Friday Tip!

Dear Constant Reader,

Today’s tip is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately.

Embrace failure.

You may be asking, “Why would I want to fail? Failure is bad.” Ah, but if you never fail, it means you haven’t set your sights high enough, Grasshopper. No one does everything perfectly right off1 and failure is normal. But failure isn’t the end. If you see it that way, you’ll never progress in your skills. Failure should be inspiration to keep improving. Challenge yourself. Allow yourself to fail and then work through it. Success will be that much sweeter.

Personal story: I once saw a performer do something amazing and I decided I wanted to learn how to do it. I was even able to take lessons from the master of the craft. Our upcoming show, The Bod of Avon was the perfect opportunity to debut this act. I knew it was going to be hard, but I envisioned something spectacular and that would be worth all the work.

Except I can’t do it the amazing thing consistently yet. It’s not ready for performance. It’s a failure.

I made the decision to remove that bit from the act. And it’s actually a huge relief. But that doesn’t mean I’ve just thrown it aside. I’m going to continue to work at it. You won’t be seeing it during the previews this month, but maybe at the show in February. Or maybe later in February. Or maybe in another show all together. I’m not giving up.

M2
1 Well, except maybe one former Babydoll, but she was a freak of nature — yes, I mean you, Dom.

Published in: on 4 January 2013 at 9:43 am  Leave a Comment  
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Almost There

Dear Constant Reader,

Just a quick note. Tonight is our preview/final dress rehearsal for The Wrathskellar and we’ve been busy, busy, busy getting ready. It’s hard to believe we open tomorrow!

As a little treat for you, we’ve been making video diaries of the rehearsal process. You can see some of them here.

Published in: on 4 October 2012 at 11:39 am  Leave a Comment  
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Rehearsing

Dear Constant Reader,

Primus, the book I was reading the other day was Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King. I’m a big King fan and think his short stories are some of his best work. (I’m also one of the Constant Readers of the Dark Tower saga, but that’s epic. How fortunate for me that this collection has a Dark Tower story.)

Secundus, we had one long, but hugely productive rehearsal last night. We started off with one of Evie’s evil, sweat-drenching, calisthenic warm-ups, to classic Bruce Springsteen tunes.

Then Evie and Devora went to work with our special guest, Richard Gilbert, a violence designer from Chicago, to create some fight choreography for their Danse Apache. And then he worked with Betty, Evie, and Stella for The Innocent’s initiation into the world of The Wrathskellar at the hands of The Countess and The Martinet. If you thought what was done in years past was disturbing, just wait…

The rest of us were not idle. Meredith, our costume designer, had brought sketches and showed them to us all. Everyone was measured and any existing pieces were pulled from stock. I can’t wait for the new pieces to start arriving!

Tertius, Brigitte and I warmed up “Mistress & Maid” from The Wrathskellar last year, which we will be performing at The 3rd Annual Salute to Bettie Page next Saturday. We’ll be modeling too!

We ran more than an hour longer than usual, but it was worth it. We have so much time, and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it.

Published in: on 16 August 2012 at 3:43 pm  Leave a Comment  
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The July Project

Dear Constant Reader,

In the space between winding down A (Re)Movable Feast and ramping up for The Wrathskellar, the Babydolls and interns are working on what we’ve come to call the July Project.

We each have to create a new routine with specific parameters. It has to be classic burlesque. It’s for a nightclub/bar audience. Minimal props. No set pieces other than a chair. Music is restricted to the songs on Shim Sham Revue.

Everyone drew cards to determine who got to pick their song first. Betty & I went last to be fairer to the newer ladies. I think everyone got at least one of their top 3 picks. I know I got my preference: “The Mooche”.

At rehearsal on Sunday we presented at least a minute with as much costuming as we had. Some people had almost a whole act ready, some more like a loose concept. It was fun seeing what everyone came up with.

I myself was somewhat less than prepared, as the time I had set aside for development was eaten up by rehearsing for The Devil’s Carnival. Still, I know that music extremely well and I managed to pull together something Scratch liked (and he’d let me know if he didn’t!).

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s further progress. I’m also looking forward to trying to find some time to make the last bit of my costume.

Published in: on 24 July 2012 at 11:32 am  Leave a Comment  

Teaching & Testing

Dear Constant Reader,

The Boston Babydolls have been busy preparing a new number for the Rhinestone Revue at The Great Burlesque Expo. We’re also busy preparing to teach. Most of us are teaching at least one class and part of each rehearsal is set aside so the instructor can try out her material.

So far, Betty has taught us about planning a choreography schedule, Devora has shown us ballet basics, and last night Brigitte got us all tapping (well, she was tapping; we were soft shoeing it).

Upcoming, we limber up with Evie, although it’s unlikely we’ll ever be as flexible as she is. Then it’s my turn and I’ll introduce everyone to fan dancing and then it’s Betty again with a class on facial expressions.

It’s been a great experience — the teachers get to practice their classes and get feedback before the real thing. We all get to take classes we might otherwise at the event. Win-win!

And this is just a fraction of the classes available at the Expo! If it sounds like fun, you should probably sign up for the conference.

Published in: on 26 March 2012 at 12:10 pm  Leave a Comment  
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More on Warming Up

Dear Constant Reader,


Vote for the Boston Babydolls!

Voting closes on Thursday!! Please vote for us every day until then!

We’ve been having so much fun trading off who runs warm ups that Betty jumped back in — with something completely different. She practices an Indian martial art called kalaripayattu and she ran us through some drills to make us think differently about dance moves.

We practiced high kicks and turns, which are done differently from the dance equivalent. As I remember, kicks involve recovering the momentum by taking the leg back and you should be trying to hit a target, not just lifting your leg high. When turning with a kick, the pivot is on your heel, not the ball of your foot.

Many of the Babydolls have a ballet background and much of these exercises were totally counter to their instincts. I didn’t have to fight against previous training — I just thought it was hard. And since it was just a 10-15 minute warmup, Betty didn’t inflict the jumps or squats on us. That’s probably next time.

It’s so useful to try other forms of movement and apply them to burlesque. I think it improves us all as performers.

Published in: on 13 March 2012 at 12:46 pm  Leave a Comment  

Warming Up Again

Dear Constant Reader,


Vote for the Boston Babydolls!

About a month ago I wrote about an exercise we use for warm ups. Usually Betty runs warm ups for us but we all decided to give her a little break and the Babydolls have been taking turns leading warm ups.

So, far we’ve had burlesque/ballet combinations from Devora Darling, calisthenics and balance exercises from Evie Sphinx, and last night, an introductory tap lesson from Brigitte Bisoux. It’s been so much fun trying different things! Not to mention hurting different body parts. Betty usually kills us with shimmies, but Evie tortured us with squats.

Eventually it’s going to be my turn, so I had best figure out what I’m going to do.

Published in: on 5 March 2012 at 2:33 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Warming Up

Dear Constant Reader,


Please click and nominate the Boston Babydolls for “Best Burlesque” and Naked Girls Reading for “Best Literary Gang”. Thank you!

At the start of most of our rehearsals Betty runs warmups. Usually, she runs us through our vocabulary of moves in combinations to at least three songs, increasing in tempo until we end with psycho surf — and a lot of shimmying. Sometimes we call this “Death By Shimmy”, sometimes “Gettin’ Sweaty with Betty”.

Occasionally we play a game instead. I think it was originally called “I went to summer camp and I learned…” but we call it “I went to Minsky’s…” or just “Minsky’s”. Here’s how it works:

The dancers stand in a circle. The first one demonstrates a move. Everyone does it with her. Then the second one does a different move. Then everyone does the first move and then the second move. Then the third dancer shows a move, then everyone does the first, second, and third. Et cetera, et cetera.

We generally do this for 3 songs of differening tempo, keeping the chain going the whole time. We repeat each move 4 times (or 8, depending), switching sides as necessary.

Not only it is fun and a nice change of pace, it’s challenging too — trying to keep all the moves straight and not completely exhaust yourself. (I’ll give you a hint, don’t pick a spin early on in the cycle…) Also, doing the same dance move to different music is a useful exercise. Things change and evolve when we switch songs. We learn a lot from one another as we search our different dance backgrounds for interesting moves.

Give it a try! You might be inspired!

Published in: on 2 February 2012 at 2:37 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Opening the door

Dear Constant Reader,

As I may have mentioned, I run a modest burlesque academy. Until recently, quite modest. We’ve been occupying a small studio, but we love it because it’s all ours. The opportunity presented itself to move to a new space, just a few doors down, and we jumped on it. We decided to do all the nice things that we always wanted to with the old space, like improving the lighting and having a real wood dance floor.

The studio is so much larger that we have a reception area and a storeroom. When you first walk into the studio this is what you see:

That’s the door to the storeroom, where we keep our costumes and props. Nice, isn’t it? Scratch does very nice work. I bet you didn’t know that besides being our director and producer, Scratch was also a talented carpenter.

If you were to turn to your left, you’d see a lovely Queen Anne desk, eventually with a smiling hostess sitting behind it. For the moment, behind it is a bunch of frightening power tools.

As we progress, I’ll keep you updated. And if you’d like to see the studio in all its glory yourself, consider signing up for a class.

Yours,

Published in: on 12 September 2011 at 2:55 pm  Leave a Comment  
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