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!

Kitten N'Lou at Pirate Pleasures!

So I can finally announce this, current 21st Century Burlesque NUMBER ONE performers Kitten N'Lou are coming back to Finland in May! And you now have the amazing opportunity to watch them live in the small, cozy and intimate club that is Pirate Pleasures, the monthly club organized by our own Queen of Fire Tassels, Bettie Blackheart.

The theme this time will be "Leather and Lace", and I will get to share the stage with not only Kitten N'Lou but also a whole bunch of wonderful Finnish performers! More than half of the tickets are already gone, so in case you don't want to miss this you better book yours asap ;-)
More information can be found from the event's facebook page.

New year!

So here I am again... The last year and a half has been the most insanely stressful of my life, and I have barely been able to keep up with things (specially the ones related to the internet). This year I would like to start from scratch and try to keep up and relax, since the sole idea of thinking about everything I should get done already gets me stressed. It is so that I have finally decided to leave all the belated posts aside for the time being. It was a rather difficult decision for someone as obsessive compulsive as I am, also because so many amazing things happened which I would love to share with you all. Nevertheless, unless I leave them aside for the time being and start writing about the current ones I will just keep accumulating them. 

Soooo, that being said here goes the first post of the new year! So many amazing things to look forward to. A new apartment (which I now share with the most amazing person I have ever met <3 ), some very scary but very exciting possible plans for this year and of course, the Helsinki Burlesque Festival! This will be the second to last year (9th edition) and the lineup is as spectacular as ever, and I couldn't be more excited about sharing the stage with the XXXettes! We are cooking something extra cheeky for the festival, and if you have ever followed the ticket sales for it you know you should act fast! It always sells out and once that has happened you will regret now having acted sooner ;-)

I will be updating the upcoming gigs section in the near future, but until then here goes the poster for this year's festival, fresh from the oven! 

Women's day in Tallinn

When one lives in Helsinki, travelling to Tallinn is roughly twice as cheap as for example travelling to Tampere (a Finnish city about 1:45mins by train), and if you add to that how cheap everything is compared to Finland one could easily understand why it's such a popular destination. 

As a burlesque performer who makes most of her costumes though, there is an even more important reason for travelling to Tallinn, and its name is Karnaluks. Karnaluks is a huge store full of everything one may want for the making and embellishing of costumes (except maybe fabrics), and not only are they many times cheaper than equivalents found in Finland, but I would guess 80% of the products CAN'T EVEN BE FOUND in any shop in Finland. I guess some of you lucky people living in London or the States are used to these kind of stores, but I personally almost had a heart attack the first time I was introduced to Karnaluks. 

Since I am at the moment working on a new act, and one of the ferry lines that does Helsinki-Tallinn happened to have discounted prices a few weeks ago, my dear friend Tiitta and me decided to book a day-trip for the 8th March. 

happy faces in the ferry

What we actually didn't know, but found out as soon as we visited a couple of stores, was that it seems they have crazy sales in Tallinn on women's day! So the shopping part of our trip was even a bigger success. 

The first and most important stop was in Karnaluks, because it was the store that closed the earliest. I found almost everything I had written down on my "shopping list" (and absolute must-have unless you want to end up buying tons of things you don't even need!), and still found one crazy pretty trim in another store called Kangadzungel. This already took a few hours, so by the time we were done with the shopping, we were starving!

The other reason why I absolutely love day-trips to Tallinn is that food and drinks are much much cheaper than in Finland, so you can actually pamper yourself with a small budget. Our first stop was an indian restaurant called Bollywood in the Old Town, which Tiitta knew from previous visits. We got one of the low tables next to the window, so we could enjoy our food surrounded in cushions :-)

waiting for the food in Bollywood

Since it was a special occasion, and we had agreed to pamper ourselves, we decided to have a piece of cake and hot cocoa for dessert. For that we chose one of the cutest cafeterias I've ever been to, which is a tribute to the amazing Josephine Baker. This cafeteria is also in the Old Town, and their selection of homemade cakes and chocolates is really impressive! (besides dangerous)

We decided to go for a hot cocoa each and a piece of chocolate cheesecake and a piece of calvados/white chocolate cake to share.  

taking pictures inside isn't allowed, so the 
lower pic is from www.likealocalguide.com/

And of course no pampering day would have been complete without a proper cocktail! And for that we headed to African Kitchen, which is an amazing little restaurant in the edge of the Old Town (conveniently close to the harbour) that not only has exquisite food but also absolutely delicious cocktails! The cocktails are named after African countries, and the one I tried this time was called Zaire. I liked it so much I may repeat next time!

After that we headed to the ferry and back to Helsinki, but we're definitely coming back soon! 

Tallinn I love you <3

cocktail awesomeness in African Kitchen and some
of my Karnaluks loot in the ferry, pics by Tiitta

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

Queer much?

And soooo excited to announce I'll be joining the linup of the craziest party in Helsinki this spring! You'll be able to see drag queens, burlesque and a rollercoaster of gender bender fun! Stay tuned for more info, and check the event's facebook page! <3

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!

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