Hot In HELLsinki-Burlesque Spring Partee!!

And even more exciting things happening in May! I can now also announce I will be performing at the Spring event in Helsinki, which is hotter than ever so this year it's been renamed Hot In HELLsinki-Burlesque Spring Partee!
Besides your trully you'll be able to find some of Finland's hottest performers, together with the "Dark Prince of Burlesque" Raven (all the way from Berlin/Australia!) and gorgeous Italian beauty Nuit Blanche.

More info and tickets from the facebook event!

Paljettipommi vol. 2 released!

Wooot, this is what the postman brought today, the second volume of Paljettipommi (the first and only burlesque magazine in Finland)! Packed in a lovely envelope by the force behind it, dear friend, burlesque performer and Paljettipommi's producer Kiki Hawaiji! 

I'm utterly honoured to have had the chance to be part of this second volume, together with burlesque legends Satan's Angel and Kitten de Ville, and many of Finland's best <3

Picture by JIRINA (www.jirina.fi)

Paljettipommi is born!

On the 23.8 I had the great pleasure of being part of a historic event, since Paljettipommi was born! <3

Our dear Kiki Hawaiji, who is one of the people who brought burlesque to Finland, put tons of time and effort into creating the very first Finnish burlesque magazine (Paljettipommi = Sequinbomb), and a bunch of us who have been performing longest got together to celebrate it at the release party. It was so much fun! We were mostly asked to perform our very first acts, which in my case is my absynth fairy (of course with an upgraded costume, the old one was falling into pieces!), and some acts were seen that haven't been performed in years.

The magazine is written in Finnish, and it's full of articles featuring both Finnish and international performers, such as the original King of Boylesque Tigger! Even yours trully got a few lines ;-)

Looking forward to the next release!

Paljettipommi release party, all pictures by Jari B. Miettinen
Up left: Kiki Hawaiji, Up middle: yours trully, Down left: The Itty Bitty Cabaret,
Right: Kiki Hawaiji and Bettie Blackheart

My profile at the London Burlesque Festival website

Ok everybody! I don't remember ever asking for something like this, but I need your help now! If my profile page at the London Burlesque Festival website gets 300+ likes I will get extra publicity in their website, which is something I could really use! So if you have an extra minute please click on the link below and like my LBF performer page, no registering needed nor any further actions! thank you so much <3

(and of course, feel free to share too!)

Pepper Sparkles

Helsinki Burlesque Festival Week 2014 <3

I'm back! The whole festival was once again so absolutely mindblowing, that it took me this long to catch up with everything else and be able to write again. I can begin by saying that even though every year feels like the festival has already reached the top of awesomeness, producers Bettie Blackheart and Frank Doggenstein, and the whole Helsinki Burlesque crew manage to put together an even more epic show, and this year was no exception!

Although the actual events are only on Friday and Saturday, many of the talented international performers are invited to teach workshops in a wide variety of subjects, so the whole festival craziness actually lasts for about a week. This year my "festival week" started on Thursday, when I had the honour and pleasure of attending Perle Noire and Kitten de Ville's workshops. 

Perle totally blow my mind, both during the workshop and her acts! I don't think it's even possible to get the actual feeling of awe and energy she projects unless you see her live, but I can tell you that when you do you know you have a real force of nature in front of your eyes! <3

Kitten de Ville aka The Queen of the Quake definitely deserves this nickname, and she had us all sweating our bums off even before we were through with the warmup! I think her class was extremely useful for me because, after having been studying tribal fusion bellydance for the last year and a half, I have noticed that I really needed a reminder of how to really shimmy and shake burlesque-style, and this lady definitely knows what she's talking about! <3

after the workshops with amazing Perle Noire and
Kitten de Ville <3 (pics by Cherry Turrrbo-Cherry D
and Sandy Jungle)

After the workshops we headed for the hotel for a little meet & greet with some of the performers that had already arrived. It was so much fun! We got to both see some very dear friends again after a long time and make a bunch of new ones. It actually felt so cozy that it was difficult to leave and go to sleep, but I had to wake up early and go to work the following morning! 

with some absolutely amazing ladies! Mama Ulita from 
Germany, my gal Sandy Jungle and the lady with the
perfect hair, Koko la Douce <3 (pic by Sandy)

Two of the new friends that I'm extremely happy to have met are Mama Ulita and Lada Redstar <3

Mama Ulita has such a crazy positive and contagious energy that I just wish she moved to Finland and could go for a coffee with her everytime I have a bad day! I'm so so extremely happy I'll get to see her again soonish, since we're both performing on the same night of the London Burlesque Festival <3

I've been looking forward to meeting Lada for a long time now, so I was delighted when it finally happened! This lady isn't only drop dead gorgeous, but she is also intelligent and the kind of vintage enthusiast I can totally relate to, so chatting with her was a real pleasure! As was watching her on stage again, this fierce lady is definitely a source of inspiration <3

with Lada Redstar, Lassi, and the head of the
HBF photographer team Tuomas (pic by Gigi)

After a long day at work on Friday, it was time for the real party to begin! My gal Gigi Praline and her husband Aatu (who was this year working his bum off driving all the performers back and forth between the hotel, workshops and venue) live in the countryside some 45mins away from Helsinki, so they booked a hotel room and were kind enough to invite us over for etkot (aka pre-party). The festival's theme this year was Tropical Tornado, so we ended up wearing swimwear on Friday! I got to wear my dear 1930's yellow woolen swimming suit, of which I'll post better pictures at some point in the near future. Just a bit before we left for the venue we were joined by our dear Pepper Potemkin from Stockholm, who is a real kick-ass rocker lady and a lot of fun to hang out with! She was on stage on both Friday and Saturday, and I'm delighted that she's also performing on the same night of the London Burlesque Festival as Mama Ulita and me <3

etkot! <3
(pic by Pepper Potemkin)

Friday was a blast! Such a blast that we only left the venue at some point after 3am, which meant just some 4.5h of sleep before Saturday morning's workshops, but it was so worth it! <3

with our dearest Scotty the Blue Bunny, HBF is
not the same without this humor and wit <3
and the combination of him and Minna Kivelä
must be my favourite presenters ever! (pic by Gigi)

Saturday was my birthday! And I couldn't have wished for a better one <3 (ok, I could have gotten a couple of hours more of sleep :-D). It started with the workshops of super creative and extremely inspiring Imogen Kelly, and one of the most respected photographers in the burlesque scene, Neil Kendal. 

Imogen's workshop was specially interesting because this lady has a background that is a bit more unusual in the burlesque scene; her roots are in the theatre and the circus and has been a theatre director for over 20 years. Her approach was extremely useful to me, since I am mostly interested in developing my acts and characters in a theatrical way, and having a storyline has always been vital to my performing style. 

After Imogen and Neil's workshops, my man treated me to absolutely mindblowing and delicious food in Juuri, which is a restaurant in Helsinki with food so unbelievably tasty that makes me feel like I'm back in the Basque Country. All the ingredients they use are organic (even the wines), and one can really tell since regular food from the store would never reach such intensity of flavours. After dinner, and with a very happy belly, it was time to head to the venue again, for another evening of awesome performances. 

My Saturday's outfit was partly inspired by Tribal Fusion bellydance, which itself uses different ethnic styles/adornments as inspiration sources. I will elaborate a bit more on this outfit also in the near future, but I can say that the facial decoration was inspired by a facial tattoo of a Berber tribe from Algeria, and the shawl that covered my head was a new Assuit shawl made in Egypt. 

with my dear Tiitta and Laura, tribal sisters <3
(pic by Laura)

The rest of the outfit had little to do with tribal inspiration, but I've had this crazy dress for years now and I only got to briefly wear it once (for obvious reasons) at a friend's birthday party! But hey, as my dear Gigi says "This year's festival was all about bums".

found a friend-in-outfit on Saturday :-D
(pic by Gigi)

Helsinki Burlesque Festival 2014 starting!

For some lucky ones it already started yesterday with Perle Noir's workshop, but since I was working I'm taking that workshop today! Also dropping a line in order to let you all know I probably won't be writing much until the festival is over, but stay tuned for a report of it all next week!

And thus the fun begins... <3

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:

On the way to work...

I do a lot of work as an art model, which usually involves commuting all over the area, since art schools are scattered around. My usual furthest commute is to a school named Pekka Halosen Akatemia, after the Finnish turn-of-the-century painter and artist Pekka Halonen. This school happens to be in the middle of nowhere between two towns: Tuusula and Järvenpää. The commute here is rather troublesome, it involves either an hour or more by bus, or some 25mins by train plus 25mins more walking (which is what I usually chose), and I still have mixed feelings about it. Nevertheless the walk from the train station to the school is often quite rewarding, as one gets to experience the beauty of Finnish nature throughout the seasons and in different weathers.

Today was definitely one of those days! Even though the snow in Helsinki has been melting for the last couple of days due to the temperatures going above zero, here in the outskirts the scenery is still white and crisp, and today specially mysterious since a thick mantle of fog covers it all. Definitely a view to enjoy and to remind us of how insignificant we are as compared to the greatness of nature <3

walk in the countryside on the way to work

Vapriikki Vintage finds: day 2

Second day at Vapriikki Vintage! Unfortunately enough (or fortunately enough for my wallet) I didn't have much time to look around the vintage market this day. Both Fintage's fashion show and the Helsinki Traditional Jazz Dance group's performance and lesson were happening on this day, which meant I spent part of the morning rehearsing and doing both my and Malin Grahn's hair and makeup, and part of the afternoon getting ready for the fashion show. Nevertheless, I did find a couple of gorgeous pieces of textile by Tampella!

above: damask weaving
bellow: Tampella damask tablecloth
pictures from www.tampere.fi

Oy Tampella Ab was a factory that made of Tampere one of the most important industrial cities in Finland, and operated from 1856 until 1991. Although it produced a huge amount of different products (mostly industrial machinery), I'm going to write a bit about one of their most famous textiles: the damask. 

The damask is a textile of a single colour, with reversible patterns that are created by weaving threads in different directions. 

Tampella started to produce damask textiles in the 1890 decade, and designers created the different models, which were tipycally produced during a few decades. Famous designers such as Siri Brunou, Louis Sparre and Aili Rancken created some of these pieces. 

my gorgeous finds! <3

The first piece I spotted on the first day already, but since I didn't have cash with me in that moment the lovely seller said she would keep it for me. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, how could I not! It was designed in the year 1907 and the motif is indeed as jugend and arts & crafts as it gets! This piece was meant as a guest towel, and the gorgeous jugend motif covers both ends. I actually even noticed, while googling for this article, that a piece just like this one is actually kept in the Tampere Museum :-)

designer: Aili Rancken
model: Fantasia
number: 253
produced: 1907-1974

The second piece cought my eye on Sunday morning when I went to pay for and pick up the previous piece, partly due to its gorgeous shade of blue. This also makes me think that this tablecloth was probably produced in the 1950 decade, since until then white damasks were the most common, but the motif started to be produced already in the year 1930 and its peacocks are a clear reminiscent of the edwardian orientalism. 

model: Riikinkukko (peacock)
number: 633
produced: 1930-1953?

Bettie Page Reveals All

Friday was a really exciting day for the Finnish burlesque community, since the premier of the documentary "Bettie Page Reveals All" was having its premier in Finland! It was screened on both Friday and Saturday during the DocPoint documentary festival, and both the director Mark Mori and producer Thorpe Mori flew all the way to Finland for this occasion. Last December I took part in an event to help promote the documentary festival, in which I had to dress up as Bettie Page and chat with people in the audience about the film. It was fun! But I was definitely shocked when I was later on asked if I would like to present the director and producer, and conduct the Q&A section after the screenings. I must confess I almost said no (that's how scared I am about talking in front of a crowd!) but in the end decided that having the honour of participating in such a unique event was definitely worth it!

with director Mark Mori, during the Q&A
picture by Rita Miklan

Both the director and producer were really happy about having the Finnish Burlesque community attend the event, and they decided to have a picture taken with the ladies! I'm afraid I don't have the picture myself since it's in their camera, but here goes one taken during the Q&A. 

picture by Rita Miklan

If you missed the movie while it was being screened in Helsinki, or if you live outside the Helsinki area, do not hesitate to go and watch it when you have the chance! You rarely get to watch a documentary in which the main character herself is the narrator, and of course you'll have the chance of glimpsing into the heart of the original pin-up girl, and one of the most influential pop icons of our era! 

(And I'll use the chance to again thank people in DocPoint for this opportunity with all my heart!)

Oh, and about the dress I'm wearing! I was silly enough not to take more pictures with it (too nervous before the screening, and too blissful afterwards), but here you go a couple of pictures of it! I found this evening gown in the latest fleamarket of the Swedish Theatre of Helsinki and I'm absolutely in love with it <3

I believe this to be 40's, and some of you may know I'm usually not very crazy about that era, but this one is a heartbreaker! This dress screams "space age" and is made of a very thick and sturdy fabric in a blueish shade of grey, and it's full of gorgeous details! An absolute deco beauty :-)

front, detail of the bow and back of the dress
I apologise for the bad quality pictures!

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

Tickets for Helsinki Burlesque Festival 2014!

My dear swedish friend Sandra was in town yesterday, and we had quite a lot of fun shopping at vintage/thrift stores, eating and trying out some absolutely gorgeous edwardian shirts/jackets she brought for me from the exquisite swedish vintage store Tidens Melodi, but I will tell you more about it later since it would require a lengthier post with some proper pictures! :-D

So what I'm going to do today is remind you that my all-time-favourite burlesque event EVER  is around the corner (just a bit over a month left!), and if you don't want to be one of those people that every year wonder why they didn't buy their tickets on time you should act now! I'm of course talking about the Helsinki Burlesque Festival, and as we speak Saturday is almost sold out and Friday is not far ahead. Have a look at this year's lineup, you don't see so many Queens of Burlesque performing at the same event everyday! ;-)

Tickets can be found in Tiketti

London Burlesque Festival 2014, here I come!

And what a most thrilling way to "baptize" this blog than by announcing that I have been accepted to perform at this year's London Burlesque Festival? <3

More detailed info about the exact date etc. will follow later, but so far you can click here to have a look at the mindblowing list of performers that have also been selected! I'm specially happy to see our one and only Sir Willy Waterlily also there, and so many other friends! <3