Rustiqua at the Tribal Summer Camp 2014! <3

Rustiqua

And registration finally opened for the Tribal Summer Camp 2014! This will be the second edition of this event, which includes a weekend of workshops with amazing Tribal Fusion bellydance teachers, and a gala event that gathers some of the most amazing Tribal Fusion dancers in Europe!

The guest stars/teachers this year are the Eslovakian troupe Rustiqua, which is one of the most respected European Tribal Fusion troupes due to its quality and very innovative choreographies. You can't even imagine how excited I am about being able to study with them! <3

As I said the registration has just opened, and you better be fast because the early-bird prices last until the end of March and the first spots have started to sell already! You can find more info about it in the facebook event page. And If you need some eye candy to convince yourself, have a look at Rustiqua's performance at last year's Tribal Fest 2013 below:

Jazz History Through Times & hairstyling

Today and tomorrow in Kulttuurikeskus in Espoo! This is a very special event organized by Clyde Wilder (New York, USA), Malin Grahn and the Helsinki Traditional Jazz Dance Company, that presents the story of the slaves of West Africa in their journey to the States and the dances that developed influenced by the culture they brought with them. You will be treated to a wide collection of different dances and styles, including African mask dances, charleston, lindy hop and blues. Check the facebook event page for more info!

Both Clyde and Malin have plenty of years of experience in the field, having studied in the States from the very sources, and having also researched these dances and the culture related to them in depth. Malin teaches in a few places in Helsinki, and they will both be performing together with Malin's students. 

left: the girls at the HBF13, picture by Atelieri O. Haapala
costuming by Anni Laanti and Fiona Timantti
right: Malin Grahn and Clyde Wilder, picture by Nuppu Linnavuori,
dress by Anni Laanti

I first met Malin about a year ago at the Vapriikki Vintage event in Tampere (which is happening this weekend!), when I styled her hair and that of three of her students that were teaching and performing charleston in that event. Since then I have had the pleasure of helping her with hairstyling a few times, and I will be doing so again today and tomorrow, together with my dear friend the modist and stylist Fiona Timantti (who is also one of the dancers). 

left: 1920's style hair at Vapriikki Vintage 2013
right: 1930's style hair for Malin, dress by Anni
Laanti and makeup by Miia Magia

Winter wonderland <3

Unless you live in Finland, you may not know we've had "Black Christmas" this year, which means there was no snow during Christmas. As a matter of fact we've only had snow in Helsinki since about a couple of weeks. Why is this such a big deal? Well, when you live in a place so far north that you only get a few hours of daylight during winter, having snow makes a huge difference. I specially like it when all the trees and bushes end up with all their tiny branches completely covered in snow, it really looks like Winter Wonderland! (remind me I said this around April, when I can't take snow anymore :-D)

winter wonderland <3

Yesterday we had a really fun day at my Tribal Fusion teacher's place. She lives in a small town called Järvenpää some 30mins north of Helsinki, in the cutest little house with a lovely yard and an absolutely SUPERB sauna! The day started with two hours of dancing and sweating, after which some of the other girls and me started to get food and sauna ready. A proper old-school wood-fueled sauna like hers takes around two hours to warm up properly, and the furnace has to be taken care of regularly by feeding it more wood every 20 mins or so, but it is so worth it! It was just a pity there wasn't more snow, because winter sauna is usually best when you can roll on the snow in between! ;-D

path leading to our teacher's house

After sauna we had some delicious food and s few drinks in good company. I must confess I'm not much of a party animal and you'll rarely see me in bars (unless I just performed there), but I sure love a nice relaxed party with lovely people. 

The evening was perfect even when we arrived to the railway station and realized the next train back home was leaving in about 40mins, because that gave us a chance to head to the closest pub and enjoy a warm jallu cocoa (Jaloviina aka Jallu can probably be described as some sort of Finnish Brandy, even though it is not a Brandy). 

Because Finnish winter! <3

Tuesday, sweet tuesday!

Definitely one of my favourite days of the week, and that's because I get to DANCE! I've been studying a bellydance style called Tribal Fusion for the last two years, and I must confess I'm totally hooked (if you get to follow this blog you'll probably end up seeing a lot of posts about it). It's a relatively new bellydance style, that has its roots in another bellydance style called ATS (American Tribal Style) and mixes it with other dance styles such as flamenco, hip hop and indian traditional dances. The outcome is absolutely mindblowing! The movements look mesmerizing and unnatural, as if the human body wouldn't be meant to move that way, and of course this required TONS of hours of practicing!

Luckily I have a wonderful teacher that kicks out butts, and keeps us motivated :-)

Here goes a picture of some of the members of our tribe Kaira Tribe, with our hot redhead teacher Laura Luna in the middle! And the season has actually just started, so if you are interested in giving it a try I recommend you get in touch through her website or facebook account :-)

"The Allure" by Asko Rantanen

Website finally open!

Welcome to my website/blog! After lots of pondering and some convincing I have finally decided to put the website up! In here you will be able to find all kinds of information about me as a burlesque performer, but also about my other two passions: vintage and Tribal Fusion bellydance. I will probably be posting a lot of things that I won't post on facebook, so stay tuned! ;-)

And to begin with, here goes a picture of one of my greatest inspirations, the turn-of-the-century exotic dancer Ruth St. Denis <3