No Worries!

Dear Constant Reader,

Thanks for all the interesting suggestions for how to solve my costume issues.

After discussing it with Scratch, we decided that I had to respect the integrity of the act and the Legend who inspired it. The plan was to perform without a single change to my costume or choreography other than making sure there was $50 in my purse backstage to promptly pay the fine if my bare backside was deemed in violation of the ordinances.

Happily, the festival was able to clarify the actual current reality, as opposed to the out-of-date and poorly written ordinance, and it is unlikely that anyone will be in violation in the course of a normal burlesque act.

Well, thank goodness! But getting busted would have made a good story.

M2

Published in: on 23 January 2014 at 2:10 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Creative Problem Solving

Dear Constant Reader,

The Vermont Burlesque Festival is almost upon us and I am so excited to be performing my tribute to April March on Friday night.

However, this morning we received a copy of the City of South Burlington Public Indecency Ordinance which states that “public nudity” is “a public nuisance” and that “‘Nudity’ shall mean the showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area or buttocks with less than a full opaque covering…”

I end in a g-string. With a less than full opaque covering on my buttocks. If it was almost any other act, I’d just suck it up and switch to full-coverage panties. But it’s not.

I’ve got less than 2 days to figure this out.

Thoughts, O Constant Reader?

Puzzled,
M2

Published in: on 22 January 2014 at 12:34 pm  Leave a Comment  

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Dear Constant Reader,

It may still be summer out there, but in Babydoll-land it’s already autumn. We’ve begun working on The Wrathskellar for this year. For those of you expecting of dark cabaret with its tale of ambition, betrayal, and murder, you’ll be surprised.

This year we are unveiling W. R. Athskellar’s Cavalcade of Curiosities, but you can still call it The Wrathskellar. It’s our most ambitious version yet, combining all of the best elements of past shows: live music, a purpose-built theatre space, a plot, an immersive and interactive experience for the audience, and, of course, burlesque.

We have a lot to do in a very short time. All the acts are brand new and need new choreographies, costumes, props, and set pieces. All the songs are being arranged by our wonderful musical director. I’ll keep you posted as best I can, but it’s going to be a busy month.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ll share few photos from our Kick-off Party, courtesy of John Bilotti. Click right here. (Bonus: how many Babydolls can you spot wearing dresses from Trashy Diva?)

M2

Published in: on 22 August 2013 at 12:26 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Very Busy

Dear Constant Reader,

The Boston Babydolls are very busy preparing for our summer show
Fine Art of Burlesque

So far we’re scheduled to appear at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, a couple of locations in Maine, and Pittsburgh, PA. More dates coming soon!

And we’re also working on an act you can only see Friday night at the Ohio Burlesque Festival, where we just happen to be headliners. (No big deal…)

And I’m cleaning up my sewing room in preparation for the Fit & Flair project, plus some other sewing I’m sure will be needed for the upcoming shows.

However, we did take time out of our busy schedule to see From Denmark With Love. You might recall that at The Bod of Avon there was a song about Ophelia (to the tune of “Goldfinger”). This is the show for which that was a teaser. If you’re looking for an evening of cheap, dirty, fun theatre, I urge you to go.

Busily yours,
M2

Published in: on 20 May 2013 at 11:44 am  Leave a Comment  

My Weekend

Dear Constant Reader,

Preparations for the weekend actually started on Wednesday when we were contacted to perform at a birthday party on Saturday. The birthday girl loves the movie Burlesque, so we were asked to dance to songs from the movie.

Except none of us had ever created a routine to any of the songs. Scratch was sure it wouldn’t be a problem for us to each come up with a new solo — after all, we had 3 whole days! That night at rehearsal Betty, Stella, and I ran though what we had come up with and left feeling pretty good about it.

On the big night, we were a big surprise for the birthday girl. I started things off with a fan dance to “Welcome to Burlesque”. Stella followed with an adorable striptease with a boa to “But I Am a Good Girl”. Scratch magically produced a “birthday card” for the guest of honor. Betty closed out the show with a high-energy strip to “Show Me How You Burlesque”.

After posing for pictures, we were done. It was early still and it seemed a shame just to go home when we were all dressed up, so we headed off to Backbar for some fabulous cocktails and delicious snacks. As usual, everything was great, especially the fig & pig jam and, I’m told, the Cherry Union cocktail. Stella had it as writ, but Scratch asked for it with vodka instead of gin. No shock, I had a champagne cocktail — a kir royale to be specific. Just as we were about to head out, our favorite bartender, Alex, brought over a wee dram of the violet sour milk punch. Amazing stuff.

Sunday we had our yard sale. We’ve been doing this burlesque thing for quite a while and have accumulated a lot of stuff. More stuff than we have room to store. Hence the yard sale. We had a lot of good stuff that has been supplanted by better stuff and we hoped it would go to someone who could use it. And a lot of it did.

I was delighted that we were one-stop shopping for singer Alissa Coates. She’s all set for her next gig with evening gown, gloves, and wireless microphone set. A small theatre company took some of the best audio and lighting equipment, including 2 really nice LED par 64s (listen to me sounding like I know what I’m talking about) for a bargain. Scratch even threw in a couple of pinspots for lagniappe.

Brigitte would write up the sales ticket that the customer would bring to Scratch to pay. And while she was at it, she also gave them a card for The Teaseday Club *and* her business card to remind them to buy tickets in her name. She likes to win…

There were a few items that are left from the Yard Sale, just in case you were interested… like 2 blacklights, a 1-ton beam clamp (aerialists know what I’m talking about) new in the box, some halogen worklights, and 2 torso mannequins. Interested? Let me know and we can negotiate.

Betty as Captain BurlesqueAnd here’s Captain Burlesque (aka Betty) wearing a few items including the infamous Spaaaace Apron.

M2

Published in: on 29 April 2013 at 3:31 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Warming Up Again

Dear Constant Reader,


Please vote for The Boston Babydolls once a day every day! We only have a few days left!

Last night, at rehearsal Evie was raring to lead a calisthenic warm up. I begged her for no squats; my knee was bugging me. While we all stretched the conversation turned to kickboxing workouts. Someone thought we each probably knew enough moves to have a warm up, but no one person knew enough to lead.

And so we ended up playing Minsky’s with some violence. Evie started with those knee raises where you’re slamming your enemy’s head. I picked cross punches. D.D. went with some crazy jumping jack variation. Stella did traveling jabs. Betty drew upon Kalari for ducking and striking with a heel kick. Brigitte was feeling silly and had us all dance Gangnam style. And there was more. It was exhausting, but we sure were warm!

M2

Published in: on 11 March 2013 at 10:21 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Expo-sing Ourselves

Dear Constant Reader,


Please vote for The Boston Babydolls every day! We’re down to the last days! Rally the troops! Tell your friends! Victory party if we win!

Every year The Boston Babydolls perform at The Great Burlesque Exposition. Sometimes we present a group number that we’ve done in our most recent show. Occasionally we create a brand new act just for The Expo, like last year. And like this year.

Scratch came up with the concept and the music, then Betty created a choreography. We’ve been learning it while we were performing in The Bod of Avon (usually we suspend rehearsals during a show). Last night Betty finished teaching it. Now we have 3 weeks to beat the hell out of it.

Our costumer is busily working away. Everything is being made brand-new for this act — nothing from our extensive closet. Rhinestones are on their way and I’m just itching to start making pasties. We’re all very excited!

If you want to see this thing of beauty, come to The Rhinestone Revue on Friday, March 29th. And that’s all I’m going to tell you about it.

And because voting is almost over, here’s a last little treat from our 2011 Victory Party. (Photo by Time Out Boston) That’s me, at the climax of my performance. The band held that final note for about as long as they could get away with…

mina_0511ttdbabydollsphoenix02

M2

Published in: on 7 March 2013 at 10:12 am  Comments (1)  
Tags: ,

Warming Up

Dear Constant Reader,

Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.

Ages ago I wrote of a game that Betty uses for warm ups sometimes. Just to recap how it works, Betty picks a dance move or combination and we all do it for 8 counts. Then I pick a move and we do it for 8. Then we do Betty’s move and my move and then the next person adds a move. Sometimes people early in the cycle pick something gentle, because we’ll be doing it a lot. Repeated spins or complicated combinations are not so nice to your fellow dancers. And besides, we’ll be speeding up as the music does and sometimes even making the moves more complex.

The other day Betty started, as is her wont, with 4 alternating hip bumps. Then I added shoulder shimmies, moving from side to side (known by some as a “head buffer”). So hip bumps, shoulder shimmies. All good.

Brigitte picked a jazz square with snaps. Hip bumps, shoulder shimmies, jazz squares. No problem.

Then it was Evie’s turn and she picked… squats. I think I’ve written before of Evie’s love of squats (part of why her ass is so amazing) and her love of inflicting them on us. Normally we do 3 sets of 10.

I think we did something like 6 cycles that included those squats (as well as all the other dance moves that got added on). We were certainly all warm! The day after I found that stairs were a challenge.

Tenderly yours,
M2

Published in: on 31 January 2013 at 10:58 am  Leave a Comment  

Rehearsing

Dear Constant Reader,

First, I just thought I’d mention that it’s time for nominations for The Boston Phoenix Readers’ Poll. We’d love to be Best Burlesque in Boston again and the first step is for you to nominate us. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you!

We are about to open our new show The Bod of Avon, so, as you might expect, have been rehearsing that heavily. However, the other night, we took a little time to work on some other upcoming events.

We’re reviving our July Project numbers. First we’ll be performing them at The Mardi Gras Ball (20th anniversary! 2 nights!) and then at a private event. Not only did we need to warm them up, but we had to talk about what changes we’ll make for each event. At the Mardi Gras Ball the stage (not very large to start with) is crammed with musicians, so we have to be fairly compact in our movements. The other event requested “bralesque” (i.e. not going down to pasties), so most of us need to revise our endings a bit to comply.

After running through everything for those shows, we were all a bit draggy and looking longingly at the clock. After all, we’d had a preview show on Sunday, a “Bod” rehearsal on Monday, and now another rehearsal on Tuesday. And Scratch had said we’d go out for drinks after. Then Brigitte said “Come on, bitches! Let’s do it!” (or something like that). And we nodded and all got into our costumes for the finale of The Bod of Avon.

It’s a 6-person number with some precision group moves. Lots of moving parts. It looks good now, but we know we can do better, so we ran it. Several times. Drilled it. Checked on small things, like positions of hands and feet. Made sure we were all closing our parasols in sync. Etcetera, etcetera.

You’ve voted us the Best Burlesque in Boston for several years now, and we work like heck to earn it. Even when we’d rather be having cocktails.

M2

Published in: on 24 January 2013 at 12:19 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Babydollmas

Dear Constant Reader,

This past Sunday the troupe celebrated Babydollmas. It was a little late, but everyone had scattered hither and yon for various family obligations and wild trips to Vegas (I’m looking at you, Evie Sphinx!).

We assembled for a festive meal (at a restaurant near B.A.B.E. — Scratch wasn’t cooking a third holiday feast) and exchanged gifts. Everything was rather appropriate to the gift-givers personality: Evie gave everyone wine, Brigitte handed out gift cards to that very restaurant (it’s a favorite for Babydolls to retire to for drinks after extra rehearsals), Betty picked out fun books, Devora stuffed cute socks with all manner of whimsical (yet useful) items, I made lotion bars & lip balm, Scratch selected vintage or handmade items from local artists, Stella made us all nuts*. Ba-dum-dum.

And what did I wear to this festive occasion? I know you’re all dying to know, O Reader.trousersThese lovely 1941 trousers in navy wool twill. Sadly, because it’s a dark color you can’t really see all the charming details, like the pleats in front (darts in the back) or the side zip (balanced by a pocket on the other side). You might just be able to make out the wide belt loops because of the contrast against the leopard belt. And they’re not vintage, I made them my very self. Hence the pleased aura that surrounds me. That and they make me feel like Katharine Hepburn.

You have requested more photos in my missives and I’m going to try to make that happen. My camera is a bit of a relic these days and the flash is balky. Still, I will do what I can to make you happy, Dear Reader.

M2
*As much as I’d like to leave it at that, and Stella does make fine spiced nuts, these were actually from a local company, and Stella picked the perfect flavor for each of us.

Published in: on 8 January 2013 at 9:42 am  Comments (1)  
Tags: , , ,
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »