!) and just hitting those "pow!" points that send a crowd wild, I really enjoyed that! I even got to say hi to Lucy Sky Diamond who I met last year during that class!
Then, it was off to tech at the Defector's bar, I hadn't visited the defectors bar before, but it's a gorgeous venue and larger than what I thought it would be, I got a chance to see some of the performers do their tech and it was time to get ready!
Glitters, Garters and Tease was in The Astor Theatre, and while I've seen live bands and the like there, seeing a full show like this, it really is like it was made for it!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the full show as I had to go perform at my part of the festival, but I absolutely was in awe of everyone that I saw!
Favourites for me:
MC Dave Callan: One of the best things about Burlesque in my opinion is the comedy, whether on stage or in your act. It's part of what it was all about in it's golden ages, even to it's early Victorian days. Dave brought some amazing quick, witty deliveries and it was awesome, it kept everyone amped for the next act and was a true act in himself as well. Amazing!
Indigo Blue: I love this woman, and I loved this act so so much, it was clever, and turned on it's head just when you thought it was over! Her tassel twirling skills were on full display and it was fantastic! I'm making it my mission to go over to Burlycon to see her next year now!
Dolores Daiquiri: One part of the producers for the Australian Burlesque Festival, Dolores really does know how to put on a classic show, I was enraptured by her grace with a big side of slow, sexy tease dolloped on for good measure! Wonderful!
Sarah Ritchie from Kinetica: I feel so bad that I forgot both names of the Kinetica performers because they really were so amazing to watch! Sarah's fan dance with (quite literally) a twist was seriously a joy to watch. Just when you thought you were going to be safe watching a nice graceful fan dance, out comes the surprise contortion which just made you go "wow! That just happened!".
Now at this point off I trotted to get ready to do my "That Magnificent girl in her Burlesque machine" Steampunk Balloon Pop Tease. I love this act, and I have updated one or two small parts to the costume which for me, made it more relaxing and comfy to perform in! Bonus! Some of my balloons had a small case of stage fright, but I still made them work for their popping! This was my first experience in the festival atmosphere and it was new, exciting, nerve-racking, and at the end of the day, the crowd still loved it as much as I love performing it!
For me, Saturday night ended there, I finally had a wave of exhaustion head on ever and say hi, so it was sleep time until the markets and peep show (amazing by the way!) on Sunday!
So there you have it! The festival was an absolute joy to be a part of again, I can't wait to come back, and I have some great memories and some great stuff to work on for next year!
A special thanks to the organisers, the amazing Mels and their team who took such great care of everyone and really made sure this city shined!
Keep on Dazzling,
DD xxx
