Tampere Burlesque Experience

Looong time no write! I know, it's been almost two years since my last post and it was absolutely about time. As usual, life got in the way again and I've been way too overwhelmed to spend too much time online. The main reason for it is that I am a student again, and I'm studying for my dreamjob, but that also means I am now a full time student. And since I still keep on teaching my evening dance classes, and I have even more groups than before, there are many weeks in which my only free days is Sunday :-)
(In case you're curious, I'm studying to be a conservator of historical objects)

Anyway, I just updates the past and upcoming gigs, so I'll be looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

An speaking of which, the next chance to see me on stage will be this weekend, at the Tampere Burlesque Experience! It's been ages since I last performed in Tampere, and I couldn't possibly be any more excited about it. Olivia Rouge and Tampere Burlesque have organized such a treat for you! Teerenpeli Tease - Experience on Friday, main show on Saturday and lovely brunch on Sunday! Besides all the workshops the supertalented international guests will be teaching throughout the weekend.

You'll be able to catch me on Friday at Teerenpeli with my dear partner in crime Gigi Praline, and also performing solo on Saturday at the main event. Check out the lineup! You really don't want to miss this! <3

Love,

Pepper

Amsterdam Burlesque Awards in November!

And I can finally announce this! I'm so excited and honoured to be performing at the 3rd Amsterdam Burlesque Award this autumn! I had a great time two years ago when we performed there with Thee Dizzy Daisies, and to make things even better I will be to see a few dear friends again! <3 <3 <3
Aaaand I'll be bringing my "Algae" seaweed fandance to a festival abroad for the very first time, planning to pimp up the fans to celebrate! :-)

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.

Announcement: Berlin Burlesque Week 2016!

And some good news! I can finally announce that I will be performing at the Berlin Burlesque Week 2016! I'm absolutely over the moon about this, I have never been to Berlin before and I can't imagine a better excuse to visit the city than performing at this event with all the other amazing performers! Catch me at the Carrousel Ooh La Laa (Wednesday, May 4th) and the Sunday Soirée (Sunday, May 8th) <3

Original picture by Atelieri O. Haapala
Headpiece by Fiona Timantti Millinery

Dancing Phalanges workshop in Turku this Saturday

I'm having the honour of coming to teach at Kiki Hawaiji's Pinapple Paradise in Turku this Saturday! I will be teaching a workshop on advanced arm techniques (suitable for all levels) in which we will learn how to make the hand/arm movements look soft and beautiful, how to move different arm joints independently in order to achieve that "wow!" effect, what kind of poses look good on stage, and how to combine arm moves with basic bump & grinds! 

Looking forward to seeing a bunch of you there! <3

More information and registration through the link below:

http://www.pineappleparadise.fi/pepper-sparkles/

Picture by Atelieri O. Haapala

Private party performance

Last night I had the honour and pleasure of performing at the birthday of a lovely lady I hadn't seen in about 5 years, and even thought I had the worst flu I've had for a very long time the audience were absolutely superb and gave me all the energy I needed!  I had such a great time, and I think it shows from the pictures ;-)

Tribal Salon 2016

I had quite a crazy year in 2015 when it comes to juggling things happening on the same day, and this is something that I decided I would like to become better at during this year. Or to be more precise, I decided that for my own sanity I should try not to book too many things onto the same day, specially when it involved running from a place to another. And guess what? It seems last year's karma somehow managed to send me a last reminder of why I should *really* try to keep it more relaxed in the future. 

Long story short, I had deleted the wrong event from my calendar back in autumn and I now found myself with three different appointments on the same day. Luckily it all work out in the end, so I started the new dancing year having the pleasure of dancing with wonderful people during the whole day. <3

In the morning I was part of Himo Club's show at the Love Me Do Fair, which won the price of best company of the year in the bachelorette party section. I'm so very proud of all my gorgeous students (also the ones that for one reason or another did not make it to the show)!!! <3

As soon as the show ended I headed to Kanneltalo for the rehearsal of our performance at this year's first Tribal Salon, which is an event organized by TribalTanssiKeskus. We performed our teacher Laura Luna's choreo "Gawazi", which is inspired by old school tribal bellydance and is so much fun to perform! Folk inspired costume with lots of vintage tribal jewelery/decoration and finger cymbals, what's not to love about it? The rest of the show was probably quite amazing, but unluckily enough I did not have the chance to see any of it, since I still had to make it to Tervakoski for this year's first corporate gig. 

A tiny bit stressful, but all in all a Saturday full of doing what I love best! <3

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)

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! 

Vienna baby! <3

Belated post number three! The Boylesque Festival Vienna <3

I'm still so full of love when I think about this festival and what a good time we had, that I don't think I'll be able to translate even half of its awesomeness to words. 

So in the end of May I had the great honour of being part of the mindblowing lineup of the Boylesque Festival Vienna, which happens to be the first Boylesque Festival in Europe! So you might be wondering, "Wait, boylesque? How come your performed there?". Well, as it happens, the organizer Jacques Patriaque decided to have a Queerlesque Teaser Party the day before the main even, for which he aimed to get a collection of as many and varied burlesque acts as possible. The next piece of amazing news was that not only did I get into such a fun event, but also my gal Gigi Praline with her leatherdady/Lucia act, our charming gentleman Sir Willy Waterlily and our dearest Drag Queen Lola Vanilla. Finland was well represented! <3

We rented a room with Gigi and Lola, and on the day in which we were performing we had the crazy idea of walking all the way to the venue with our suitcases! Which might not have been that bad of an idea after all, since due to unexpected *coughcoughhungovercough* circumstances we didn't really have the chance to see much of the gorgeous city that is Vienna. 

The lineup was EPIC! And When I say epic I really mean it, I have never performed in an event with so many performers, and I barely stopped laughing the whole time we were backstage. I have probably also never been in so many backstage group pics, but I'll try to be nice and not spam you too much :-)

before the show shots backstage!
[upper pic by Sheila Wolf, lower pic 
by Lola Vanilla]

Since our tech rehearsals happened to be pretty early, I decided to sneak out before the show to try and check a vintage store that one of our lovely stage kittens Philippe had recommended. The store did indeed have some gorgeous items, but unluckily enough out of reach of my current money situation :-D

Nevertheless, that trip allowed me to again see a little bit more of Vienna, and most importantly, to discover the Majolica House. I stumbled upon this drop-dead-gorgeous building on the way back to the venue, and I literally spent five minutes staring at it WITH MY MOUTH WIDE OPEN. This unbelievable piece of art noveau awesomeness was built in the years 1898-99, and is named after its facade, which is completely covered in painted ceramic tiles (majolica) that form the biggest art noveau pattern I have ever seen in my life. The poppy-like flowers climb all the way up to the roof, and the balconies are decorated with something reassembling lotus flowers. Of course in that moment I had no clue of what that building was, but a bit of googling provided the info I needed, and let me find out that the beauty continues in the inside. I'm in love <3

The Majolica House! <3 <3 <3
[upper left pic by justvienna.com, upper right pic by 
blackeiffel.blogspot.com and lower pic by jellbellfrhell.blogspot.com]

After my little escapade I headed back to the backstage, and I had the chance to meet the whole bunch of amazing performers with whom I'd be sharing the stage that night. I was performing about half-way through the second set, which meant I wasn't able to watch anybody else's act *sniffsniff*, but we had a hell of a time backstage anyway! We also had the chance to share the stage with the non-burlesque headliner artist of both nights, 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst! And I'm afraid that's the one picture I should have taken and did not, but I'm shy! :-D

The stage was huge, and the audience outstanding! I was a real pleasure performing in such a huge and gorgeous old theater, which was sold out!

Big stage! And one of our stage kittens, plus absolute
sweetheart and perfect assistant Philippe <3
[upper picture by Philipp Lipiarski, www.goodlifecrew.at
lower picture by Bernie GoGo]

After performing, and while waiting for the curtain call, it was time for more pictures! I couldn't be happier about having been able to see World Famous *BOB* again (who was the festival's MC), and tell her how useful the workshops she tought in Helsinki quite a few years ago have been <3

left with World Famous *BOB*, and right with Polish 
boylesque performer Jimmy Bottle
[first picture by Gigi Praline, second by Jimmy Bottle]

At this time, I will use the chance to introduce you to the mastermind behind the whole event, who worked very hard in order to make his dream come true! Ladies and gentleman, Jacques Patriaque! I think none of us can thank him enough for the wonderful experience <3

The mastermind behind Boylesque Festival Vienna, 
Jacques Patriaque!
[picture by Bernie GoGo]

Another one of the highlights of the Boylesque Festival Vienna was that I got to see a very dear friend again, after over 3 years! We met in Helsinki almost 8 years ago, when we were both metalheads (I still am, I just don't look like one anymore! :-D), and hadn't seen since Marisha moved to Cologne in Germany quite a few years ago. As luck has it, she happened to be visiting the city around the same time, so she came to see our show and we could do a bit of catching up afterwards <3

Before we left the venue, we were invited to the afterparty in a legendary rock club in Vienna, that, if I understook correctly, belongs to the husband of lovely Austrian performer Kitty Willenbruch. Marisha joined up for the afterparty, and we were able to share some more fun until yours trully and the rest of the Finns (except Willy) decided that we might be "a tad" too tipsy and should leave to the hotel. Btw! My friend Marisha is an excellent seamstress specialised in reproduction historical clothing, so please do check her facebook page out while the official website is under construction! 

upper pic with Marisha at the venue, and
below with Gigi at the afterparty
[pictures by Marisha]

As you can probably guess, the next day we woke up to the hangover of the year! We barely made it to breakfast before it closed, and I really had to make use of all my stubbornness in order to be able to go see Vienna on the only free-ish day we had. So I had some painkillers, gathered myself, and dragged Gigi and Lola out with me, since I was told there was some paintings by Klimt in a museum called Leopold Museum. My convincing skills weren't strong enough to drag Gigi and Lola into the museum with me, so I visited it alone while they had a coffee nearby. I loved it! Not only did it have some of Klimt's art, but it was full of gourgeous jugendstil, art deco and arts & craft paintings, illustrations, furniture and several other kinds of items. 

After that we went back to the hotel and got ready for the mindblowing succession of world-class boylesque performers that was the main evening of the Boylesque Festival Vienna. Omg! Used as we are to get just a few boylesque performers per event, getting one after another, after another, after another, was unbelievable! And Gigi had booked us tickets in the very middle of the second row, so we had a perfect view! (may I say that maybe even too perfect sometimes? As Gigi put it "I don't think i've ever seen so much testicle hair before")

After the main event, with Lola aka Bent van der Bleu 
and Lady Francesca <3
[picture by Lady Francesca]

After the main event the party continued in another club, but unfortunately we had to leave early due to our early flights the following day. 

What can I say? Vienna, you and your charming people stole my heart! I want more! <3

Sinsational Spring Awakening 2014! And premiere of my new act "Algae"

Second belated post! This time about the Sinsational Spring Awakening, which usually happens around half-way through May, and is one of the major burlesque events in Helsinki. The theme this year was the animal kingdom, and the weather joined up by providing us real jungle weather! It was insanely hot and humid, and the room that was our backstage had been in the sun the whole day! Result: I have never seen so many pasties and tassels fly away on stage before :-D

We performed our Crazy Kitties act with Gigi Praline (unluckily enough a sudden pneumonia stole Sandy from us for the weekend), and besides that we both had the chance to premiere our latest solo acts. 

My new solo act "Algae" was born when I was aiming for a bit of an "unusual" feather fan act, and got inspired by the beauty of the mysterious coral reefs and algae. I made my costume from scratch (except the headpiece), and the main inspiration for it were some gorgeous wild silk and beaded Indian textiles I found in ebay. I was also happy to experiment with an unusual colour combination! :-)

Some pictures of my Algae act
picture by Jari B. Miettinen

As I said, I wasn't the one to make the headpiece. I'm actually so lucky when it comes to headpieces, that I have several friends who are professional costumers and hatmakers! And the decision is always a pretty tough one, let me tell you :-)

This time I decided to pay for the expertise of my friend Tiitta Räsänen, who has several years of experience working at Helsinki's Opera House. She's specially talented when it comes to beading, and that's exactly what I wanted for this costume! So as I usually do with my talented friends, I showed her a couple of pictures that inspired me (in this case mostly Art Noveau style), and let her do the rest. I'm in love with the outcome! By the way, she does of course takes orders and I absolutely recommend you check her website Tiisin' Design ;-)

Algae headpiece by Tiisin' Design
picture by Hanna Erkinjuntti

London Burlesque Festival 2014

So here goes the first one of my belated reviews! It seems that this year I'll end up hitting quite a few international festivals (more on that later), and London was the first one of them! I was extremely excited about it for many reasons, I got to perform on the opening night (!) with an absolutely lovely lineup, got to visit a lot of amazing places and met unbelievable people. On top of that, my better half Lassi was able to join me for this trip, and we got to crash at his cousin Nick's place, which allowed us to stay a bit longer (London is expensive for a showgirl! :-D). 

Thursday was a bit of a chaotic day since it was the day I was performing, but we still managed to visit William Morris' house in the morning, which happened to be just around the corner! And I now have a new favourite mug at home ;-)

I was dead nervous and excited (as usual) when I arrived at the venue, but all the lovely people made me feel at home right away! And I think I can say that I was probably laughing half of the time I was backstage, because besides being able to see some dear old friends again, such as Pepper Potemkin and Mama Ulita, I got to meet a bunch of crazy, loud (and hot!) ladies whom I really hope to see again in the future, I miss you all! <3

Backstage! On the left with Lovely Karleena, and on 
the right with my long-lost southern burlesque sister 
Evita Mansfield <3
pictures by Confetti Eddie

My only regreat about that night was that, because of the way the venue was built, it was impossible for me to see any of the other acts. But hei, I got to hang out with all these lovely half-naked ladies backstage! ;-D

Curtain call picture!

On Friday we had the chance to go visit the centre a bit, and meet a lady I've been looking forward to meeting for ages! As many of you know, I'm a crazy deco/flapper/edwardian lady, and have come to notice that most of the vintage oriented people usually tends to like 1940/50's or newer stuff best. That's why I got superexcited when I got a friend request from a gorgeous german woman with an absolutely (in my honest opinion, of course) exquisite style! So when we found out that we'd be in London at the same time, scheduling a meeting was a must ;-)

Meeting gorgeous Daisy! <3
picture by Nick

In the evening, we headed to the Playboy Club in London, where the Press/Mingle event was to be held. It was fun! We got to again meet a lot of amazing people, and watch the performances of Cherry on Fire, Whisky Falls and Betty D'Light. AND THE PLACE WAS FULL OF PLAYBOY BUNNIES! Need I say more? :-D

above: with my dapper man Lassi
below: with gorgeous co-performers Mama Ulita and Laura
Desiree
pictures by Joanna Kor

On Saturday we decided to check some markets, and our friend Ray, who is a gentleman and lives in London, offered to show us around. We visited the Portobello Market (where I found a couple of gorgeous 1920/30's fashion prints that currently hang on my walls), had lunch at a pub with amazing antique decoration, and then headed to the centre to meet up with Aurora Galore. For those of you who might not know her yet, let me tell you that this lady totally blew my mind since the first time I saw her, and is a rare example or originality and daring. She took us to watch Polly Rae's burlesque show at the Hippodrome, which I totally recommend if you're ever in London on a Wednesday or a Saturday. 

a street photographer in Portobello wanted a picture 
of us! :-D

Sunday was our last day in London, and what a day it was! We met our friend Ray again, who took us for lunch to one of the most mindblowing restaurants I've ever been to! Brasserie Zedel is located just around the corner from Picadilly, and is the kind of place you would probably miss if someone wouldn't take you there. From the outside it just looks like a regular cafeteria, but when you go downstairs you are introduced to an insane art deco extravaganza, recently renovated but preserving the look of the original one from the 1930's! And if that weren't enough, they serve pretty delicious food at very affordable prices. 

Brasserie Zedel, picture on the left by Ray, and the 
other two found in google images (ooops!)

After lunch we headed towards Soho for a walk, some icecream, and the Twisted Cabaret show of the London Burlesque Festival. Upon entering we bumped onto Kati and Markku Saari, who are two dear Finnish friends. They had come, just as we had, to cheer up for our Sir Willy Waterlily, who opened up the show and charmed the audience as he always does <3

With Markku and Lassi! 
picture by Kati

Looking forward to visiting you again in the future London, this time was too short! :-)

More pictures from last winter's photoshoot with Teemu Rytky

While I wait for my flight to London for this year's London Burlesque Festival (I'm performing tomorrow, so excited! <3 ) here you go a few more pictures from the photoshoot I had with the Finnish photographer Teemu Rytky last winter. Enjoy! (hopefully! :-D)

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

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

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