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)

Infusion Tallinn 2014

Wow, it has taken me ages to write this! In the begining I thought it would only take about a week, mostly in order to rest and get over the fairytale feeling that always accompanies Infusion Tallinn, but the reality-check upon my arrival was rather rough (let's say it felt more like reality hit me on my face with a hammer :-D) and weekly routine has consisted on working (dayjob) and sewing/costuming like there's tomorrow every single other waking hour (with a couple of very welcome and very necessary dance lessons in between). So here it finally goes, my report about this year's Infusion Tallinn! <3

Friday

Infusion Tallinn is probably the biggest Tribal Fusion event in northern Europe, and the lovely and gorgeous organizer Jaana (aka Yahna) brings some of the most talented international teachers to teach workshops and perform every year. But oh my, this year we got THREE teachers! And no other than world-famous tribal fusion superstar Kami Liddle, the absolutely exquisite Aleksis Southall, and one of my very own top of the pop favourite performers: italian creativity explosion Violet Scrap <3

Just as last year, a big bunch of us travelled together from Finland, and booked a room in our favourite little hostel just in between Tallinn's Old Town and the Müstika dance school: Euphoria Hostel. These people really know how to make you feel welcome, for the second year in a row we had a welcome message written for us at the entrance and the staff took care of all our questions and the mess of having to deal with 11 people almost at the same time :-D

(Oh, did I mention we kidnapped two of our very favourite Sweds into our room? Dear Gita and Pernilla, miss you so much!)

Euphoria Hostel <3

We cought up with our teacher Laura Luna (who had already arrived in Tallinn the previous Wednesday in order to take Aleksis' workshop about ITS), and after some sushi in Sushi Cat (<3!) Laura and me left for that weekend's first workshop, which was a 3-hour-long intermediate/advanced level workshop on complex foot patterns and layering with Kami. I must admit I was quite nervous! I have so far only studied bellydance for a bit over a year and a half, so I wasn't sure if I'd only be embarrassing myself and getting into everybody's way! :-D

We did a lot of relevé and spinning-work, which are two things I definitely struggle with, but Kami gave us so many tricks about how to position the body in order to keep it under control that I think I got just what I needed in order to start working on it by myself and hopefully improve soon! 

After the workshop, it was time to run back to the hostel and get ready for the evening's show. This year there was two different shows, one on Friday which was a Hafla held in Müstika (with an absolutely DELICIOUS vegan buffet) and a main even on Saturday, in which each one of the performances was inspired by a country/city/location in the world and was accordingly named "Around the World". I performed on Friday both with Kaira Tribe (aka Laura Luna's students) and YIlan Kabilesi (aka Alli Ruth's American Cabaret students). As usual when I bellydance, I got EXTREMELY nervous and I almost lost my balance during the first one of the performances (workshops on anxiety management anyone? :-D), but it was still a delightful evening. There was indeed very many enjoyable performances, but I think that if I'd had to chose one it would be the delicate and breathtaking modern dance fusion piece that my dear Estonian friends Maris and Krete performed. It was so full of emotions and just plain beautiful!

with the Kaira Tribe girls
(picture stolen from Tiitta)

Saturday

We woke up already a bit tired from the previous day, but there was no rest for the wicked since we had three workshops (6,5h altogether!) ahead on this day! We first had a workshop on fluid movement with Kami (who again, made it all seem much easier!), then two hours of Jamila Salimpour-style crazy finger-cymbal drilling and layering with Aleksis (omg, I want more!) and a superinteresting workshop with Violet, in which she one and again tried (and succeeded) to make us get out of hour confort zones :-D

Oh! And I mustn't forget to mention that Jaana pampered us extra this year, because she gave us the chance of ordering some very yummy WARM food in between the workshops! How cool is that? :-D

if you know me, you probably know why I just HAD TO
buy this gorgeous poster :-D <3
(and the ticket for Saturday's show on the upper corner)

The rest of the girls who weren't performing in the evening had time to take it easy before the evening's show, and had a nice relaxing walk back to the hostel. We also found some curious things on the way!

you don't simply park your car anywhere in 
Tallinn! and an absolutely gorgeous turn-of-
the-century building completely engulfed by
a modern monster :-D

After a shower and getting ready, we had just enough time to have some sushi in our favourite sushi restaurant in Tallinn: Sushi Cat. Besides the advantage of it being on the same street as the hostel, it has absolutely delicious sushi (and drinks!) for prices that sound absolutely ridiculous to anybody used to Finnish prices. It's also fully decorated anime style, and the waitresses wear cute japanese schoolgirl uniforms and kitty ears! :-D

As we had to run to the venue right after that, we decided to have some "desert" in between the sets, rum&cacao! <3

food is love! Sushi Cat and some 
rum&cacaos at the venue (notice how
the woman sitting on front of us decided
to take a picture of us :-D)
(and pictures stolen from Tiitta, again)

The event was mindblowing! So much awesomeness that I would need a whole week of writing to describe it all, but I must at least say that it was a pleasure to realize how all the performers had made an effort to created something really different and special. And after it was over, I shamelessly turned my "fangirl mode" on and ran to have a couple of pictures taken with the performers! :-D

up: Chrissy and me with Kami! Isn't she gorgeous? <3
(picture stolen from Chrissy)
down: with Tanja, Laura, Aleksis and Violet (oh my, I have such
a girl-crush on this woman! :-D)
(picture stolen from Tanja)

Sunday

And ready for more workshops! By Sunday we were all quite tired, but with teachers like these one finds the strength and inspiration to keep on working no matter what! :-D

We had two workshops on Sunday. The first was a workshop with Violet, about exploring and really trying to feel the conexion between music, feelings and dance, and it made me understand SO many things! Not only when it comes to tribal fusion / bellydance but also burlesque! Total "Ahaaaaa!" feeling, love you (also) for that! :-D

The second was again a 3-hour-long intermediate/advanced workshop with Kami about fluid upper body. If you've ever seen this woman dance, you will probably understand why I was so looking forward to this, she's elegance personified! The upper body is indeed an area that requires a lot of work in order to get it strong and elastic at the same time, and once again she provided us with the right tools in order to work towards achieving that goal <3

Sunday was picture-time! Above after Violet's workshop, 
and below after Kami's workshop

After all the hard work the whole weekend, we all deserved a treat! So we joined the Infusion Tallinn dinner, which happened to be in one of our super favourite restaurants in Tallinn: African Kitchen. We arrived first, so we were "devasted" about having to order one of their delicious cocktails while waiting for the others (life is hard! ;-D). After that, we moved onto my new favourite cafeteria in Tallinn, Pierre Chocolaterie, for some cake and hot chocolate. And guess what? They made my dreams come true, they had white chocolate cheesecake! EEEEKKKK! It even had some cherries and cherry jam in the base! Could have died right there :-D

After Pierre it was sadly enough time to say goodbye to our dear Estonians and the super talented teachers that kicked our bums during the weekend, but we decided to still grab a couple of drink at the Depeche Mode bar in Tallinn's Old Town. 

drinks and waiting for the food in African Kitchen, 
the piece of heaven called "white chocolate cheesecake" 
in Pierre, and drinks at the Depeche Mode bar
(pictures stolen from Tiitta, except the one with the white
chocolate which I stole from Tarja)

Monday

Some of us had decided to book our return tickets for Monday evening, in order to spend some quality time relaxing in Tallinn after the crazy weekend. The weather was gorgeous, and we had a perfect day. We first had some sewing-supplies shopping at Karnaluks, then strolled to the Old Town, had some tea and bombons in Pierre's terrace and lunch at Bollywood before heading to the boat, perfection! <3

I love this house in the old town, decorated with real 
egyptian inspired motives! <3
some crazy decoration items on a window,
and the most catchy title for a talk ever :-D

And still a couple of lines about my new favourite cafeteria in Tallinn, Pierre Chocolaterie. Their selection is absolutely delicious (eat ALL the cakes!), just as in Josephine Baker, but this one has a couple of mayor advantages compared to it! First, the decoration is exquisite, with real jugend and vintage pieces everywhere and arranged in a really cozy eclectic way, with most chairs/tables being different from each other (which is how I remembered Josephine Baker, but it has changed since). And second, the terrace is located in an absolutely gorgeous medieval building's inyard, with all the magic you can expect from such a place :-) <3

at the Pierre's terrace, and waiting for our food :-)

New visit cards!

I just got my new visit cards today! The design is still the same since I really like it, but you can now find the address to my website on the back. And they came right on time for the crazy "minitour" in May: London Burlesque Festival on the 15.5, the Sinsational Spring Awakening on the 24.5 and the Boylesque Festival Vienna on the 28.5! <3

Cards designed by Lassi Patokorpi
Absynth fairy picture by Jirina Alanko

Easter in the countryside

I had the pleasure of spending Easter in one of my favourite places in the countryside (my gal Gigi's and her husband's place, aka Mäkelä farm), with some of my dearest people <3

Lassi and me arrived a day earlier, because Gigi and me had planned to do some costuming that day. As some of you know I'm working on my new act "Algae", which will be premiered in a month at the Sinsational Spring Awakening in Kaisaniemi (get your tickets HERE, the lineup is superb!) and I'm currently in the middle of a crazy costuming spree! I was silly enough to only bring two bottles of Jewel-it glue though, so I run out of it already by Saturday morning and that was the end of costuming for me that weekend :-D

costuming time!

On Saturday morning we woke up to a lovely surprise! Aatu (aka Gigi's husband) came to tell us that one of the cows was giving birth, and that if we hurried we were still in time to see the little calf be born! It was really exciting since I've never seen a birth in real life! 

few-hours-old cutie <3

Soon after that I had to borrow Gigi's car and leave to Järvenpää for a couple of hours of Tribal Fusion choreo rehearsals with the Kaira Tribe gals and our teacher Laura Luna, and by the time I came back some of the rest of the guests had already arrived. Unluckily enough not everybody could make it, but it was blissful to be able to spend some quality time with these people! <3

hungry people waiting for food
picture stolen from Gigi

The dinner was organized potluck style, so that everybody brought something. There was organic lamb marinated and slowly cooked in the oven with mint jelly, mango salsa, homemade bread, tofu and veggies vietnamese spring rolls with two different kinds of sauce, egg salad, wakame, tofu salad, oven-baked potatos with fresh thyme, fresh green asparragus and an absolutely delicious lemon and liquorice charlotte cake as dessert. Oh my, where's the extra belly-space when you most need it? 

food is love!
picture stolen from Tuomas

The rest of the evening mostly consisted of sparkly, sauna and jelly beans (actually jelly beans were a constant during the whole weekend! :-D ). And as proper adults (*coughcough*) some of us went to sleep as early as midnight and woke up to a wonderful breakfast consisting of pink soda and pink sparkling wine! Plus all the tons of delicious leftover food from the previous evening. 

breakfast of the champions!
picture stolen from Gigi

The rest of the weekend consisted of relaxing in the sun (I can't even remember last time it's been so warm at this time of the year!), walking on the grass without shoes, some wine drinking and chatting, and basically just enjoying a weekend off. Thank you so much everybody involved, and extra thanks to Gigi and Aatu for being such amazingly generous and welcoming hosts <3

Gigi's cat Pertti! She likes sleeping on my bum :-D

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

Fleamarket finds, Vol.4

I love ex-tempore visits to fleamarkets, some of the best finds happen that way! I decided to quickly visit a charity shop yesterday in between work and my dance lessons, and it was definitely worth it. I found a vintage purse and a vintage-style piano shawl for around 15€! :-)

The shawl is something I had been looking for for a while. I have two authentic turn-of-the-century silk piano shawls, but they have to be used with extreme care due to their age and fragility. I had been searching for a "new" shawl in the same kind of style in order to be able to use it, for example, for tribal fusion bellydance costuming, but all I had found so far were terribly shiny and clearly made out of synthetic materials. I'm not sure about what material this is really made of, but in practice it looks like rayon, and it's sturdy enough for me to be able to use it without worries! Plus it has an extra-long fringe, I'm in love!

The piano shawl and the vintage purse

The purse was a big surprise because it's the first real vintage accessory or piece of clothing I've found in that shop for months. It is beautifully hand-stitched, and the diminute size of the detailling is quite amazing. Not only are both sides of the purse fully stitched, the edge and even a trim on the handle are also decorated. The lining is silk, and it seems to be in such a crazy good condition that I suspect it may have been replaced later on. I'm not a big expert in this kind of purses, but I would guess it's from the 1940's. Quite a find!

Some details of the 1940's(?) vintage purse

Weekend report: Drag Me To HEL + Orimattila

Omg, what a weekend it was! It has taken me some time to write about it because I was starting to get a bit sick last Thursday and I haven't really gotten much rest after it, so I've been a bit under the weather. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth it! <3

On Friday I had the honour and pleasure of sharing the stage with some absolutely mindblowing Drag Queens and burlesque performers, and I can only say that I want MORE! Besides our own Finnish artists (such as Lola Vanilla, who's new number I loved, or my gal Gigi Praline with her crazy St. Lucia/Leather Daddy act <3) we had a few international performers, and two of them really blew my mind! The first one of them, Lou Safire, I had already had the pleasure of seeing live (and sharing the stage with) in the Stockholm Burlesque Festival last October, but this time I also got to see him perform a sideshow act! And I must confess that one of the things I most enjoyed about his performace was his exquisite sense of musicallity, sublime! The second performer who blew my mind was the fabulously glamurous Meth. Her acts were creative, and her stage presence powerful! Always such a pleasure to see people with so much experience and talent rock the stage <3

Gigi, Meth, Lou and me, and Abortia
kneeling down
(all pictures stolen from Gigi!)

The night also counted with the crazy presenter duo Abortia Clinique and Regina Squirts (the latter was having her debut, we hope to see more of her in the future!), who did a great job at keeping the audience entertained throught the night! 

The event would already have been mindblowing if it would have ended here, but Abortia had a surprised hidden up her sleeve! So after the curtain call, when all the performers (including the organizer Lola Vanilla) were gathered on stage, she proposed to Lola on the day of their 5th anniversary! Let me tell you that Abortia and Lola (or Jac and Jari) are one of the cutest and sweetest couples I know, and I think all of us who were at Dubrovnik that night felt very special to be able to share such a magic moment with them. Congratulations and all the best for you both! <3

Abortia Clinique and Lola Vanilla, aka
Jac and Jari <3

After a night full of emotions and fun, Gigi and me headed to her place in the countryside. Gigi lives in a gorgeous farm in the countryside some 45mins away from Helsinki, and we were to perform at a venue in her neightbourhood the following evening. The event was a fundraiser (I can't remember what for), and we were the "surprise act" (a real surprise act, since we weren't even presented the first time we came on stage :-D). Just so that you get an idea, the rest of the performers were: a folk dance group, a couple of bands playing folk music, a very respected Finnish composer called Kaj Chydenius with the singer who usually sings his compositions, and a comic act that Gigi's husband does with some of his family and friends. Plus people at the venue were on average 55+ and most had never even seen burlesque before! There was 3 seconds of ackward silence after we finished our first act, after which (luckily) the crowd started to cheer and clap! 

Ready to go shock some people! :-D

Our first act had been a rather classic and relaxed feather fan dance, but for our second act we chose our Crazy Kitties act. I love performing this one! It's terribly silly and I get to play the stupid cat, plus puke a hairball on stage! ;-D (stay tuned, there might be a video coming in the near future)

Luckily the audience also seemed to like this one, and we got a lot of nice compliments afterwards, even from Kaj Chydenius himself! A weekend to remember <3

Kitty time with my gal Gigi! <3