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
September 17, 2009 6:16 am 
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