Studio Burlesque Atlanta

Back around the end of November, beginning of December, I'm sitting in Ursula Undress' kitchen and she's about to explode with excitement.  For a few months she had told me that she'd been working for a new client, what I didn't know was that the client was going to change the face of Atlanta burlesque.  She had been approached by a gentleman that wanted to start the first all burlesque studio in Atlanta and she had many meetings and had become the Artistic Director of what would end up being Studio Burlesque Atlanta.

She said she was a little nervous about talking to me as I've been running the ABCs and 123s of Burlesque Classes through Syrens of the South for years and have trained a great majority of the Atlanta Burlesque scene at this point.  However, we no longer had our own dance space and relied on other studios to allow us rental time in order to be able to have the classes.  I spent a great deal of time working on classes schedules, wrangling teachers, press, and having to try to wrangle up students.  I love teaching, I really do, but I got paid just like all the other teachers, any additional money went to studio rental or in the kitty to make sure that we had money in case a class came up short.  It was very stressful.  The idea of just getting to show up somewhere and teach was wonderful.  So I closed up shop and threw my hat in with Ursula and hoped for the best as she began collecting additional teachers.  (I do still offer private one on one classes and group classes for parties and stuff, I'm just sayin')

One of the things that Ursula and I have been pushing for is a greater sense of community in the Atlanta burlesque scene.  That was one of the reasons we've worked so hard over the years to get the Southern Fried Burlesque Fest up and running and now she had the opportunity to bring in performers from all over Atlanta and give them a home in which they could teach their individual styles of burlesque and give students and opportunity to find the teacher that suits them best since not every teacher and every student are going to be that perfect mesh.  People teach differently and people learn differently and you need all types to get everyone in the game.  I think this is going to be an amazing opportunity for not only the students, but for the more experienced burlesque performers in town to share their love and knowledge and to give out of town guests a place to teach when they pass through.

The studio opened on January 7, there is currently a Living Social deal for 5 classes for only $29 (saving you $46 or 61%) if you get it before Tuesday, January 22nd.  Some take some classes for cheap and find your burlesque style!  Wednesdays I teach Beginning Burlesque at 6:30pm and Fun and Flirty at 8:30 (Sadie Hawkins' GoGo class is sandwiched between) and Saturday at 11am I teach GoGo Shimmy Shimmy (I tend to go more Shimmy and Sadie's more GoGo) which is sandwiched between Ursula's Fun and Flirty at 10am and Beginning Burlesque at noon, so you can come take from me or one of the other amazing teachers at the Studio.  Personally, I'm addicted to Fonda Lingue's Ballesque class at 6:30pm on Mondays.

2013-01-17 7 Stages Home Brew Series: Mass Transit Muse

On Monday I received a phone call from Heidi Howard, the new Artistic Director of 7 Stages, asking me if I could hop in to Stage Manage a show she was directing this week because the person who was going to be running it had a family emergency.  I was told we'd have rehearsal on Tuesday and the show would be on Thursday.  Of course I said yes because I love 7 Stages and I love a challenge so it sounded like an amazing opportunity to jump into something new.

So I show up on Tuesday with no idea what's going on, what the show is or at this point that it's just a workshop and we're not actually putting on a full production in one rehearsal because, after, these things have happened before.  The gig turned out to be for 7 Stages new Home Brew Series where new plays are being work-shopped before becoming a full blown production.  The show is Mass Transit Muse by Michael Molina, he is a wonderful spoken word artist originally from New Orleans that wrote a book with the same name which he was using as the basis of the play.  It was amazing to come in to see how quickly it developed with Michael doing the spoken word, Dorothy Bell as the Musical Director and singer for the production and Lillian Ransjin as co-choreographer and lead dancer and Manny Rivers on guitar.  The production team was rounded out with Keiron Bone as co-choreographer and Jessica Caldes doing Set and Video Design.  The rehearsal flew by with amazing movement and vocal choices and listening to Michael's haunting words about one of my favorite cities, New Orleans.

Wednesday, we did not have rehearsal, I decided to head over to head over to Java Lords after teaching over at Studio Burlesque and ran into Heidi in the parking lot.  (figuratively, not literally)  She kidnapped me and we headed over to The Highland Inn Ballroom for Write Club since Michael was invited to be one of the spoken word artists.  I had never heard of Write Club before, they give spoken word artists topics and have them compete against each other, two at a time, with the audience voting with applause and a panel of judges determining who received the loudest audience reaction.  The winner of each bout got to have money donated to a charity of their choice.  Michael did a spoken word section from Mass Transit Muse and was the champion of his bout, his winnings going to 7 Stages for which he also had a chance to plug the Thursday night workshop.

On Thursday we did a brief run through before the show at 7:30pm.  The weather was terrible and we'd already received many calls that people were afraid it was going to ice over or *gasp* snow, no time for theater if the white horror is going to fall from the sky, time to stock up on milk and bread for all those milk and bread sandwiches everyone always eats in the winter.  (Seriously, I have no idea why it's milk and bread)  However, we had about half the space full which was more then we were expecting with the weather so we were very pleased with the turn out.  The show was amazing, maybe a third of the script had blocking and music, the other two-thirds were on book but there was still some song and movement through out when ever the cast felt inspiration hit them.

After the show there was a Q&A section where the audience could ask questions and give feed back about what they thought of the performance.  Overall, everyone else seemed just as in love with the performance as I was, lots of comments about, 'I hate spoken word, but this was amazing."  There was a lot of discussion about the other and everyone's perception of the other and the distance we put between ourselves and the unfamiliar and unknown.  I think the audience had some great questions and there was some great feed back for everyone to take back with them to improve.

Mass Transit Muse is currently slated to be the closing production for 7 Stages 2013-2014 season in April/May of next year.  I am thrilled to say that I will be stage managing this production when it hits the main stage next year!  I cannot wait to see where it goes with such an amazing start!

The next Home Brew Series is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer on Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 6:30pm at 7 Stages in the Black Box theater.  Price of admission is FREE, though they will gladly accept donations towards the theater and this program to help new works get to the stage!

2013-01-13 Kitty Love's Sultry Sunday Lucky 13 Show

This past Sunday I was lucky enough to get to be the Mistress of Ceremonies for an All-Star Show here in Atlanta, GA!  Kitty Love began her Sultry Sundays at Red Light Cafe two months ago and for her third show she pulled out all the stops.  With the Reigning King of Burlesque, Russell Bruner, along with Mistress Kali from NOLA coming to town, she booked a show to match the amazing talent level coming in!  The show included the belly dancing talents of Madame X and Haideh, the sultry songbird Lah Lah Luscious, The Magic of Chad Sanborn, Stormy Knight, Sunny Midnight, Talloolah Love, Ursula Undress and of course Kitty Love.

The show was amazing!  Everyone brought their A game and the show really was everything that is wonderful about Atlanta Burlesque.  Since it was Russell's first time in Atlanta everyone was excited about being in the show and even the performers that weren't in the show were excited to come be in the audience!  The crowd was almost as star studded at the stage with Kisa von Teasa and Rosey Lady of Salome Cabaret in town from Knoxville, TN, Sadie Hawkins was easily as entertaining in the audience with her intermission exhibitions as some of the acts on stage, Bourgeois Betty, Lola le Soleil and the Mouth of the South Miss Mason were all in attendance.  This was the glitterati of Atlanta Burlesque, who knew all it took was a little royalty to bring everyone together!

Red Light Cafe, it has some good and bad points.  Good: nonsmoking for all you nonsmokers and also means it won't make your costumes smell if you're a performer, beautiful red curtain backdrop, decent lighting and site lines, easy going very nice staff, free parking, lots of seats!  Bad: location of the stage is really far from the dressing room so you have to walk through the audience but it does give them a thrill while you do it, the stage kind of small and carpeted so just make sure you have the right shoes on for that kind of stage, drinks and food are a little pricey, but they are all super tasty!

I think the show has a lot of potential, Kitty is still very new to producing and has a few things she needs to work out, but I think it could go well.  Though the turn out wasn't bad I think it could have been better with some marketing or at least a press release going out.  The city of Atlanta had an amazing show and I don't think enough people knew about it and ended up missing out on something special.  I wish her the best and hope to get to come back as Mistress of Ceremonies again sometime as it was the most fun I've gotten to have in a while!

Stungun Photography was there to take lots of amazing photos, including the one of Russell shown here.  You can see more of the photos in their gallery HERE.  They're the amazing photographers that shot at Dracula and AXA in addition to countless other shows.  I am a huge fan of their work and am always excited to see them snapping away in the audience!

Happy Holidays

Pic by Studio Adrian

So the holidays happened.  I really wasn't in the holiday spirit at all.  Maybe I was disappointed the world didn't end because that meant I had to go Christmas shopping which I had put off because of being too busy with everything else.  After AXA I had the plague and pretty much missed Christmas by living on my couch pretty much from Saturday after AXA closed until Wednesday when it was pretty clear that if we were going to make it up to Tennessee to do the family rounds remotely during the holiday season we'd have to get going.  So we left Wednesday night and went to Oak Ridge, Newport, Knoxville, Chattanooga and then home by Friday night so we could get some rest since Good Golly Svengali had a show Saturday night.

Highlights included getting to see The Hobbit.  I don't actually remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater.  It was awesome, reminded me of my childhood from where my dad read me the books and I would watch the cartoons on the amazingly old VHS player (that I am pretty sure my dad still has) and sing along to the songs with my animated friends.  Also, I made my dad a Sockthulhu which is a Cthulhu done in the style of a sock monkey.  Probably the most awesome present I gave anyone this Christmas.  Dad thinks I should sell them, maybe I'll work on that later this year.  I ended up making three, two prototypes to make sure I knew what I was doing before the final one that I gave to Dad.  The Good Golly Svengali show was a lot of fun, they opened so it was a short set but lots of fun.  We ended up at a friend's house for an impromptu holiday party.  It was a great time and I got to see lots of people I hadn't gotten to hang out with for a while for a lot of silliness!

Sockthulhu I made for Dad

New Years ended up being a whirlwind starting out at Java Lords then two different friend's houses to do run-bys to be social.  Over all it was a nice way to spend NYE.  I typically avoid going to bars and clubs because all the amateur drunks come out and make my life hell by being really annoying because they have no idea how to drink with out making an ass of themselves.  Yes, I realize that kind of makes me sound like either a drunk or an alcoholic.  However, that who drinking responsibly it exactly what I do, I don't slam shots, I space out my drinks and I know what my tolerance and limits are and that's what I drink.  Seriously, it's so rare that I am actually drunk, let alone black out stupid drunk, that some people I know don't believe it's possible.  (It is possible, but it's not pretty which is why I don't let it happen very often)

Jan 1st I spent alternating between being lazy and productive so that's a good sign for 2013.  I'm a fan of balance.  I've been asked a few times about resolutions...I have mixed feelings about resolutions. People usually pick goals they can't achieve because they're unrealistic.  There will be no I will work out 5 days a week as that's unrealistic.  I go back to lyra next week and am going to try to do my yoga DVD once a week.  I'd like to do one photo shoot a month to help build my portfolio.  There are some burlesque fests I would like to at least apply to since I missed a bunch of application deadlines last year and had to resign from a bunch due to Stage Managing Dracula.  So nothing overly stressing or unattainable and fairly realistic and if it doesn't happen because I get super busy and other things come up, that's fine too.  Things happen and who knows, maybe something much cooler will come up then anything I had planned.  That's what happened with Dracula and that was amazing!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I hope that your 2013 is amazing!

2012-12-21 Atlanta Xmas Apocalypse

So the end of the world was supposed to happen on Dec 21, 2012...obviously that didn't happen.  To celebrate this auspicious occasion, 7 Stages with The Little Five Points Rock Star Orchestra decided to put together a holiday show hosted by Santa with  Satan, Black Jesus, The Grinch, Scrooge, Mrs. Claus, Krampus singing while there was burlesque, aerials, sacrifices, crucifixions, pericers, suspensions and more Virgin Marys then you can shake a stick at!  This was actually their 4th year of having a blasphemous Xmas, however, with it being the end of the world they decided they were going to step it up a notch!  I was lucky enough to be asked by Heidi Howard, the director, to Stage Manage. I also worked with Dee Dee Chmielewski on costumes (most either she had made for the previous years or she and I raided and altered out of our personal stashes) and some how I let them talk me into performing as well.  And did I mention that we put the whole show together in under a week?

We had some meetings a few weeks before to go over an outline.  The Friday  one week, before the show we had a band rehearsal so they could get familiar with the music.  Monday we had a meet and greet to go over the outline of the show, assign final parts and talk through everything that we needed to do while the band hand one last music rehearsal with just them and the singers in the other room.  Tuesday, we brought in the band and staged the first half of the show.  Wednesday we ran through what we had already staged and then finalized the staging for the end of the show.  Thursday we had our preview show with a modest audience, mostly friends of the performers that couldn't make it out for the show on Friday due to other commitments.  Friday, the most awesome, amazing show in the whole world!

By Stungun Photography

I am always amazed yet never surprised by what this group can accomplish.  After working with most of them during Dracula, we definitely have a comfort level for working together, but A WEEK?  Seriously, everything came together in the amazing cacophony of chaos that only worked because of everyone's dedication, perseverance, and willingness to never say no but always saying "yes, we can totally make that work!" no matter how weird or insane an idea was.  I am honored to get to continue to work with this amazing group of people and I was so glad that I was able to pull in some of my burlesque and circus family into this show.  I keep joking that I am happiest hiding in a dark theater, but really I am happiest being around amazingly wonderful and creative people!

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!

2012-12-08 6th Annual Tits for Toys for Tots Show

Flier by Design Kitty Studios

So last night I produced the 6th Annual Tits for Toys for Tots show for Syrens of the South at The Five Spot.  Each year we've managed to collect a bunch of toys to send home with the marine at the end of the night.  This year his car was so filled that there were still four or five boxes left behind for a later pick-up!  One of my favorite things about our holiday show is that it embraces all winter holidays.  Sure, we have lots of Christmas references, but we have also had visits from the Chanukah Fairy, Solstice fairies, Kwanzaa tributes, or just wintery snow angels gracing the stage and this year was no different.

We opened the show with Good Golly Svengali playing some amazing tunes for the crowd who got there early to ensure seating as we were standing room only again this year.  We did have a special guest MC for the show, Mr Cutty McGill was cracking jokes and introducing the acts for us on Saturday.  He's done a lot of work with 7 Stages over the years and we were thrilled to have him come play with us and he did an amazing job so I do hope he'll want to come work with us again in the future.  This show had a lot of firsts, Victoria Rose, Persephone Phoenix, Tru Bliss and Brie Brioche did their first show since graduating in August and they all did an amazing job!  Bourgeois Betty graced our stage again, but this time as an Atlanta local!  We had some Syrens debuts on stage as well, The Gentleman Callers from Athens did an amazing group boylesque routine that made me smile so much my face hurt and Vivian Kyle graced our stage for the first time with her amazing burlesque trapeze act where she went down to pasties for the very first time and Nipsy Tussle traveled all the way from Salome Cabaret in Knoxville to be a part of the holiday fun.

Photo by Fritz Pietrzak

We also had some of our long time Syrens veterans, Chad Sanborn dazzling the audience with his amazing magician skills, Rosie Palms (aka Kitty Love) doing her Christmas Island routine that has become a holiday staple, Brandy Noir shaking her martini, Ursula Undress debuted an amazing new routine that was tongue in cheek, or I guess I should say tail in cheek!  We also welcomed Burnadette Cinders back to the stage for the first time in almost 2 years!  Her last show with us was when we opened for The Dresden Dolls right before she left for maternity leave, we were thrilled to welcome her back into the family this past Saturday because that's what you do around the holidays.

We did have one bitter sweet moment with D'lilah D'lite as this was her last show with us as a local Atlanta performer.  With the new year she will be starting her new life in NOLA.  She has been an amazing performer, the queen of our pastie sweatshop, and has been teaching vintage hair and pastie making for Syrens for years now and has been a part of our family.  We all wish her the best and though we will miss her I guess this means we'll have to make a point to visit NOLA more and make sure to book her as a guest performer when she's in town!

Thank you again to everyone that came out and brought toys to help us bring some holiday cheer to those a little less fortunate.  Syrens of the South's next show at The Five Spot will be on February 9 for our Vixen's Valentease show and we hope to see you all then!  Charity is TBD, we are happy to take suggestions!