Video Friday

Blech.  I have been home sick since Wednesday afternoon with a horrid cold.  It sucks.

This weekend, though, I need to get better so that I can go see the new Fame.  I’ve been waiting for it to be released forever, so I’m super excited that the weekend is finally here!  The old show was part of the reason why I wanted to be onstage (like, since I was three).  So, for Video Friday, here is the old theme song.  Ahh, brings me back…

Humpitty Hump Day Update

I have been having the damndest time getting to sleep at night in the last few weeks. Despite extreme tiredness all evening, when it comes time to lie down, I’m all awake. Hopefully, this will pass–It’s getting a little bit old.

This week has been a bit of the old crazy-crazy at my job. It’s a busy season and we have eight million balls in the air. Add to that a new blockbuster show in development (two, actually–one’s mine and one’s Viva La Muerte’s…) and three new classes and it’s been nuts. I’m really excited, though, to start my next session of classes. I found a great new space at Rast Ballet–met with the owner the other morning and she’s great. The space itself is huge and pretty. It’s like dancing in a treehouse. There are a ton of windows that face a bunch of trees and it’s on a second floor. The place has a great vibe and it’s such a perfect place for what we do. Huge mirrors, HUGE space, single studio (so no noise bleed from any other activities going on) and loads of parking in the back. I’m excited to get this session underway. I’m teaching a beginning class there and also an intro class. Cheap, quick and a great workout. It’s gonna be a blast!

Sidenote: I want to add here that my time at Galaxie was great. I really loved the space, it was just not exactly what we needed for my particular class. But the space is huge and cool and people should go take swing classes there and go to their figure drawing nights and generally support them. They are great!

Also, I’m adding another burlesque for performance class this fall–at Belle Plaine Studio, which is also in Lincoln Square/North Centerish.  It’s such a cool class to teach and I haven’t taught it since last winter, when Coo D’Twat and Lula were in my class. They were my first official graduates and I’m so excited that the two of them are now so involved in the Chicago burlesque scene. I got a note about a show that Lula’s in this October that looks really cool–it’s a long run of a Halloween show (and some of my favorite other performers are in it, including Naughty Natanya and Siren Jinx) and I’m psyched to go see it.

Last night, someone accused me of trying to “take credit for my students’ successes” and it was so off base, I was really shocked to hear it. There’s something incredibly satisfying and really empowering about teaching someone (encouraging someone, helping someone find her voice) to do something and then having them be successful at it. It’s probably more exciting than if I had accomplished said thing myself. So, yes, I toot my own horn a little bit from time to time about teaching and the role that I have had in fostering a Chicago burlesque community. I’ve been involved in it for so long and I have such a good eye for talent (and such a good way of being able to help women access their own internal creativity and sexiness) that I think that I deserve to be able to do that.

Long paragraph deleted here.

Anyway. Next up–I’m signing the contract for my next big show (and showing our set designer the space tonight. Yeah!) tonight and then getting my hairs trimmed. Then tomorrow, I perform in the Festival of Flesh at Lucky Number. Then I have the weekend off (praise sweet Baby Jesus. I need it!) and Sunday I have Salon DeVine. In the meantime, I have to get stuff ready for Le Cabaret Erotique–the Uncommon Ground show–and send contracts to everyone for the next big thing.

Sidenote: Does anyone know any photographers who need/want paid work? I need to do a shoot for the show. Email me.

Mas later, bunnies.

xox, Ms. Bea Haven

Slackitty Slack!

I have been totally slacking on this here blog business.  This weekend was a real barn burner.  I had two shows and that ALWAYS makes me less productive in the writing genre.

First, I was invited (last minute) to join the Sci-Fi Striptacular, which was produced by Viva La Muerte.  I got to revive the Princess Leia act and it was totally, totally fun.  It was at the Viaduct and I have to say, what a cute little theater.  It was, overall, a really fun night.  The act was a hit and I re-made parts of the costume, so that I can keep using the act over this year’s halloween.  NICE.

Next up, I got booked for a great Halloween show, as I already mentioned.  I’m working on some ideas for it, but it’s a horror movie theme and it’s a huge party at the Viaduct (speaking of).  The guy who’s running it is a Psychobilly DJ (the Cryptkeeper) and he needed three other gals (besides Scarlett) to do it.  I’m going to perform with Scarlett, Honey and Faustina.  Super awesome!  I’m glad to be involved in something that’s a little less “just burlesque” and a little more varied.  It’s going to be amazing and fun.  We’re meeting next weekend to talk music, because he has a huge collection of vintage monster songs to choose from.

Other news: met last night with a great lady set designer and…I think I am hiring her for the next big Girlie-Q production.  Super!  She’s also going to work on a (top secret) giant set piece for me for October Varietease show (which I am totally excited about) and she’s coming with me to sign the contract for the next show this week.  (Which reminds me, I need to call my venue.  Making notes for today).  Last week I held two meetings for this next show and it’s going to be…AMAZING.  Some of the top performers in Chicago are involved and it’s going to be the best thing I’ve ever put together.  (More soon!  I PROMISE…)

All right, that is all the news that is fit to type.  I will update tomorrow.  Tonight’s tasks:  Apply for a master class/artist residency at Columbia and start promo on the October classes.  They will be good, darlings!  (I had a meeting yesterday to shore up some details and we have some NEWS in store.  Again, stay tuned…)

Have lovely Tuesdays, bunnies.

xox,
Ms. Bea Haven

Another Fine Autumn Day in Chicago

(pause to stretch before I even start writing)

These last few days have been amazing on the burlesque front, but I fear that my blog posts are getting a little boring & repetitive. I wish I could think of some heady theoretical topic to write about every day instead of the mundane-ness of life. Oh well. Every day is not for heady intellectualism.

Last night was great. I booked a show (that I think I can mention now!) with Women and Children First to perform for their 30th anniversary party. In case you don’t know, that is one of the few remaining feminist bookstores in the country. It sits at the corner of Farragut and Clark in Chicago (one block from my house) in the “lesbian” gayborhood. I’m really excited to get this gig–it’s just the kind of thing that I should be doing. It’s classy, grown-up, feminist and queer–And Dorothy Allison, Alison Bechdel and Alpana Singh (three of my personal heroes) will ALL be there. SO stoked. They only needed two people, of which I am one and the gal who asked me to coach her is the other. I feel really special to have been asked; it’s an amazing honor. (And it sure makes having done burlesque under florescent lights in front of the children’s book section last December at the store worth it.

So after I met with Dreads at W&CF, I headed over to CanDance’s house to coach her on burlesque. It was so much fun. She’s a super smart girl (she has a really intense job as a scientist and does burlesque on the side with a troupe that I’d never really seen) and she has all the moves. She just needed help stringing them together, reminders to look up–and not at the floor–this is one of my personal bugaboos. Many, MANY women look at the floor when they are first performing.–and a little boost of confidence. We selected a potential theme, wove in the theme that the owners of the bookstore wanted (books. Duh.) had a glass of wine, hung out and rehearsed over and over. I gave her pointers to clean up some of her moves, taught her how to do a few other things she’d seen, but couldn’t break down, and served as a taskmaster. When we were done, she told me that it was JUST what she needed to be able to be on the right track.

THEN, I got an email this morning for a booking for a huge old Halloween bash–to re-enact scenes from horror movies (which I did not get a chance to do last year at Viva’s show). Again, limited number of performers, chance for high pay. It’s a Halloween gig with a really popular psychobilly DJ in Chicago. Super excited, and a shout-out to Scarlett for the hookup on that.

Tonight will be good. Bollywood class then heading to another studio that wants me to teach burlesque there. This one contacted me out of the blue and I’m really excited to go meet with the owner and get a sense of what she’s looking for. Then it’s back home to probably catch up on reality TV–which is so sad I probably should even mention it. All right. Off to get ready for the day job, which is a bummer, but as Special Lady T says, “It’s not cancer.” (meaning, it’s not serious or life-threatening, so calm down about it.)

xox, Ms. Bea Haven

Hump Day Update

Well, I made it through yesterday’s flurry of activity, including a lovely evening hangout with an old burly pal.  God, I love that gal–I had forgotten how much.  She came over and we discussed some details about a BIG ASS show I’m putting together and then we hung out and chatted.  It’s been an age and a half (maybe a year?) since we have seen one another and probably two of three since we actually hung out, so it was super nice.  T was really glad to see her too.

Yesterday, I stayed home from work because I was stressed from a lack of sleep and I ended up sleeping in and spending the day to getting a HUGE pile of stuff done.  It was a totally productive day and I slept really well after, thanks to “Butts and Guts” class (which is as bad as it sounds) and two glasses of red wine.  After my burly friend left, me and T watched Bigger Loser (with a lot of FF-ing through the weepy times or the weigh-ins of people we didn’t like yet) and went to bed early.

Pause to look at sarcastic e-cards about weddings and decide to not send one to my boss.

Tonight will be fun.  I’m heading–after work–to a meeting about really cool potential gig (more on that later) and then to help a gal who I know vaguely put together a “classic burlesque” act.  She has been performing with this drag troupe in town doing sort of half-fetish and half-skit numbers and now she’s got a burning desire to put together something more formal.  I’m excited to work with her because, well, I love teaching.  And it’s so nice–no offense to my straight students or colleagues–to work with someone else queer for once.

I miss having a troupe chock full of queer gals.  While most of the ladies I work with wouldn’t rule OUT dating another gal, they mostly have boyfriends.  Sometimes, you just gotta hang with yer lezzies, ya know?  I am sure to catch crap about this from some angle, but it’s how I feel.

ANYWAY.  Work has been a tetch annoying today, but it’s almost over.  Let’s just say that nobody lost a life, so I guess it’s all’s well that ends well.

Now I must finish up a few things and get outta here.  Have lovely evenings, bunnies.

xox, Ms. Bea Haven