Friday 18 April 2014

1 weekend, 5 costumes!

I don't even remember last time I've been this tired! I had a week full of work (and some double shifts), and I've been coughing more or less for the last two weeks, so I was already pretty tired by the time the weekend began. On Saturday I performed at an event called Kevätuhri (The Rite of Spring), with a bunch of other lovely Finnish performers. I was originally booked to perform only one act, but unluckily enough three of the performers got sick in the last moment so some of us performed twice to fill in the gaps. 
My first act of the night was one of the "extra" ones, and I decided to go with my Absynth Fairy act (which is the first act I ever performed and I'm happy I still perform it). It's such a silly and easy to understand act that I most often perform it at private parties, but it was fun to do it at a burlesque event for a change!

La Fée Verte
pictures by Jari B. Miettinen

My second act that evening, and the one that I was meant to perform originally, was an act that I last performed at a public gig almost two years ago. The main reason is that the makeup change takes quite a lot of time, so it requires that I'm either only performing one act that evening or that I have pleeeenty of time to do the makeup again, which is something that rarely happens. 
I luckily did have plenty of time to get ready last Saturday though, as I first performed early in the first set and I had the honour of being the last performer of the night too. I also realized how the first time I performed this act was the same day in which I met the mindblowing fellow performer Sir Willy Waterlily, who was also on stage last Saturday, how cool is that? <3

backstage silliness with Sir Willy Waterlily

My Fuyu Momiji (Winter Maple) Geisha act is the second oldest act I still perform. The costume and the choreography have slowly developed ever since I first performed it, but the whole act got a major revamping this time, when I finally managed to replace the old corset with an actual japanese style (over 4m long!) obi belt! Besides the costume upgrading, I also had the chance to refine the choreography by including more authentic japanese moves, which we learnt from at gorgeous Cherry Typhoon's workshops both this year and a couple of years ago (arigatou Cherry-chan, and kiitos Bettie Blackheart for bringing Cherry to teach us! <3). I must confess I'm starting to be much more confortable with this act now, so I'm really looking forward to performing it more often in the future! Maybe even somewhere nearby YOU! ;-D

Fuyu Momiji
pictures by Jari B. Miettinen

The day after the event we had a group video and photo shooting in Orimattila, and even though I did not stay to party after performing I didn't really get much sleep either! Luckily enough for me, my gal Gigi Praline (who herself lives in Orimattila) came to the show the previous night and offered me a ride with her, so I got to wake up in Orimattila in the morning and to sleep a couple of hours more. We had the shooting with Asko and Nadja, who aren't only extremely talented (Asko with the camera, and Nadja as a painter!) but also absolutely adorable <3
We recorded both our Crazy Kitties and Aurora Borealis acts' videos (hoping to be able to perform abroad with the gals!) and then took some pictures of the Aurora Borealis costumes. Unluckily enough we run out of time at the venue, so we had to move back to Kaisa's place. By then we were all quite dead, but we took a few nude pictures for a painting project Nadja has, and still a few in my Mata Hari costume as well, also for Nadja to paint. 
When we were finally done with all the pictures, we got to eat some absolutely delicious vegetable borsch with smetana and homemade bread and cheese that Gigi had cooked for us. Oh my, that really felt like heaven! <3

guess who was tiiiiiiired :-D
pictures on the right stolen from Sandy

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