Singing In The Key of Drunk

Boom! A brilliantly busy week nailed! Photoshoots, shows, hoop... the works. And I still found time to chill out (briefly) with the cats and the boy!

Count the cats! One, Two, Three, Four! Definitely pinned... I am a crazy cabaret cat lady...

So on Tuesday I shot with Zebrowski Photography for Vanity B Corsetry alongside the gorgeous Ruby Deshabille. We were working on some promo images for Antonia's new corset and tassels range and supplemented her glorious creations with some fabulous costume items from Angels on Shaftesbury Avenue. Ruby and I had a fan afternoon dressing up and playing around, and Antonia made us cupcakes!! So good.

 

Ready for my close-up ** Showgirl detritus...

Sneaky shot of Ruby and I

One of my favourite images from the shoot

Ruby and I with Antonia - the genius behind Vanity B Corsetry!

On Wednesday I was back with the House of Magic family for more magical shenanigans - the crowd were a little reserved but soon warmed up for the show, especially since it was rounded off by the incomparable Lolo Brow blowing everyone away with an incredible striptease act.

 

Backstage fun-times with Stevie Smallwood and Abby Drake!

On Friday I was fortunate enough to be given a ticket to the London Coliseum to watch the Monte-Carlo Ballet's performance of 'Lac' - the ballet was a re-imagining of Swan Lake and fused classical ballet with modern and contemporary dance. The cast danced their hearts out on stage, completely committing to the unusual but brilliantly realised choreography, and it was captivating! The only thing that could have made it better would have been a live orchestra.

Waiting for the show to start - my favourite moment is when the lights begin to dim and the curtain rises...

Poster for the ballet 

Then it was back to Proud Cabaret on Saturday for another fantastic show with my glorious cabaret reprobates and some of my favourite people: backstage is as fun as the performance! Although I have to say I had one of the greatest moments during 'Shake It Doll' ever... it involved a stag party and a toy cat being thrown onto the stage... filth :P

 

Mirror Pictures! With Jolie Papillon, Joe Morose, Chrys Columbine, Taz Zebrowski and Helen Orford!

 

 

Snaps of 'Shake It Doll' and 'Lust' by Zebrowski Photography

On Sunday I joined Joe Morose and Chastity Belt to watch "Enter Micky Jeronimo", Matthew Floyd Jones' show at the Riverside Studios. Alongside performing his own material he had assembled a fabulous line-up including Kiki Lovechild, The Original Street Dancers, and his partner-in-crime Felicity Fitz-Frisky, among others. It was also lovely to finally meet the gorgeous Vivacity Bliss at long last, and I adored her bonkers Canada act!

Waiting for the show to start...

 

Pre-show selfie ** In the bar with Kiki and Vivacity!

 

It all got a little bit hazy... I remember McDonalds and Disney songs...

I also had a couple of hoop classes this week and Zebrowski Photography popped along to have a giggle at my expense and take some pictures - both of which happened.

 

With the lovely Amanda - putting up with my faffing on the hoop!

 

 

Striking some poses!

 

 

And some more!

It wouldn't be a hoop class without some injuries!!

And now I'm tired and a little bit hungover, and planning to spend the entire day in my PJ's - well deserved I think!

xx

Burlesque On Ice Rehearsals - Week Two!

Following on from last week when I kept a daily diary of Burlesque On Ice rehearsals; we're at the end of week two!

Burlesque On Ice - tickets on sale NOW!

So what happened this week?! It's had its ups and downs (literally and figuratively!), we've made great progress with the whole show, had photoshoots, puppy visits, music mix-ups, and unfortunately our Glorian Gray wasn't with us as she's not very well, so we all sent positive, get-well vibes up to Manchester and hopefully she'll be back in skates next week!

Monday
I went in slightly earlier this morning as I had rehearsals for my solo with Hollie, and I caught the end of the professional skaters rehearsing the big opening number for the show - bloody hell, it's going to be a-may-zing! Honestly - they've got jumps, lifts, spins, cartwheels; the lot! Boom!

Ruby Deshabille and I spent a couple of hours going through our solo routines, as some moves we could do easily on ice are not so easy on the plastic and bits of them had to be changed or adapted - on the synthetic ice you need to work twice as hard to get half as much result and it's flippin' difficult!

While practising a move in my solo I caught the toe-pick of the blade and, where on ice it would cut a bit and maybe make me stagger, with no give on the plastic I just went straight over and fell face-forward onto the ground! I managed to catch myself as I fell and my knee caught the brunt of the fall so I have a nice shiny bruise on my kneecap now. Lovely.

Later in the day we continued to polish and clean the two big group routines in the show, which are going to look awesome when they're finished, and Hollie impressed us all even with just the bare bones of her solo routine!

Showgirls! With Bonnie Fleur, Trixie Kixx and Ruby Deshabille!

Tuesday

Today was a lovely day - both professionally and personally! In non-ice related news; my missing cat came home! He's been gone for about twelve days and it was heartbreaking but he's back in one piece and I couldn't be happier!

In rehearsal news we spent the day cleaning and rehearsing the two big group numbers in the show - Hollie wants the routines to be so ingrained it's like muscle memory so even if we freak/forget/get stage fright, our bodies will still know what we're doing and just do it regardless! It's something I remember from college, and at times it can feel like we're soldiers doing drill but it's so good.

We even got time to have a basics lesson - as I've mentioned previously, it's so different skating on the synthetic ice to regular ice that it's useful to keep going over things we *thought* we could do to keep ourselves on form! 

My knee was hurting a bit from my fall yesterday but nothing that coffee and nurofen can't handle! Boom!

Wednesday

I was exhausted today - a late night last night followed by a very early morning made me tired and a bit cranky, so I can only apologise to my fellow cast members for being a big ball of grump all day!

We went over the group numbers, adding in Joe Morose on the cleaning. Then in the afternoon the glamorous Gwendoline Lamour joined us for her section and we spent a fun-filled couple of hours mincing, strutting and shimmying around the ice - a booty shake is a lot harder when you don't have a solid surface beneath your feet!

When skates start to hurt, there's always the option of these sexy, sexy shoe covers...

Thursday
Today was great fun! The pro skaters in the show stayed later after their rehearsal time to run the big finale number, and it's going to be epic!! Fans, Isis Wings, kick-lines, cartwheels, shimmys, boobs.... what more could anyone want?!

Rosie, Jek, Sarah and Kerri practising a lift! Eek!

Hollie in full CSI mode... kind of...

It's the first time we've put the whole thing together and we managed to have a stagger through of the actual show run a whole day before schedule which was ace.

In the evening, Antonia arrived to fit us with some of our costumes and I'm really excited about mine - my ice solo is a variation on one of my regular acts and I'm adapting it for ice, which is much easier said than done!

Friday

A nice end to an exhausting week - because the professional skaters in the show didn't have any pictures for the programme, the lovely Tigz Rice came along for a morning photoshoot on the ice

Pro-Girls on the ice - Hollie trying to hide!

We also had Joe Morose with us all day and we had a laughter-filled afternoon with him learning the rest of the finale choreography and working on our individual introductions... it's going to be hilarious! During our solos rehearsal a bit of my choreography changed to a slightly more impressive looking move, which is awesome, but terrifying, and I'm chuffed to bits with myself that I managed to do it at all!

Trixie Kixx also brought along Darcy, who definitely needs to be in the show - look how good she looks in skates!

Pooches on Ice?

Cuddles from Darcy

Once again I'm absolutely shattered and aching, but it's all good and the show will be amazing - now I'm off to pop crystals on a drag queen's dressing gown...
xx

Christmas Countdown and Chrystals

This week has been pretty bonkers and I'm absolutely exhausted so I'm probably going to phone it in and just post lots and lots of pictures!

Twice this week I was up at the god-awful crack of dawn - not even dawn at this time of year! 4:45am! Glorian Gray and I had to be up for super-secret ninja skating rehearsals, which I could finally reveal, an hour before the performance on Wednesday evening, was the Christmas Light switch-on at Westfield Shepherds Bush!! Eeeeek!!!

7am rehearsal call

Catching the train with Glorian at 5:30... not a real thing.

 

Mirror Pictures! With Scarlet Cuffs, Sarah Christou, Glorian Gray, Jasz Vegas, Kitty Devine, Felixy Splits, Hollie Deller and Ruby Deshabille!!

 

Santa's Baby and a Christmas Tree!

Mia, Glorian and Ruby

 

Sarah committing to the sequins! ** Jasz after the tiredness began to take its toll!

Photos below by Zebrowski Photography

Backstage shot with the gorgeous Gwendoline Lamour

Fan Dance ladies: Felixy Splits, Hollie Deller, Kitty Devine, Trixie Kixx

Robert Proctor as Santa!

Sarah Christou and Hollie Deller

Finale

Fan dance on ice

Finale explosion!

Cast in the VIP bar with *all* the wine!

 

Hollie and Sarah playing on the ice after the show

Vicky Butterfly looking like a princess!

You can see more of Zebrowski Photography's photos on Facebook

Photos below by Tigz Rice Studios

Gwendoline Lamour

Fan Dance ladies

Robert Proctor ** Glorian Gray

Going in for a kiss from Santa!

Hollie and Sarah - Felixy Splits singing on the stage

Finale

Finale pose

Hollie and Sarah with Glorian after the show

You can read Tigz' blog about the night here!

I had a lovely day on Thursday, recovering from the previous night by meeting the beautiful Coco Malone and Chrys Columbine for afternoon tea, before eventually heading to the amazing Hippodrome Casino for Chrys's show the Chrystal Cabaret!

It was such an honour to be part of this incredible show in such a historic and renowned venue, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second.

Oh yes, it's a leopard print pointe shoe... part of my costume for Chrystal Cabaret (though any excuse, right?)

Chrystal Cabaret on the Hippodrome screens

Gorgeous backstage shot with Chrys Columbine

 

Mirror Pictures! With Joe Morose, Meredith the Bear, Chrys Columbine, Aurelie Bernard, Leah Debrincat and Hayley Coppinger!!

 

Posing Selfies with my bawdy whore Dolores Delight!

Joe Morose: the newest Calvin Klein model?

 

More Mirror Pictures!!

On Saturday I was shooting all morning with Broadcasting Agency who were very excited that I took my feather fans!

Backstage shot

Then after a lovely date afternoon, I was back at Proud Cabaret for a fabulous show with some of the best performers around!

Mirror Picture! With Joe Morose, Betsy Rose, Missy Fatale, Taz Zebrowski and Helen Orford!

With Joe Morose and Emma (Captain) Hook!

I enjoyed my hair last night: the roll went all the way round - it was hard to take pictures but I was super-proud :P