Black Orchid Best of Burlesque competition finals

What a fantastic evening!! I spent the week looking forward to the final round of the competition... not only in anticipation of the new acts by Roxy Delilght and Miss Kitty Fay, but also because I was asked to perform and knew I would have an opportunity to get my tassles out for a change!! (And I do love getting them out!)

I attended a belly dance show last weekend and the dancers did a divine cabaret number to the Pink Panther theme tune and as soon as I heard it I though... ooooh yes! I must admit that the story line of Roxy Delights act last week inspired me to do something new and with a bit of a theme.. so thank you to the Delightful Roxy for the inspiration!

So on Wednesday I managed to get the music from a dear friend and started thinking about a costume... A mid afternoon call of desperation to Helna from Wolf clothing, asking whether she could make me an emergency corset by the next day... to which she kindly answered yes, and I was pretty much set.

I managed to burn my fingers on the soldering iron that I used to melt swarofsky crystals onto my bra... but it's minor compared to the burns I get on my knuckles every time I use my curling tong! (for which the results more than make up!)

Anyway... I had such fun putting together my costume and my mainly improvised routine... that the next thing I knew it was time to get dressed and ready to go.

I arrived at the venue at 10pm on the dot, but heaven forbid any Cape Town event should ever start on time, so by 10:30... the ball finally started rolling...

I am very happy to report that after a sever scolding from Lady Magnolia, our MC refrained from swearing at the audience until the very end of the show. (I'm not saying that I'm happy he swore at them, just relieved that it was only once... )

Roxy Delight did a fantastic act inspired by the Stepford wives (or so she told me... I am afraid that we don't have TV so I am actually quite clueless as to who they are... but I gather they are a rather demure bunch who occasionally let their hair down...) Roxy has such a classic, feminine burlesque way about her, I really enjoyed her act and loved when she ripped off her blonde wig and let her lovely long dark hair down. The judges were even left with a pie which they surreptitiously nibbled during the interval!!

Miss Kitty Fay did a very unusual and slightly contemporary number to a Kate Bush track... very theatrical and rather daring... which was fun to watch and very different to her first act. Since she was the winner, I'm afraid that she'll have us all doing the splits and handstands in our next show!!

There were a few comments from the audience while I was dancing about me being very much a woman... but I think it's just because I had the biggest ...

feather boa

of all the dancers!!! ;-)

I had such a fantastic time... I wish I could do it every night... I'm totally in my element up on stage...

Till next time... enjoy the pics..

courtesy of Portia Daniels and presumably friends and family of Roxy Delight...

Best of Burlesque Competition - Lady Magnolia on the judges panel...

I was honored when the Diva and Scar-Lit asked me to represent Black Orchid on the panel of judges... However, I'm not usually a fan of putting women in competition with each other (there's enough of that out there all the time already) so I was a bit nervous too.

I wore my new Wolf corset dress for the first time and LOVED it... it fits so snugly and feels extremely glamorous. Helna and Mark made the dress according to a picture that I gave them and it's perfect, I really reccommend them!

Back to the competition... I arrived and as usual, Gotham was SMOKEY and dark. However, I must have looked the burlesque part, as a little pathway opened up across the dance floor to let me through and I felt like royalty for just a moment... moments later however, my eyes started watering from the smoke and I was reminded that corset, hair and heels do not make one immortal or immune!

The competition started with a beautiful performance of 'Fever' by Diva Disa Star and Scar-Lit Hearts, with both of them looking beautiful and mischevious in their bustles and bras. It was great seeing them performing the routine now that I know it and can appreciate what goes into it.

Each contestant was really fantastic... from the first number to the last, we were entertained, teased and left wanting more...

I had so much fun!

I was really sad that 2 of the girls didn't make it through to the finals... I learnt something from each of the dancers and now need to get working on my act for next week... I have a few ideas, not quite sure how to put them into practise but will hope for the best...

Till next time
Lady M

PS Foxy... you were great... If you go down to the woods today... you better not go alone!

What is burlesque?

The following information is taken from the website http://www.blackorchidburlesque.com/, please visit the site for more information... It's just gone live and is not finished yet, (we are still waiting for the nipple tassles to twirl!) but hopefully you will enjoy your visit!

The inevitable question everyone asks is- what is Burlesque?

Directly translated, Burlesque means "in an upside down style". Burlesque does just that, it turns societies' opinions on their heads.

Burlesque usually incorporates dancing girls, variety acts, boisterous Singers, Vaudevillian magic and specialty acts. Think vintage glamour, corsets, feather boas, pasties and fascinators.

Movies like Moulin Rouge made Burlesque jump into the 21st Century, but this time-honored art form has been around since the early 18th Century across Europe and America.

People are conflicted about Burlesque's more risque origins, as it relates to what is now called Strip Tease. Burlesque today is not what you would find in the strip clubs, but rather a classier and cheeky version of this entertainment, where the focus is on what you are hiding rather than what is being revealed.

Artistes wear glamorous and lush costumes, use mood appropriate music, and perform acts with a satirical and saucy edge. Over the years, Burlesque has become multi-faceted, with sub-genres such as Neo-Burlesque becoming a popular source of bawdy entertainment around the world. The common factor is always the parody and cheeky comedy associated with this theatrical entertainment. A few well known Burlesque stars are Gypsy Rose Lee, Tempest Storm, Betty Page and the ever-gorgeous Dita Von Teese.

While Black Orchid's performers stay true to the roots of Traditional Burlesque, they also add a modern day twist to a classic art form. This makes Black Orchid Burlesque the leading representative for Neo-Burlesque in South Africa. Raucous and breath-taking, Black Orchid's Artistes promise to leave you wanting more!

Fetish Geisha part 2

Hmm... a few too many glasses turned into a few too many bottles of wine I'm afriad and I got up to a lot of mischief which did not include finishing this blog post... However, here I am with the final half of the Fetish Geisha transformation...

Firsly let me say that I did lots of research on the net for Geisha make up and hair but wanted to fit in to the Goth scene too so I went quite overboard... However, upon arriving at the club, I realized I could have done a lot more and still looked relatively normal compared with the majority of the audience! I love the way my hair turned out.. I used 3 peices of fake hair, tied into buns and pinned them to my head and then combed my own hair over the buns. I wish I had enough hair not to need the fake bits.. but alas.

I used the body paint from Trygve's movie to do the white face and spent ages trying to get it all even and smooth... You can't see the delicious red glittery lips in the pictures but I loved them too!

Did I mention that I sipped on a whiskey for some dutch courage while applying the makeup?

So off we went, my partner and his delightful daughter in tow... As I said before, as soon as we arrived at Gotham, I realized that one really and truly CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH MAKE UP ON in a goth club!

We stood in a little passage way and waited to be toldby our manager Fox that it was time to take to the stage, Trygve admiring the photo's on the wall of nipples clamped in clothes pegs... This made me a little nervous... I wasn't even wearing pasties... let along pegs!

Anyway, the time came to take my teetering (have you seen how high those heels are?), corseted body onto the stage and flutter my silk fans... My beautiful chinese music sounded completely out of place and throughout my whole performance I felt like a happy little butterfly... the soundtrack in my head singing "happy happy happy... I'm so happy". This was funny because the audience were all dressed in black and there wasn't a smile to be seen from anywhere in the smokey venue! I eventually started feeling desperate and sidled up to Helna, of Wolf Corsets... in my opinon the Goth Queen of Cape Town, and did a little shoulder shimmy with my silk wrapped around her neck! She managed a slight grimace!

Thank God my music came to an end and I took my happy little butterfly self back to the passage and the safety of my stepdaughter and the encouraging smiles of Diva Disa Star and Fox. 'At least they clapped for you... that doesn't happen often in this place' said the Diva.

Goth club conquered!! Next is the Halloween party, Horror Hospital.... I don't know why they can't just have something GLAMOROUS!! Hopefully the traditional burlesque will soon catch up with the beasties stuff... I don't know how much horror I can handle.

Till next time

Lady M

Fetish Geisha - my introduction to the Goth scene

Well, it's not every day that I'm asked to perform at a Goth club... My absolutely crazy and fabulous troupe mistress, Diva Disa Star, informed me that my first 'Beasties' gig would take place at a club called Gotham and would require me to dance with my red silk fans, dressed as a geisha and preferably to oriental music.

Now the oriental music bit was one of the fun parts and rather fortunate for me since my taste in music leans heavily away from the deep garage basement independant heavy metal sort of stuff that they tend to play in clubs like Gotham. For those of you in the know, I humbly ask your forgiveness, I have no idea what the musical term actually is, and so far no one has been able to tell me. I have repeatedly asked the Diva to please supply me with a CD of above mentioned music so that I can aquaint myself with it's nuances, but to no avail.. Perhaps on reading this post... hint hint!

So heavy metal aside, I needed to find some oriental music that would work for my little fan number... Fortunately I am blessed with students from all walks of life, including a delightful woman named Sue and her daughter Amy who are from China and who saved the day by inviting me for tea while choosing some music. To be quite honest... the plum tea they served was the highlight of my day!! I raved so much about it that poor Sue parted with about 10 of the precious imported dried plums and I have been living on the delicious stuff ever since. Sadly, I am now all out of plums.

Back to the music... we listened to CD after CD... too fast, too slow, too frantic, too mellow... Eventually I asked for any 10 songs and rushed home to transform into a princess for the first gig of the evening... That's my other life, but not the one in question on this blog... so I'll let you wonder why I needed to transform into a princess. Princess job down, I rushed back home to let the real transformation begin.... 2 hours worth of hair and make up squeezed into an hour and we were off to Gotham.. with me feeling rather nervous and out of my depth.

But now... my darling step daughter has just arrived and I'm off for drinks... so I shall have to leave off here and come back later... after a few too many glasses of wine I'm sure, to complete this tale...