Tag / burlesque

I was fortunate to be welcomed to perform on my short visit to New Mexico this past week by both Burque Burlesque and Burlesque Noir.  Friday night I performed my classic rhinestone piece with Burque Burlesque to Ella Fitzgerald’s “Keep My Love Alive” – our 1/2 hour burlesque show opened for some radical rockabilly bands, like Three Bad Jacks.  I got to swing dance with a talented boy after and I wonder where the rockabilly scene is in LA.  There must be one with all these millions and millions of folk, but I’ve never seen it.  I’d like to!

Saturday night Burlesque Noir produced a full 3 hour burlesque extravaganza.  There were award-winning group burlesque acts, a magician and special guest dance solos.  The Lone Ranger film is shooting in New Mexico right now and I own a company working on it, so I had been hanging out on set saying hi to friends all week and many of the Lone Ranger crew came to see the show, as well as some of the Lone Ranger stars, Tom Wilkinson and Ruth Wilson!  But what delighted me the most was getting one of the Lone Ranger crew (and a handsome hunk of a Lover) on stage as the target for my Bullwhip Burlesque.

Here are some photos from my Bullwhip Burlesque with Burlesque Noir Saturday 5/26/12.  As always, the pasties pics are not public – you have to come see me live for that!  All photography by Dark Flash Photos.

Dance on camera!  Burlesque for film.  I’m starting to get the hang of this Final Cut Pro X editing software!  This is my third project and I’ve learned a few tricks since my last edit.  If you check out the previous project I edited, you’ll see how learning FCPX really helps me convey my burlesque dances more the way they feel while I”m performing them.  That and the footage for this piece was shot by Marti Matulis and it exceptionally better than that antiquated phone cam footage I had before.  Plus I got two camera angles in on this one – oooooh, now my dance is starting to look like it feels!  So much respect for the people who edit stunts and sports.  More respect for the chosen few who get to edit dance.  Not just movement sync but movement sync to music with emotion conveyed.  I hope my editing frees up some of my performances creative expression.  I’m so excited about seeing burlesque on camera.  Please enjoy my Machine Shop Grinder Girl Burlesque solo:

I’ve been teaching myself Final Cut Pro X and every time I turn out a new video editing project I feel like a winner.  Side note:  the jasmine is in bloom here in SoCal and is just wafting in my open bedroom windows as I type this.  I love Hollywood.  Back on track:  this is my second FCPX editing project ever!  How happy am I to have kept all this Lalas burlesque archival footage to learn on.

The footage of this Pretty Pain Knife Burlesque is actually taken at my first performance of this act.  As with any burlesque act, it starts as an idea, then you “develop” it.  Eventually, after about four “development” performances for me, I stop cutting myself with the props, stop catching my rhinestone garter on my new thigh highs and start really being able to interact with the audience.  So this is the first time I ever performed this piece.  This is a teaser video, remember, so you don’t see the reveal which in this case, involves a forest of balloons filled with glitter.  I will say no more.

Recently I met a musician online who’s music really matches my burlesque dance video edit style – sensual, classy, daring, reticent.  His name is Jimmy The Hideous Penguin from Galway, Ireland.  This song is called Armed Sadness, and is sincerely appropriate for the Pretty Pain Knife Burlesque in more ways than one.  This song also goes perfectly with the scent of jasmine saturating this bedroom.  I’m in heaven.  Please enjoy my performance/video work:

I asked my girlfriend to bring one of her Hustler mags.  I’m not sayin’ which girlfriend, but you know who you are!  I thought it’d be a fine prop for my Addicted To Love burlesque improvisation that night at TRiPTease.  Turned out delightfully so, as you’ll see below.  All photography by my raw friend, Jeff Skeirik.

Tonya Kay "Addicted To Love" burlesque @ TRiPTease, photo by Jeff Skeirik http://rawtographer.com

Tonya Kay "Addicted To Love" burlesque @ TRiPTease, photo by Jeff Skeirik http://rawtographer.com

Tonya Kay "Addicted To Love" burlesque @ TRiPTease, photo by Jeff Skeirik http://rawtographer.com

Tonya Kay "Addicted To Love" burlesque @ TRiPTease, photo by Jeff Skeirik http://rawtographer.com

full prostrate bow by a female fan! she's so cool!

“She had to re-light her breasts several times during the act, which the audience enjoyed but she found ‘cheesy.’ The second time, she used something a little stronger: lighter fluid.”

Bloomberg Business Week features my burlesque danger arts in their Odd Jobs profile in the 4/17/12 issue.  And if you want to get all the secret trials and tips of a danger artist, this is the only place I’ll share them without requiring killing you for this secret information afterwards.  Read the full article at your own risk, here.

Photo Courtesy Michael Melwani

From one of my favorite musicals comes a line in the song that describes how I feel about dancing burlesque with the Lalas “Nice work if you can get it”.  Yes, we burlesque dancers work hard to give you the most polished, most engaging, most entertaining, most memorable show ever.  But when work is as fun as the rehearsal you see below, you know you’re doing something right.  Camille saving her energy before she DESTROYS it on stage that night, SaraAnne always a bright, fun ray of sunshine, me teaching Erika how to use a lighter and you can actually see our choreographer and company director, Erin Lamont, smoothly navigating between fun and work with her dancers.  Erin Lamont is the heart of the Lalas and why we are such a wildly fun and wildly successful burlesque company.  These women are my family.  I love the Lalas.  Nice work if you can get it:

I joke, “the only wet t-shirt contest I’m sure to win” – my own burlesque act.  Here is a teaser video I edited together of my Wet T-Shirt Burlesque at Hollywood’s Bardot with The Lalas Burlesque.

This articles asks, “Do you need technique to be a burlesque dancer?”  In my opinion, no.  Burlesque is defined by the reveal, not the method of reveal.  The reveal be performed any number of ways;  with or without dance technique, with our without garment removal, (or in my case) with or without lighting fire to an intimate set of costume accessories.  HOWEVER (in my opinion as well) any act in any artistic medium’s value and impact can only skyrocket when expressed through a technically proficient and professionally experienced conduit.  I owe everything I am: elegant, effortless, competent and capable, to my lifetime of continued dance training.  Bring that to burlesque.

http://themostdangerouswomaninhollywood.com http://thelalas.com

graphic design by Stephen Newell

Some of my very favorite pics from The Lalas Burlesque Valentine’s Show at the Belasco (and this is just what happened on stage – you should have seen our Valentine’s dressing room antics!):

I can honestly say Marino De Silva is as sexy in real life as his guitar playing.  Guitar god, Marino De Silva’s “Possessed” music video stars ME as the leading lady burlesque dancer and features vocals by Benny Mardones.  What a rock and roll day we had on set shooting this – champagne, music and burlesque – nice work if you can get it.  I hope to see more of this musician at his family’s Vampire Lounge in Beverly Hills and on film coming up, too.  It’s time to get “possessed by a demon, baby”.  Be sure to watch through to the end to see a most beautiful shape we found ourselves in: