Vermont Burlesque Festival, Saturday part 2

Dear Constant Reader,

For the first two parts of this account, go here and here.

I think we arrived at Higher Ground before the show actually started, checked in with Kyla, and headed to the Chinese restaurant next door. A chicken and vegetable stir-fry is one of my favorite pre-show meals, so that was perfect. The photo is kind of dark, but we’re all wearing LBDs and the matching jackets Betty made for us, plus our rhinestone name necklaces from Scratch. The other 4 Babydolls have incorporated their demon horns for our number into their hairstyles.

After a relaxing dinner, we headed into the venue, which was completely sold out. We found a place to stand, way in the back, and watched some of the first set. After a while, my feet started to hurt and I went to the “Big Room” where the groups were set up. Betty and I sat under the warm lights on the stage and stretched. Just after the first intermission was over, Scratch came and got us because he had procured seats up front.

We got to see the second set of the show from the luxury of the second row and then we scampered off to the Big Room to get dressed and warm up for our number.

The show was unusual for a festival in that many of the performers from the previous night performed again. And a couple of the headliners performed twice. It made for a very long show. A few highlights from the bits I did get to see:

  • Miss Astrid: she’s one of the best MC’s in the business. A pleasure to watch her rip people up one side and down the other.
  • Jonathan Bitchman and Quechee George: a burlesque of burlesque to “Maple Syrup Time/Pour Some Sugar on Me”. So funny. So local. Nice scarf work.
  • Everybody who sang. Especially those who sang and stripped. That’s a challenge!
  • Scarlet James: So beautiful.
  • Lili Von Schtupp: Dirty and oh so funny. And she used a song from The Wet Spots which would have won my heart if she hadn’t already done so years ago. You can see her performing at The Expo in less than 2 weeks!
  • Cha Cha Velour: Her Bearded Lady number was quite touching.
  • Alexa Luthor: She performed a charity strip for a local cancer center. She tossed her gloves and hat into the audience and they came back full of money.

    And then there was Ray Gunn. My God. Of the three Stage Door Johnnies, he was the one I had not seen perform before, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting this show. He did “Trust Me”, the act that won at BHoF. I was stunned into silence. Later I was able to see how the snakey movements initiated in the core, like he’d shown us in class, and really appreciate what an excellent dancer he is. However, at the time all that was on my mind was that I had never seen anything so sexy on stage.

    And on that note, we all scrambled off to the Big Room to get into our costumes, touch up our makeup, and warm up. We were presenting “Hell”, our very first ever group number, although it has improved vastly in terms of dance and costume, it’s still the story of a sweet young thing (me) seduced by demons (everyone else).

    There wasn’t a lot of communication between the crew and the performers and it was impossible to hear the stage from the dressing room, so I was getting really anxious about getting to places on time and staying warm. Finally, we stepped out on stage and started.

    Scratch later said that it was as well-executed as he’d ever seen us do it, which is high praise from him. But I could tell we just didn’t have the audience. The lights came up on us in position before our music started and those few seconds of dead air just sucked the audience’s energy. There was a lot of energy on stage, so I hope we won them back. Also, it was *very* late at this point and a lot of the audience had left at the previous intermission and I could tell that many of those that were left were just tired. Frustrating.

    Still, we were happy with our performance when we came off stage and wriggled into our Babydolls t-shirts (our standard attire for curtain call) and rushed out into the house to see Ray Gunn again. We all perched on the back bar, which was a great vantage point. He premiered his Dandy act, which just blew me away. His musicality was stunning (I believe I said something unfit for delicate ears). He’s one of those rare dancers who looks like his movement is creating the music*. And the music itself was terrific: strong and powerful.

    Then we heeded the pleas of the stage crew and took our places for curtain call. It was kind of a cluster with so many performers cramming in the back hall. I managed to get separated from my fellow Babydolls and had to sneak on with Green Mountain Cabaret.

    And here’s absolutely everybody:
    (Photo by Michael Z. Rork at Zinfandel Photography)

    And that was the Festival!

    The recap of Sunday is: we drove to Boston, we went straight to the studio, we rehearsed, I went home, I slept.

    M2

    * My former bellydance teacher Taj is another one. Her dance “War Drums” has the same effect.

    • Published in: on 30 January 2014 at 11:55 am  Leave a Comment  
    Tags: ,

    Vermont Burlesque Festival, Saturday

    Dear Constant Reader,

    If you’re just joining me, read about our Friday here.

    We began our Saturday with Bloody Marys and bacon at the Performer Brunch. There are so many Babydolls that we filled a whole table, but we managed to find a little room for Ray Gunn to join us. I just loved Lili Von Schtupp’s classy breakfast attire — a union suit, complete with butt-flap. Miss Astrid was in her Kate Valentine guise and I didn’t recognize her at first.

    Then off we went to the Burlesque Bowling charity tournament. We discovered that as bowlers we are excellent burlesque dancers, but we had a lot of fun. This was the first time Betty experienced “real bowling” instead of candlepin (Massachusetts born and bred!), but she turned out to be one of the best bowlers on our team. Betty won the first game and Brigitte the second (with a last minute strike!), coming ahead of Scratch, which was unexpected. I wasn’t half bad myself. I got a spare in each game — the first I’ve ever scored. Still, the absolute highest total score was 84, so “best” was completely relative.

    You can read local news coverage of the tournament here.

    Our proudest moment was winning the world’s most unprestigious trophy for “Best Dressed”. And this is why!

    And from the back:
    (Photos taken by Cha Cha Velour)
    It’s not so clear in the photo, but the shirts say “Dolls with Balls” and have huge rhinestone bowling balls. Scratch, not being a Doll, has the devil on his shirt, of course, also enhanced with some rhinestones.

    Then back to the hotel. Stella and I opted for naps. Betty headed off to take class with Lili Von Schtupp. Scratch, Brigitte, and Devora went downtown to go shopping and came back with some great finds.

    Then it was time for tech. Higher Ground, that night’s venue, is practically next door to the hotel and a really easy walk if it wasn’t ridiculously cold. Thank goodness for the Tassel Taxi. No surprise, but tech was running late. They were trying to move it along with “tops & bottoms” — just the beginning and endings of each act. Scratch pulled rank as headliner and had us not only jump the queue, but run the entire act. I felt like a diva going ahead of other performers. I hope no one was too resentful.

    Then Betty and I rushed off to Ray Gunn’s class which was supposed to be starting right that minute. The Tassel Taxi wasn’t going to be coming for half an hour, but we fortunately managed to catch a lift (but I’ve been sworn to secrecy as to with whom). Class had not yet started when we got there. The first class had started late and everything dominoed from there, getting later and later.

    Soul Fire Studio is lovely with mirrors and a wooden dance floor, but I wish the classes had been held in a conference room at the hotel, just for logistical purposes. One less place to travel to might have been easier on everyone.

    Eventually Scratch caught up with us. He’d been ferrying the other Babydolls back to the hotel. Class started with a light warm-up, then moved into some Bartimieff exercises (no, I’d never heard of it before either), which were awesome in their evil focus on the core. We were split into 2 groups for this and I will point out that our instructor did everything with each group plus the demonstration, which means he did something like 5 or 6 sets of ratcheted push-ups to the students’ two (that is, if we could manage even two sets).

    This was followed with some across-the-floor exercises to practice walking like a man. A bunch of the women had trouble, but so did some of the men. We ended with a short combination. I knew I was in over my head dance-wise, but if you play it safe, you’ll never learn anything.

    Then we took Ray back to the hotel and began getting ready for the show. Again, Scratch had okayed it with Kayla that we were going to miss call, but we would absolutely be ready well before our number. Considering that the show was going to last many hours and we were 4th from the end, that was an easy promise to make.

    I think I’ll save the show itself for my next missive.

    M2

    Published in: on 29 January 2014 at 11:17 am  Leave a Comment  
    Tags: ,

    Vermont Burlesque Festival, Friday

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Friday morning Scratch, Betty, and I piled into the Babydoll-mobile and headed for the frozen North. And I’m not kidding — it was well below zero in Burlington. We arrived with just enough time to have a little rest before our tech rehearsal at the evening’s venue, a nightclub creatively called Venue.

    I know you were all worried about the whole decency ordinance and my g-string. When we checked in, they summed it up as “No penis, no vagina, no sex on stage”. No problem.

    Performers all got goodie bags — these chic Monday Night Tease packs filled with useful items for keeping warm, like books of matches and snazzy Vermont Burlesque Festival scarves.

    Tech was running late and there were some lighting issues that slowed things down further. As it was approaching 6 o’clock, I was getting worried about getting into hair & makeup (my April March transformation takes a lot longer than my usual face & ‘do) and getting something to eat and getting back in time for call at 7. Scratch squared it with Kyla, the stage manager, that we would be there by 8pm, without fail. That extra hour was a godsend.

    Back at the hotel, while Betty and I got ready, Scratch ran out to get us dinner. He is so good to us. By now the 2nd shift of Babydolls had arrived in Brigitte’s zippy little car and got ready to head over to the venue (Venue) and get their drink on.

    A brief digression: One of the things I love about The Expo and BurlyCon is that they all happen under one roof. This festival, like most I’ve been to, was in multiple locations. Granted the evening venues were walking distance from the hotel — if it had been June (remember the negative temperatures?). So it was lovely that the event eased the burden of transportation with the “Tassel Taxi”, a couple of large vehicles shuttling between the hotel and other sites. It really made things easier. Especially if you wanted to get your drink on.

    We arrived a hair before 8, as promised, and headed backstage. There was a small but toasty warm dressing room and a spacious green room with a huge spread of performer snacks: a vast variety of cut fresh veggies and fruit and a little candy. Just about perfect.

    First up was the short film “It’s All That Glitters”, which is a companion to the book of the same name. The performers who were photographed were also asked, on camera, to define burlesque, in their opinion. I was rather disappointed. I know there were about 100 interviews but only tiny number made in into the film. And there was a *lot* from the same few performers. Not that they didn’t have valid and interesting things to say, but I would have liked to have seen more breadth.

    I’m not going to recap the entire show, because that’s boring and I spent a lot of time in the dressing room or green room getting focused and ready, so I missed a whole bunch of acts.

    Some memorable moments:

  • Vera Wylde: Great physicality and awesome cane work.
  • Kitty Kin-Evil: She did a very classic number and totally owned it.
  • Ellie Quinn: Very creative use of assels.
  • Lili Von Schtupp: Great shoes! A very good host and truly foul-mouthed. I was wishing Klaus from The Wrathskellar was there because the jokes were right up his alley. Turned out Scratch was texting him some of the better ones.
  • Caramel Knowledge: Nice pastie-punchline.
  • Cha Cha Velour: I love her Gypsy Valentine number. It’s so high energy. And I enjoyed chatting with her in the dressing room.

    • Betty closed out the first act of the show with “Betty, It’s Cold Outside” and she just killed it. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her and Dino do it better. The audience was going absolutely nuts!

    Scratch performed in the middle of the second act with his “Martini Time” magic trick. Again, it was as good as I’ve ever seen him do it.

    I was starting to get nervous about living up to the expectations my troupe-mates were setting. And I was starting to wonder, given the large number of neo-burlesque acts, how well a Legend Tribute was going to go over with this audience.

    I was 3rd from the end. So, when the performer before me (I think it was Merrique Hysteric) started, I headed for the icy-cold waiting room. Kyla came in on her way to the dressing room to get me and realized that I, like my comrades before, was at places. We’ve been trained well. She brought me into the wing (such as it was) to wait, which was so much warmer, thank goodness.

    Lili gave me a very nice (and serious) intro. My music started, I channeled The First Lady of Burlesque, and stepped out on stage. I know I had fun. I hope the audience did too.

    Afterwards, Scratch said “You looked like a headliner.” And that was all I needed to hear.

    And here we all are:
    (Photo by Greg Gouwens @ G-2 Photography)

    It took me a little while to strike my prop and pack everything up. Although there was an after-party, we were pretty beat and headed back to the hotel. No rest for Babydolls yet! Despite it being 1AM, we had a little rhinestone party to give the costumes for our group number a little more sparkle.

    And I’m awfully grateful to the hotel for having hot beverages available in the lobby round the clock. That hot cocoa was just what I needed.

    Still to come: brunch, bowling, classes, and another show!

    M2

    Published in: on 28 January 2014 at 9:50 am  Comments (5)  
    Tags: ,

    The Boston Ruby Besler Twisted Holiday Cabaret

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Last night The Boston Babydolls were delighted to appear in Ruby Besler’s Twisted Holiday Cabaret. I think this was Ruby’s first East Coast appearance. Well, first & second, as there were two shows, early & late.

    We were in the back room at The Burren in Davis Square, which is an interesting place to perform. The ceiling over the stage is a little low and there were Christmas decorations hanging from it. We had to be careful, especially Brigitte with her cane, me with my fans, and Betty with, well, her amazonian stature. The dressing room scored high marks, especially for one in a bar.

    Ruby is a very funny, proper, and dirty lady from 1947. She has a great deal of advice to impart to the audience, done in part by song. I particularly enjoyed her method for getting a fella. Very simple — sit with good posture, then uncross and recross your legs. Easy to remember with Ruby’s little ditty: “tummy in, neck long, shoulders back, here’s my beaver.”

    It was like that all night long — advice on the advanced techniques of fellatio (“tap, tap, tap”), the best way to “jig the fig” (to a rhythm that suits your purpose), &c.

    We Boston Babydolls performed one solo each between Ruby’s lessons and Brigitte doubled as stage kitten.

    Betty started things off with “Blue Christmas”, which we call Mrs. Clausawitz. I think your imagination can take it from there. If not, you should be able to see her performing it on the Ali@Night show on YouTube soon.

    Brigitte took a break from kittening for a high-energy tap dance to “Nut Rocker” with a spiffy light-up cane (from the workshop of Scratch).

    Devora frolicked en pointe to “Snowfall”. Sexiest snow angels ever.

    Scratch did a brand new magic trick in which vermouth bottles kept appearing, to his surprise, all to the tune of “It’s Martini Time”.

    Stella tried to hitchhike home for the holidays to “Burlecue”. Observant fans will note that she was carrying The Innocent’s suitcase with “Fame or Bust” replaced with “North Pole or Bust”. No comment about Stella’s bust.

    I closed out the burlesque with my fan dance to “Sugar Rum Cherry”. It’s one of my favorites and a crowd pleaser too. If you missed it, you can see a video here from the first time I ever performed it.

    And that was the last Boston Babydolls show of 2013!

    M2

    Published in: on 31 December 2013 at 1:17 pm  Leave a Comment  
    Tags:

    Brrrrlesque

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Friday night we took our winter show, Brrrrlesque to Laugh Boston, a brand new comedy club in the Westin Waterfront hotel. It’s a pretty sweet venue — cushy green room with direct access to the stage (you’d be surprised how often that doesn’t happen) and super helpful staff.

    The only drawback is the stage itself. Like I mentioned, the venue is a comedy club, so the stage is perfect for stand up. Not so much for dancing en pointe, walking on chairs, or 5 dancers flourishing silk veils. And the lighting is kind of dim, despite the spotlight we brought in. But we managed.

    I promise you a look behind the curtain of my glamourous burlesque life and here’s a peek. I had a couple of bad moments on stage. The key is not to let the audience know that something is amiss. Or as best as one can.

    Our opening number is “Factory Elves” (it’s “Factory Girls” from Madame Burlesque with some Christmas touches) and I walk down a series of chairs. Twice. Normally I’m pretty confident, but that night the chairs were wobbling all over the place. The second time through I do a little butt bump as I step each chair. I knew that was a bad idea, so instead, I grabbed the back of each chair and stuck my butt up in the air. Brigitte said it looked like a sexy crawl and not like a panicked attempt to keep my balance.

    My next appearance was with a hula hoop. I was very aware of the size of the stage and I was using my LED hoop which is the smallest in my collection. Still, I would occasionally hit the curtains behind me and I was very aware of the lighting bar just overhead. And the audience was at tables quite close to the stage. Although when the mishap finally occurred, it wasn’t because the size of the stage screwed me up. I just missed a catch, but before I could grab the hoop again, it went right off the stage and into the audience. Thankfully it was returned to me and I went on with the routine, not even having missed too much of the next verse.

    The rest of the show went more smoothly for me. Thank goodness. I think “Sugar Rum Cherry” was a high point of the 2nd act.

    Back to the good stuff. We had a special surprise guest in the audience. After the show, Evie Sphinx revealed herself to the Babydolls. She’s been out of state doing school stuff so there was much squealing & hugging.

    The very next day Brigitte and I were supposed to open the showing of Bettie Page Reveals All at the Coolidge Corner Theatre at midnight. Because of low ticket sales due to the snow storm, the theatre canceled the movie, so we didn’t get to present “Mistress & Maid” (which was inspired by Bettie Page and Tempest Storm). I was already beautifully made up when we got the call and it seemed a shame not to put that face to good use. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll show you what I did.

    M2

    Published in: on 16 December 2013 at 2:14 pm  Leave a Comment  
    Tags: ,

    The Teaseday Club 12/3/13

    Dear Constant Reader,

    The Teaseday Club opened for members on December 3rd. Sadly, there were only about half the number of guests as in previous months. The late Thanksgiving really messed with everyone’s schedule, but those who were there got a real treat! Once again I was in the box office, so my reporting is a little spotty.

    Scratch hosted the show. Our stage kitten was Naughtia the Elf. Photos were taken by Aaron Macks.

    Set 1
    Lucie Luxe, reigning Cookie Queen, reprised her chair dance to “Toxic”.

    Rory Raven brought up an audience member and showed her his long Christmas wish list. She was asked to choose where he should cut it and then read off the item at the top of the new shorter list. Another audience member was summoned to whom Rory had given a sealed envelope before the show started. She opened the envelope and read off the very same item from the list. Amazing!

    Vikki Likkerish performed an act I haven’t seen in a long time. She danced out to “Almost Like Being in Love” wearing pajamas & slippers and carrying a toaster (what the heck?). After stripping to a more showgirlish outfit (including heels!), she gleefully climbed into a bathtub and dropped in the toaster. And shimmied and shook as she was “electrocuted”.

    James Earl Bones appeared at The Teaseday Club for the first time. He performed in the second year of “The Boston Babydolls’ Out for Blood” and boy, has his act become even more polished and impressive. I couldn’t do it justice. Let’s just say it involved comedy, stripping, feats of flexibility (he passed his body through unstrung rackets of increasingly smaller sizes) and balance, and tasticle* twirling.

    Set 2
    Peril S. Curves opened up the second set in one of her elaborate costumes. I only caught a glimpse because someone wanted a ticket.

    Scratch did a little bit of the impossible by making a bottle of booze vanish. Not the contents — the whole bottle.

    Lucie Luxe performed a humorous striptease to the old classic “The Stripper”.

    Alissa Coates sang “How High The Moon”.

    Vikki Likkerish performed her crowd-pleasing Muff ‘N Mix.

    Set 3
    Rory Raven returned and I think did something miraculous with a deck of cards. Once again, someone had the impeccable timing to need a ticket right at the start of a set.

    James Earl Bones astounded and appalled the audience with some contortion. This was not pretty, I-can’t-believe-she-can-sit-on-her-own-head, Cirque de Soleil contortion. This was freakish, painful-looking contortion that made you wince. And hearing him calmly announce, in his Australian accent, that is was going to dislocate his shoulders now, made it even worse. Yet, no one could look away.

    Alissa Coates, seasonally appropriate, sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.

    Peril S. Curves closed out the show to her gloriously showy Fan(ny) Dance. I think this was the first time a merkin** graced the stage at The Teaseday Club. Well, graced a performer on the stage. It stayed where it was supposed to.

    And who won The Great Teaseday Cookie?

    For the first time in the history of The Teaseday Club we had a tie! The cookie was shared by Lucie Luxe and Peril S. Curves! You’ll see them both on January 7th.

    M2
    *It’s a thing. Just ask Jonny Porkpie. And yes, the tassel was exactly where you think it was.
    **Think g-string without the string. Now stop thinking about how it stays in place.

    Published in: on 5 December 2013 at 11:47 am  Leave a Comment  
    Tags:

    UConn Post Script

    Dear Constant Reader,

    I know I was a tease yesterday by mentioning that we learned from the source why there is a tap dance prohibition at UConn, but not sharing that information with you.

    We originally thought it had to do with marring the stage surface and suggested bringing a tap board for Brigitte, but nope, no tapping allowed.

    The culprits told Scratch that they were members of the college Tap Team and last year a dancer fell on stage and split her chin open. After that, all tap dancing was banned as too dangerous. And the irony of it all is that at the time of the accident the wounded dancer wasn’t even tapping!

    Also, I forgot to mention that a reporter for the campus paper was at the show and raced home to get this story into the next day’s paper.

    M2

    Published in: on 4 December 2013 at 9:40 am  Leave a Comment  
    Tags:

    The Boston Babydolls at UConn

    Dear Constant Reader,

    The Boston Babydolls were invited by the frightening sounding SUBOG* to perform at the University of Connecticut yesterday. I was excited because we’ve never managed to have a show in Connecticut, my home state, although we have performed in all the other New England states.

    We knew this show was going to be a challenge from the beginning:
    1. Betty and Stella would still be away for Thanksgiving. Fortunately, Brigitte, Devora, Scratch, and I were available. And Corinne Southern was able to be our Special Guest.

    2. We had to keep our bras on. That required some re-choreographing of every striptease.

    3. The theatre had hardly any lighting, so we had to bring down our own, plus a tech crew.

    We dealt will all those issues. No problem. Then about a week and a half before the show, the school asked if we were doing anything dangerous, like pyrotechnics, knife throwing, or tap dancing. Tap dancing? Umm, like Brigitte’s tap piece to “Nut Rocker”? Not something she could just do as a soft shoe, so she rechoreographed the whole thing as quickly as possible.

    Then we got a request for a private show. It happens a lot at the holidays. But this party was on the very same night at the college show. Scratch summoned the Legion of Substitute Babydolls and arranged what I’m sure was a fine show from Dagny Vanderlust, Ginny Nightshade, and BettySioux Tailor.

    We arrived on campus. There were thousands of people eager to cheer and holler. But not for us. Did you know that UConn has a basketball team? Yeah, The Huskies. They’re kinda popular. And they had a game exactly during our show. So, our audience was the tiny percentage of students who would rather see boobs (albeit in bras) than basketballs.

    Still, it was a fine show. We each did two holiday-themed acts, one strip and one variety, plus two group numbers. Scratch did some magic, of course. And we all did some classic (that means corny) burlesque comedy bits. The audience, small but mighty, appeared to be having a great time.

    Two of the gals in the audience explained that the no-tap-dancing was their fault. No one would take credit for the no-pasties rule.

    If you’d like to see what the show looks like with 5 dancers, pasties, and tap dancing, we’ll be presenting it at Laugh, the comedy club at the Westin Waterfront on Friday, December 13th and the House of Mood in Rhode Island on Saturday, December 21st.

    Just before we got on the road I learned that an article I wrote will be published in volume II of “Berlesker: Handcrafted Literary Journal”. I’m so excited!

    M2
    *Student Union Board of Governors

    Published in: on 3 December 2013 at 12:34 pm  Leave a Comment  

    Busy Boston Babydolls

    Dear Constant Reader,

    I just wanted to take a minute to let you know what was going on with your favorite burlesque troupe in December.

    On December 2nd, Brigitte, Devora, Scratch, special guest Corinne Southern, and I will be at UConn, entertaining the students before the dark pre-finals days. I’m irrationally excited about this show because Connecticut is the only New England state in which we have *not* performed. And my home state.

    The very next day, December 3rd is Teaseday! Come on down to The Teaseday Club at The Davis Square Theatre. It’s likely I will be in the box office.

    December 13th, all The Boston Babydolls will be at Laugh, the comedy club at the Westin Waterfront with Brrrlesque.

    The next night, December 14th, Brigitte and I will be doing a little pre-show entertainment at the midnight showing of Bettie Page Reveals All at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

    The following Saturday, December 21st, we’ll be down in Rhode Island at the House of Mood for another performance of Brrrlesque with special guest Dagny Vanderlust. In fact, will we giving *two* performances, one early, one late.

    We’re back with our last performance of 2013 (maybe, there’s always a chance to squeeze in one more) on December 30th in The Ruby Besler TWISTED Holiday Cabaret at The Burren. Two shows, so you have no excuse.

    M2

    Published in: on 1 December 2013 at 10:00 am  Leave a Comment  
    Tags:

    Mama Toma’s Burlesque Show

    Dear Constant Reader,

    Every once in a while I get to attend a burlesque show as a member of the audience. Almost all the Babydolls went to the debut performance of Mama Toma’s Burlesque show in part because 4 of the dancers, Dagny Vanderlust, Delilah Spring, Ginny Nightshade, and Amber BuTáne, are B.A.B.E. alumnae and most of them have also performed in a couple of Boston Babydolls’ shows and we wanted to support them. And as it turned out, Molotov Maybelle (in The Wrathskellar with Dagny & Ginny) was the stage kitten.

    The show was at “The Space”, a newish art venue in reclaimed industrial space — I think it was once a garage. It was BYOB and had kind of an illicit houseparty vibe. We had been warned that seating was limited and the layout was a little weird. Both statements were accurate. There were a couple of couches, chairs and coffee tables hither and yon (contributing to the feeling this was a party in someone’s large living room). Brigitte got there early and staked out a patch for us with, as it turned out, a pretty good view of the performances. Before we knew it, the place was packed and the audience was definitely encroaching on the dancers’ space…

    The opening act was a harpist who played some original music and sang. It was decidedly non-traditional harp music, tending toward the experimental. On the first song she used a bow on the strings as well as her fingers, just to give you an idea. It was certainly interesting and different, but I’d say the set was was maybe a song or two too long for this audience.

    Then the main set began. Mama Toma is a drummer and the burlesque dancers were backed by her band — 2 vocalists and, I think, 5 musicians. Although it was advertised as a steampunk show, they’re really a rock & blues band. In fact, Betty, in the audience, was the most steampunk-attired person there. I was expecting original music, but I believe it was all covers.

    I admire the dancers for doing their best in a smallish, crowded space with an uneven floor. Dagny’s first number was a chair dance and my heart was in my throat watching her. Remember that uneven floor I just mentioned… her otherwise very sturdy and stable chair (I know, because we generally use the same model) was rocking and tipping all over the place. She handled it, but it made for a more exciting act than I’m sure she intended.

    Dancing to live music is awesome. There’s an energy that’s impossible to replicate with recorded music and it was a lot of fun to watch. All the dancers were clearly having a great time. I do wish the drums hadn’t been miked so aggressively — I spent much of the evening with my fingers in my ears. So glamourous.

    A few of my favorite moments:

  • Delilah’s final tease with her feathered hipbelt.
  • Dagny in rare classic style — gloves, gown, and fur wrap.
  • Amber’s complete confidence and coy flirting.
  • Ginny’s dance to “Paris”. It was the best act I’ve seen her do to date and a real stand-out.

    • The encore song had all 5 dancers in robes, posing and teasing, then grabbing audience members and pulling them up on “stage”. Betty was one of the ones chosen and she never turns down an opportunity to dance.

    And here’s a picture of the whole crew from Betty:
    Mama Toma cast

    I especially want to give credit to Dagny, who was lead choreographer, costumer, and did a lot of management work.

    After we dropped Brigitte off, Scratch & I realized we were starving and happened to be in the neighborhood of Myers + Chang. There was parking right there. Score. Vikki Likkerish was behind the bar. Double score. And the kitchen technically closed 10 minutes before we walked in… However, we were told if we ordered quickly, it would be okay, and it was. More than okay. The food there is always fabulous and the staff is wonderful. An excellent end to the evening.

    M2

    Published in: on 26 November 2013 at 12:57 pm  Leave a Comment  
    Tags:
    « Older Entries
    Newer Entries »