August Performer Spotlight: Ursula Undress

1. How did you come up with your stage name and tag line?  Does it have a special meaning to you?

It actually just popped into my head one day, and I mentioned it at the meet-up and told everyone "Don't steal that! I am sitting on it a while", then, as you well know - Chrystal Shawnda Leer died a quiet death while performing at an Unknown Hinson show, and was reincarnated as Ursula 

2. How did you get started in burlesque?

Before I moved here, I had already been looking at the scene and within a couple of months of moving, I went to a meet-up and met some amazing ladies! You (Katherine Lashe), Talloolah Love, Sadie Hawkins...you guys made me feel so welcome! It was nice to have an outlet for my love for the theater.

3. What has been your best moment as a performer so far?

Hrm....I think it was the first time I performed at the Texas Burlesque Festival...it was so awesome to have friends drive in to see me and be in my home state as a real performer. 

4. What is your favorite act to perform?

I think it is my Star Trek one just for the sheer joy of hearing the audience....they love the costume and the stoic face....and the Trekkies are awesome about it! 

5. What is your burlesque dream show?

OH MY STARS!!!  It would have everyone! Michelle L'Amour, Dirty Martini, Trixie and Monkey, Jo Boobs, Indigo Blue, The Jigglewatts, Ruby Revue, Perle Noire...so many more that I can't list here. And of course Satan's Angel would be there, and I would choreograph the largest strip tease that included EVERYONE in the Atlanta/Athens scene!!!

6. Where do you see your self in the next five years?

Hopefully still running The Atlanta School of Burlesque and producing shows regularly. I would also love to perform in Europe. 

7. Tell us something outside of burlesque that you are involved or interested in.

I actually have an art degree, and love to paint & draw. Currently, I sometimes design handwritten fonts. I am also getting into doing DIY stuff in my house. A pallet-wood headboard is in my near future!

8. What do you think is your greatest skill, not including burlesque?

Other than sex? (HA!)I think I am good with people.... 

9. What are you most looking forward to this year as a burlesque performer? As a civilian?

As a performer, I look forward to some collaborations that I have in the works. As a civilian, I look forward to taking up yoga again and working on my house.

10. Who is your favorite performer to watch? 

I could watch Lola LeSoleil all day! She's always interesting and innovative and so well poised. And all of her numbers are completely different!

2014-06-29 Last Pasties Standing: Motown Showdown

Not long after we moved the Syrens of the South Tease Tuesday shows to Red Light Cafe a second super awesome burlesque show popped up there as well called Last Pasties Standing that is produced by the ever amazing Sadie Hawkins.  Sadie's vision is a ridiculous game show of improv and intrigue!  Each show has a theme which dictates the music that will be used for the acts.

Here's the description from the website:

"Last Pasties Standing is a burlesque game show in which two (8, actually) will enter, one will…. well, nobody will end up wearing much.

This show is all about on-the-spot, creative improvisation and audience response. Eight burlesque-a-teers will take the stage and create spontaneous performances in head-to-head strip-offs to songs selected right as they get on stage. Who does it better? That’s for the audience to judge. Winners will go on to the next round, playoff style. There are additional burlesque-themed games inviting audience and performer participation, as well.

Join us for a night of spur-of-the-moment striptease and silly, sexy fun!"

So how this works is that each performer brings 3 costumes (one for each round) and you find out who you're up against and what song you'll be performing to by the luck of the draw.  The audience decides the winner of each pairing and they go on to the next round.  In the case of a tie they become a duet, another tie they become a trio, etc... until at the end of the three rounds there is a winner declared.  The winner gets bragging rights and assorted crappy prizes!

After months of this amazing event happening I finally got to go see the June 29th Motown Showdown.  The show was silly and fun, full of ridiculousness and a a great time.  Watching the performers pull the routines out of thin air along with trying to make their chosen costumes work with their given song was really an amazing show of skill.  The performances sometimes got really weird, you can tell a lot about the performer by what their default improv styles are, but they were always fun to watch even if they were kind of a train wreck because of not being familiar with the song or trying to duet a trio with people you had never even met, let a lone worked with, before.  The winner was Benjamin Elizabeth and she was very excited about her crappy prizes!

The shows are one Sunday a month and a seriously fun time.  I highly recommend going and enjoying yourself immensely.  The next one is on July 20th at Red Light Cafe.  Doors are at 8pm, show at 9pm and it's usually done around 11/11:30ish so you can still get a decent night's sleep before you go to work the next morning.

2013-02-09 Vixen's Valentease Burlesque Show

Each year Syrens of the South's two biggest shows are our Toys for Tots show and our St. Valentine's Day show.  I get the Toys for Tots show, it's the holidays, you don't have to be around your family and you get to help bring joy to children who would other wise not get anything for Christmas.  Valentine's Day, you're dragging your date out to watch other people get naked...I feel like we're either a preview for their evening or acting as a fluffer to help get them in the mood.  It's the most intimate I feel with our audience every year, either way I'm involved in the naughtiness that may be going on later in the evening.

Each show we pick a charity, this show's charity was Good Mews.  Good Mews is a no kill animal shelter that takes in cats and either cares for them there, finds them foster homes or permanent families.  They have been around for 25 years and have found homes for almost 7,000 cats.  A friend had told me that they had just lost their ability to get free litter for the cats so that was what we decided to have people bring to get in for half price, cat litter.  Sounds weird, right?  Well it kind of was, but it was for a good cause.  

The show itself was amazing!  I am so thankful to have so many amazing performers willing to come get naked with me on a Saturday night!  Special thanks to The Five Spot, out MC Cutty McGill, my Stage Kittens Victoria Rose and Sarah Femme, Lah Lah Luscious, Tru Bliss, Chad Sanborn, Edie Akimbo, Post Modern Collapse, Sally Strumpet, Evelyn Harleen Cassidy, Vivian Kyle, Secret City Burlesque, Moxie Minx, Sadie Hawkins, Persephone Phoenix, Sham Wow, Fonda Lingue, Lola LeSoleil, and The Gentlemen Callers.  All of these amazing people put together an amazing show to a sold out, standing room only audience.  We were able to fill up our Good Mews volunteer's car full of kitty litter to help them with their amazing efforts.

It is so amazing to be in the six season of Syrens of the South shows.  Hard to believe how time has flown by, here's to another six!

4 Week Begining Lyra Classes

Sadie Hawkins Photo by La Photographie Nashville  

About a month ago I was done with Dracula: The Rock Opera, I was done with Imperial OPA's Masked Charade and was closing on the end of my semester and had a month before Atlanta Xmas Apocalypse... what was I going to do with my time?  I mean, I had to finish up school but I was going to have all this free time on my hands and we can't have that!  My friend, Sadie Hawkins, (who is an amazing performer with many aerial apparatuses, burlesque and fire) happened to post that she was going to be teaching a 4 week beginner lyra class series at Kinetic Hive that fit perfectly into my month off!

It was both easier and harder then I thought it would be.  I had taken a few classes from her maybe three(?) years before so some of it I had done before, but that didn't mean I remembered any of it.  The class was small, there were only three of us, so with Sadie showing us what to do we each got about 15 minutes on the lyra per class.  That does not sound like much, but as we were all beginners none of us needed to be on my longer than that as it's a very intensive work out that uses all of your muscles. We worked on different mounts, positions, and moved fairly quickly through a bunch of different things in a very short period of time.  So there I was, hanging from the ceiling, sometimes by only one hand and maybe one foot, doing splits in the air, sometimes upside down and sometimes doing flips around the ring.  Yeah, is under a month she had us doing flips and they were awesome!  I will say that I was often sore and ended up with bruises in places that made me look kind of like a battered junkie whore, but they were all worth it!  My word of advice is this: after class, drink about a liter of water (I drink water that has electrolytes in it) and take some Ibuprofen before you go to bed.  This will help keep your muscles hydrated and keep them from getting too sore.

Even at only one night a week I feel a lot more confident about being up on the lyra and I am planning on taking more classes from her in January.  Also, Kinetic Hive has some Aerial Jam time which means that you can come in and spend time with the aerial equipment to work at your own pace with lots of other people.  They also have an aerial conditioning class to help build up muscle and flexibility for aerial skills.  I am seriously thinking of doing some drop ins for those before the classes start back up in January so I don't loose any of my skills or strength during the break and can go further with this.  I am not really planning on performing on lyra, but this is a great time that is way more fun then going to the gym!