Burlesque On Ice Rehearsals - Week Three!

It's the final countdown - nananaanaaaaa!

The last couple of weeks I've been sharing all the gossip from behind the scenes of Burlesque On Ice rehearsals - and now we're into week *three*!!

Eep - this week has been manic! Fabulous fun but crazy busy as we gear up for the show in a couple of days... So, how did we spend our final week before showtime?!

Monday
This morning Ruby Deshabille, Trixie Kixx, Bonnie Fleur and I joined the fabulous Danni Dee at a rehearsal studio in North London to work on the finale for Act 2 of the show - proper showgirl dancing and it was amazing! I've not really done proper full out dance routines since leaving college; other than a couple of small shows and corporate bits and bobs and it was lots of fun.

In the afternoon we went back over to the rehearsal rooms to continue the ice section of the show with Hollie Deller; we spent a couple of hours going over the choreography, cleaning and changing one or two bits, then had time to work on our individual solo routines too before getting our skates sharpened - it's very sticky now!

Our own personal ice sharpening machine!

Tuesday
I was up early this morning, which regular readers to this blog will know I *hate* but needs must, and all that (our cat was back at the vet for a check up at cock-o-clock in the morning)

Before rehearsals I nipped over to Leicester Square for a very brief meeting with Antonia to swap some costume bits and try on the dress for my ice solo - it's going to be gorgeous and I'm so excited about it!

A sneaky mirror picture (in sexy grey tights) while being fitted for my costume!

We spent the rehearsal drilling and refining the group numbers; Hollie wants them to be so ingrained it's more muscle memory than anything else so we can concentrate on giving the performance of our lives rather than worrying about the steps! Then after going through our solos one by one we did a run-through of the whole of Act Three!

And I got chilly...

WednesdayAnother fun day - we went through the group routines and solos several times and they're looking SO good now!

Absolutely exhausted as a couple of us went out for a few sneaky beverages to send off Glorian Gray who was heading back up North for the last time before show week!

 

 

Playing and practising: Ruby Deshabille, Jasz Vegas, Joe Morose and Trixie Kixx!

This is how you finish a rehearsal day!

Thursday
A long day, but a good one all told! This morning I went to the dance studio with Ruby, Trixie and Bonnie to rehearse the showgirl dance number and had a lovely couple of hours gossiping and dancing around.

In the afternoon we went back to the rehearsal hall; the whole show is looking so slick and polished now - I just want to get on and show everyone how good it is!!

Leggings Brigade! With Jasz, Rosie and Ruby!

We also had a sneaky peek of the pro skaters photos from Tigz Rice Studios - bloody hell they look amazing!!! I'm not allowed to share them yet but I have this picture that Hollie took of a pro-skaters time-out with the Burlesque Bible!

Kerri-Ann Thomas, Rosie Van Someran, Jessica Ashby and Sarah Christou!

And once again - the BEST way to round off a rehearsal day!

Friday

Last day in the rehearsal rooms! We did two full show runs today and it was wonderful to see it come together - we don't rehearse our sections at the same time as the pro skaters so we rarely get to see their routines, although it was SO nerve-racking having them watch ours!

Spiral from my solo!

In the afternoon, we dolled ourselves up and went out to Camden, flyering for the show, with Sarah and Hollie in off-ice skates! There are few things in life funnier than two vintage showgirls in fur coats, on skates, in the rain! It was great fun.

Heading out with Trixie, Sarah, Hollie and Bonnie!

 

Promotion... honestly! ** Vintage ice skates!

Love BOI!

So that's it - it's the end of the rehearsal weeks and as of Sunday we're into show week - it's terrifying and exciting in equal measure but I can't wait for the results of everyone's hard work over the last few months to come together into a spectacular production...

Will you be there?!

Burlesque On Ice Rehearsals - Week One!

So, the first week of Burlesque On Ice intensive rehearsals is over - and it lived up to expectations: intensive!!

I kept this diary during the week - and will be doing the same for the whole run of the rehearsals and show, so enjoy!

Monday
Bloody hell, I ache!! This morning Glorian Gray, Taz Zebrowski and I woke up at the crack of dawn to journey to the wild North... Archway, where the Burlesque On Ice team has relocated for the next couple of weeks. We arrived early in order to assist with the get-in of the synthetic ice, and had a productive morning drinking tea as multiple panels of what looked suspiciously like styrofoam were brought into the room.

 

Once everyone else arrived, we had a lesson with Alexei, the Russian ice coach who is a specialist in synthetic ice skating. And you know what... it's flippin' difficult! 

After about 45 minutes we had a break for coffee and biscuits, and Ruby Deshabille finally got her Secret Santa present (I ordered it online and it took aaaages to arrive!)

Ruby 'Cheshire Cat' Deshabille

Bonnie Fleur and I took the opportunity to pimp out one of our show sponsors as well - Burlesque On Ice is sponsored by Vivian of Holloway and we posed for a couple of pictures in some of their gorgeous dresses:

It's bloody difficult skating in a wiggle dress!

Finally home and aching, but have a glass of wine while waiting for the bath to run. Tired and happy!

Tuesday

Such a lovely day! I was lucky enough to join the gorgeous Gwendoline Lamour for a Burlesque lesson! Along with Ruby Deshabille, Trixie Kixx and Bonnie Fleur we took over a dance studio for the afternoon and went through four elements of classic burlesque striptease from Femme Fatale to cheeky Pin-Up; the aim was to introduce our Burlesque Virgin, Hollie Deller (who had pretty much *just* got off the worlds longest flight from America and come straight to the studio - bloody trooper!) about the different styles within classic striptease, and we had such fun mincing, strutting, shimmying and sashaying around the room.

It was such an honour to work with Gwen, who is a complete legend of the burlesque world as well as being the most brilliantly bonkers individual, and I learned so much from her in one afternoon.

Forgot to take any pictures so here's one of my favourite images of the gorgeous Gwendoline!

Wednesday

Back at the rehearsal room today with Hollie on the ice. We were re-blocking an existing routine to fit the show outline, and spent a couple of hours reworking the steps; fabulous fun especially as we we got to throw Joe Morose around and generally be a bit saucy!

I'm starting to ache now and can really feel the difference between normal ice and the plastic ice; it's much, much harder to get momentum and glide on the synthetic ice, and while I feel much more stable, it's more difficult to perform some of the moves that rely on gliding into them! Tell you what; by the end of this I'll be able to crack walnuts with my butt cheeks!

Oh - and guess what?! We got tube posters up too!! They'll be appearing at stations all across the tube network which is super exciting!

Burlesque On Ice tube posters!!

Thursday

Another hard day, but a fun one nonetheless - Hollie choreographed and began setting the Finale act and it's going to be awesome!

It's starting to really hurt my feet: when I got home I felt like I was walking on stones - because the boots are such thick leather, feet heat up quicker and expand; add to that the heat on the blade from the friction caused by the synthetic ice, which doesn't cool the blade in the way that regular ice would do, and it contributes to very hot, achy feet!! However I wouldn't change it for the world, as much as I want to milk the sympathy from having achy footsies!

Oh - and there is a competition on the Burlesque On Ice Facebook page: can you take a bonkers picture in front of one of our tube posters? Prizes to be won!

Sarah Christou in front of our poster at Hammersmith!

Friday

We had Jasz Vegas back with us today!! We spent the day going over the choreography for the opening of Act Three and the Finale, and polishing and cleaning the whole thing - we've done so much in a week I'm amazed and the group routines are already looking fabulous!

Still achy but able to work through it now - I've not danced this much since I left college!

Oh: and Trixie Kixx brought along a new addition to the cast!!

Trixie and Darcey!

And that's that - in one week we have choreographed, learned, set and begun to clean the two big group routines in the show; it's super exciting to see everything coming together and I'm so proud to be part of such a wonderful group of people who are all working so hard to make this show amazing!

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