Steampunk Reading: Etiquette & Espionage & The Steampunk's guide to Sex!

Evening Dazzlers & Dazzler-ettes!

So I managed to sit down and engorge myself on some light reading material. Both books were not huge, but one was Fiction and the other was Non-Fiction, one was for adults, and the other is one you can obsess over with your child.

I'm going to start with the Fiction one, it's a Young Adult novel, but don't be fooled by that. Etiquette & Espionage is By Gail Carriger, who also wrote my favourite novel series "The Parasol Protectorate" which is a very adult series compared to this. The wonderful thing about this series is that it is all set in the same universe as her first series, and if you haven't read The Parasol Protectorate series, you should after this just so you can have a giggle at how those characters show up in this series.

The series is set in the 1850's and Sophronia Temminnick is a 14 year old girl with no interest in being refined, girly or anything lady-like, and her curtsy is atrocious. With her mother desperate for her to be a lady at her older sister's coming out ball, she allows a strange visitor to the home take her to "Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality". What no one realizes is that this is a different type of "Finishing" school, where they are taught to infiltrate society and become the best spies for the greater good of England.

As someone who did go to boarding school, I sorely wished this could have been my boarding school somedays! Gail has brought an amazing group of sidekick characters that compliment the main action and Sophronia's espionage into why the "Picklemen" are coming after the school. Again, the plot works in canon with Gail's first series, and I had some very big "Penny drop" moments after reading this as to some things mentioned in that. I particularly love her best friend Dimity, and her brother who is sent to the boys school, an Evil Genius Prep school.

The world is fleshed out beautifully, and I am really looking forward to the next book coming out in November this year (I have already pre-ordered!) called "Curtsies & Conspiracies". This book is like a small sweet treat, satisfying, indulgent and doesn't feel like a guilty pleasure. It is for children aged 12 and onwards, so if you have younger family members inclined towards science fiction, this is perfect. 

Now! Onto more Adult pursuits in the non-fiction variety: The Steampunk's guide to Sex!

This was produced as part of a kickstarter, and I bought into (I am a big fan of the kickstarter/crowdfunding idea) so I could download a copy of it to read. I was definitely given an amazing education on Victorian smut peddling and smuggling which was definitely eye-opening in such a good way. There was a good mix of modern Steampunk discussion about sex including a guide on how to make your own Steampunk and Steampowered sex toys and an essay by a Steampunk porn star Lady Clankington which I really liked.     

The only things I will say kinda disappointed me was that the vignettes of information could have been longer, I could have read 1000 more pages on each of the subjects readily. I will also echo what another reviewer said and that the essay on Polygamy may have been misplaced in the book and was already information I had been educated on about the topic before and was not necessarily fitting into the main line of the book, but I can see why it was put into the book at the same time.

With that, its time for me to wind down the bunsen burner, and leave you to explore these books. Both of these books are available on Amazon.

DDxxx 

Miss Burlesque WA fortnight: So much Frisky-ness!

Evening Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes! So the one thing that has been taking up nearly an entire year for me is over! And it has been the most amazing roller coaster ride most definitely!

My test for me was that I had to get through a heat of 7 amazing women performing two of my routines in order to get through to the finals. I had to do my Classic, but I got to choose to do either my neo or my unique. That was a no-brainer, I did my Steampunk showgirl. But first, we all got to look fab in the gown parade!

  

l-r: Vivian Marlowe, Rose Noir, Scarlet O'Harlot, Lulu Liquer, Lottie Last Chance, Me! and Petra Dish.

The three of us on the right, we literally started together in our first beginners Burlesque dance class at Sugar Blue Burlesque together, we're all so grown up and sexy now! *nostalgia hit*

 

And of course, me strutting my stuff:

   

Johnny Domino got to do a farewell act as this years King of Boylesque for WA and then it was on like Donkey Kong in the classics!

Everyone was super sexy during their routines, lots of gowns being flung and lots of fringing being shimmyed! And that was just the first act!

I was really happy with how my classic act went, and it went down a treat with the crowd, which is always good! Here's just one pic before the final reveal:

Brief intermission and in we go to the next round! It really felt like the night flew by backstage!

I finally got to introduce The Steampunk Showgirl in all her glory! The routine went off really well, the tassels twirled perfectly, my costume didn't badly malfunction, but I did have problems with it unfortunately.

Here's a shot of the costume and me dancing it all away!

So unfortunately, as many would be aware now, I didn't get through to the final, but I am so grateful for everything that happened and I would do it all again in a heartbeat! I got so much support from the crowd and people who came up and said "you were awesome!" that really meant more to me than you'd think.

That being said, I won't compete next year, so I can keep on working on ideas, teachers and my dancing and be ready for the following year!

So Scarlet O'Harlot, Lulu Liquer, Petra Dish and Vivien Marlowe got through to the finals! Hooray!

Now onto the review of the finals!

There's no pics yet except of the winners, so I'll put that up at the end!

Everyone's classics I found amazing, so many of them were just glamourous on another level that was beautiful to watch!

Favourites were Ruby Slippers looking in the mirror routine, Lola Cherry Cola's and Agatha Frisky's glamourous striptease,  and Vivian Marlowe's Pearl dance.

Neo took it to a whole 'nother level with everyone having a really strong Neo routine and I enjoyed every single one in some way (but I just love Neo routines so I'm biased!) 

Favourites for me: Petra Dish's Evolution of the burlesque babe, Sugar DuJore's Dishwasher routine (and my act of the night for sure!), Vivian Marlowe's Tiki girl routine and Vivien Veil's Sexy Dinosaur!

Everyone was so good that they had 7 unique routines instead of five! I gotta say, all of them had such a difference from each other and I could have easily watched a show of all of those together again and again and again....you get the idea!

Favourites for me were: Petra Dish's Weird Science (Always been a fave since I first watched it!), Agatha Frisky's Blindfolded Fan dance (seriously, she takes fan dancing to a different place in such a good way), and Sugar DuJores Sexy Walrus!

In the end though, there was only a top three remaining, the best for the year and they were:

3rd: Vivian Marlowe

2nd: Petra Dish

and 1st: Agatha Frisky!!!

Left: Agatha Frisky, our winner this year of Miss Burlesque WA and right, Miss Burlesque Perth, Petra Dish!

Congratulations to all who competed in the  competition this year, I think we all did amazingly, and the West really knows how to show 'em how it's done! And thank you especially to Mel Bruyer for making this happen. She's going to be producing the Miss Burlesque UK competition too, so if you're reading this in the UK and looking at competing in the comp in the UK, or even going to go watch it over there, you are going to be WELL looked after!

Coming up soon: Work on my routine for May, I've read a few Steampunk books recently that I'm going to give you a review for, and I'm going to delve more into my research of Victorian and Edwardian Era dancing.

Keep on Dazzling!

DD xxx

What's Dollar Dazzler up to?

Hello Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes!

The next few months are a busy one for me! I'm stripping anywhere and everywhere! Come see me dazzle the crowd on these dates!

March 6th: Burlesque @ the Brass Monkey

March 9th and 16th: Miss Burlesque heat and Miss Burlesque final (if I don't get into the final, I'll be there cheering on my girls!)

April 24th: Stage Kittening for Burly Unplugged.

May 29th: Debuting a Brand New Routine at Burly Unplugged!

June: Watch this space.....

Keep on Dazzling!

DD xxx

Miss Burlesque Mood Board and Inspirations!

Evening Dazzlers and Dazzler-ettes,

While being struck down with sickness and in between my rhinestoning I've managed to put together a mood board of my routines and gown, while there's still a lot of the element of surprise still don't worry, I still want to share my choices and give an education to those going to their first Miss Burlesque!


First off:

So the first time everyone sees you on stage is in "The Gown" I think this shows off your personality as who you are as a performer for the first time on stage for those who haven't seen Burlesque before, and re-establishing how you want to be remembered as for your fans. Part of me wanted to go 1950's, but when that dress didn't quite work out as planned, I went for something a little closer to my idea of who I am as a performer.

From late Edwardian (1900's) to the 1930's the designs of dress really started to change into a more column-like form, and the beading designs and occasional pleating at the front reflected that look, while the dresses above are more your 1920's to 1930's, the Edwardians also had some very non-bustled looked coming through which helped along the column look we associate now with the 20's. I would have enjoyed going for the Victoriana kit-out, however for me I very much enjoy shaping dresses to my contours! The 5th picture of the form fitting 1940's dress, is definitely a testament to that "curvaceous" look I like and will be embracing in my gown style. The hint/inspiration for my gown?:

 

1900's dress from the met museum

Next, the first routine we perform, the "Classic":

 

The classic routine is based on the "Golden Era" of Burlesque, something I haven't yet touched on this blog as I'm still looking at Dance Styles of pre-1920's, but the Golden Era was considered 1920-1960 when the acts got raunchier and yet also more stylized than those put on by their Victorian Sisters!

In terms of this Era, I've definitely gone 1950's with my performance, and going with a "Hitchiker" theme thanks to the song from the "Las Vegas Grind" music Volumes "Exit 6" by the Jaguars. This was a song in the end of the 1950's (1959 in fact) that girls actually did strip to, so it makes perfect sense to do the right thing by this song and keep on stripping to it! The hitchiker theme came from the second photo, which is a favourite of mine by Laura Bynes of Mosh for Pinupgirlclothing.com. She looks so glamourous in the middle of the desert, this juxtaposition of remaining glam in a bad situation for me it works as an idea to build on! Of course the look for costuming is all vintage, making my costume using patterns from a vintage wiggle dress slightly modified for body type and lingerie.

Next is the "Neo" Routine:

I think this very much explains itself. This part of the competition is everything post 1960 onwards, especially geared towards the 1990's onward revivalist movement or "Neo-Burlesque" as the term was coined. If it wasn't for those wonderful ladies we wouldn't have Miss Burlesque at this time as it is, quite possibly not at all yet. A lot of the Neo Movement is also in the Parody and the story which adds to what the performer is trying to say, the art is there for a lot of Neo performers and I can say I'm more in the Neo camp than the Classic camp, despite using very classic dancing in a lot of my performances.

Carmen Sandiego is almost a parody in a computer game, especially of spies/jewel thieves and other than Commander Keen and Pinball, this was the computer game of my childhood, we even had "Where in SPACE is Carmen Sandiego?". I love facts and information collecting, and I loved spies thanks to watching dad's James Bond movies even as a child. While I'm not going into the routine, I can tell you now, I have the red trench and the red hat, you wont BELIEVE whats under it though!

Never seen it before? Well click on the youtube video to obtain an education!

 

And now, the Final Act, The "Unique":

  

The "Unique" act is a very important act and also one that if you make it to the finals, you have a 50/50 shot of performing, it shows probably the most of who you are as a performer and what makes you unique in a sea of beautiful women wearing even more beautiful pasties! 

"The Steampunk showgirl" is a routine that is very close to my heart, it's my biggest and most sparkliest, you all have seen some pictures of the outer costume but there's been some enhancements since my photo shoot in November! Steampunk is a genre that gets a lot of love like Burlesque, and is also one that is very free and open to interpretation within a certain boundry as well, similar to how Burlesque is sometimes too. Either way, the inspirations of the Victorian Burlesque beginnings are there in the routine, which I am passionate about, and that's the biggest thing really having that passion when you're out there dancing and it's the biggest thing for me as a performer. Of course, it also has a special homage to Millie De Leon, the first woman who raunched up the Burlesque stage!

I hope you all enjoy yourselves when you come along!
You can buy tickets to the March 9th heat (which I start in) and the March 16th final Here!
You can also find out more information about the competition and the competitors at:
http://missburlesqueinternational.com/
**Please note as of publishing the website is down until Monday 4th Feb**
And also the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/missburlesqueaus

Keep on Dazzling!

DD xxx

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