The Year of Festivals and Weddings!

It's that time of year when we start to reflect on how it all went. I am really reviewing my year...what I liked, what I didn't and how I want to make life even better next year. This year seemed to be particularly full of festivals and weddings. I went to SIXTEEN festivals this year, mostly of the flow arts and burlesque variety. I performed and/or taught at all of them but one. What a whirlwind! All over the country and one in France. Bags and I also got married TWICE! So yeah...2015 = festivals and weddings!

I also produced the most nights of shows in the most amount of productions I have produced in one year. Seven nights of shows in the span of three events. I made a dream of mine come true which was to produce in a real big theatre with a curtain, theatre lights, a big stage and lots of seats...The Midnight Carnival this past November was definitely an achievement. 

Another highlight was starting a Burlesque troupe! I started The Hoop Unit six years ago and we have dabbled in burlesque from the beginning, plus I have produced student and advanced student burlesque pieces under the name Vaudeville Vixens but this year we made it official and began the Vaudeville Vixen Showgirl troupe. We had lots of fun opportunities and created three new unique acts that we performed in many exciting places. Plus I got so close with these women and found a sisterhood that I cherish dearly. 

Here I go with a brief(ish) overview of my year and way to process it, in all of it's glory :)

Thailand with Bags' Fam

We started the year in Thailand! Rang in the New Year in Chaing Mai with almost all of Bags' extended family. They had a massive family reunion for the holidays and I got to be introduced to his aunts, uncles and cousins who live in Australia, England and Zimbabwe. They made me feel so welcomed and included. I truly felt completely accepted and like I gained a second awesome family! My favorite part was that for the white elephant gift exchange I was given a hand drawn/painted portrait of Bags and I by Bags' cousin Shane which was signed by every family member. Heart melt!

BellyFusions, Paris

After Thailand I headed to Paris to participate in my second Belly Fusions Festival. It was an incredible opportunity to push myself to create a new Belly Hoop Fusion routine AND I got to teach two workshops - one in Belly Hoop and the other in Belly Burlesque. So much fun! I really love the whole team that make that festival happen, they are so organized and warm. I was lucky enough to stay in a wonderful fellow hooper's flat and have a dinner date with Lila Chupra Hoops, an inspiring Parisian Hoop Burlesque sister.  

Face of Temptress!

In February I experienced the Mac gig sizeism debacle that you can read about here. I also was crowned the Face of Temptress Fashion that month! One of my goals of the year was to do as many photo shoots as possible and work on pin-up modeling. If I didn't do a million other things, I would love to pursue a career as a pin-up model. Since I can't do ALL THE THINGS, just doing photo shoots and being apart of the pin-up model family at Temptress has been amazing this past year. I have learned so much! Janet is such an inspiration to me; she is a strong, successful businesswoman who gives other women confidence and makes them feel sexy in her amazing clothing. I couldn't be more grateful for my time working with her this year. We got to do shoots in her store, out and and about in OB, at the Lafayette, as a mermaid on the cliffs and in the OB Christmas parade, plus on a horse ranch to make an epic calendar. Thank you Janet for all that you do!

First Wedding!

Springtime brought abundance, and man was it a busy, satisfying time of year. I was able to be featured in Lola Demure's House of Blues Burlesque & Variety show as well as Ooh La La's Circus Burlesque show at Tango Del Rey. I produced the VaVa VOOM! show with headliners Kristina Nekyia and Erin Shredder. It was the first show I produced that had solos from students who had taken my Solo Act Creation course, which I am running again this January. Both Kristina and Erin taught workshops while in San Diego that weekend. After that, Bags and I GOT MARRIED! The first time :) Bags' mom came from the UK and my mom and brother were there too. It was a spontaneous and beautiful wedding at the courthouse in downtown SD. I wore Temptress Fashion and we brought our Hoopologie hoops (of course).

The Flow Show, SF

We then headed up to SF to perform in the flow show. We debuted our multi-hoop juggling duet, "Circling the Infinite". We had worked on it hard for months and got the opportunity to perform it three times that weekend. We also were able to bring it around to every flow festival we taught at this past year. It was so satisfying to do the same act so often, and really hone it in. Each festival presented it's own challenges with performing the act, which I believe we learned from every time. In SF I was also able to perform with Hubba Hubba Revue and we taught workshops up there as well, hosted by the lovely Cherry Hoops. I was interviewed by Paige of HulaHoopla, you can listen the interview podcast here. We visited Harbin Hot Springs before it burned down. I feel so lucky to have been able to visit that magical place and to have taken Bags there before the destruction hit later this year. It was the most relaxed I had ever felt...yoga in the morning, alternating submerging in hot and cool pools, gazing upon a wild doe, sunbathing in the nude and getting a massage...ahhhhh, absolute bliss!

Fire Ceiling at Flame Festival

Our first flow festival of the season was FlowStorm in Texas. It was held at Quilombo Paixao which is Wesley's family's home on acres and acres of farmland. It was a small, intimate gathering that mixed lots of interesting workshops like permaculture with flow arts. We loved how well taken care of we felt and how family-like the festival was. I still remember taking Tom Thumb's Crowd Funding Campaign workshop there, it stuck with me! I am excited to use some of the techniques I learned to fundraise to open a training space in San Diego this year. Another highlight was getting friend avocado tacos from a food truck and vegan ice cream after the festival was over with Casandra and Marvin. 

Jillian & Nathaniel's Wedding

After FlowStorm was Flame Festival in Georgia. I got to bond with Casandra a lot at this one! She picked me up from the airport and we camped together. I ended up sleeping in her car the whole weekend because it was cold! Flame was one of the coolest flow festivals I went to this year. The infrastructure was very Burning Man-like, made it feel like more than just a flow arts festival. I performed my Belly Hoop Fusion routine in the instructor show and taught a couple workshops. That weekend I met McCalla too! We bonded instantly about hooping and ukulele. She said, if you're ever going to New Orleans, look me up. Which I did! In September. Flame Festival had these amazing flame throwing, flame ceiling-ed domes that were especially epic. Perkalator and Kassandra were there, who's workshops I thoroughly enjoyed. 

The Vaudeville Vixens

In April, our good friends Nathaniel and Jillian got married! I was fortunate enough to be a bridesmaid for their beautiful Temecula wedding and it was the first time I was in a bridal party. Bags and I performed our lovey hoop duet and enjoyed the mansion they rented for the weekend. Such a beautiful wedding! We then went to Colorado for The Spin Summit. It was my fourth one! This is where Bags made the crazy epic MultiHoop Madness video with all of the amazing multi-hoopers!! I was surrounded by badass Hoop Juggling women and it was awesome. I helped produce the showcase and enjoyed yet another year at our second home, oh Colorado, I love you!

Marvin Ong's Manipulation Theater

May brought Kinetic Festival in Ohio and Fire Drums in Northern California. Kinetic was one of the more challenging spaces to perform our act in. We were in a barn with rafters overhead that we had to juggle hoops through. It was interesting to say the least. I will never forget the moment in the renegade when Jonathan Alvarez surprised everyone with his unexpected entrance onstage, right after he was referred to by the MC. Whoa, that was a crazy moment! Fire Drums was at a beautiful northern California location. It had a kitschy barn which was probably my favorite part about it. There were butterflies and a really cold creek. The festival itself was freezing at night time too! I am a wimp. We got to perform the in the showcase with Wes Peden in it! Big deal!! The fire circle was HUGE!

Photoshoot with Hoopologie

That month the Vaudeville Vixens had our first photo shoot with Xavier Bailey of Studio X Photography. Wow! That was a wonderful, fun and sexy experience. He's an amazing photographer. You can see some more of the photos here. 

In June, we started the summer gigs at the Lafayette Hotel with Circus Mafia. We had a blast hooping and juggling poolside all summer this year! We also shot a video with the Hoop Unit, centered around Ocean Beach. Watch it here. We had a hoop booth at the OB Street Fair and Chili Cook Off, in which we performed as well. We got to be apart of Marvin Ong's Manipulation Theatre show in Brea and performed to live handpan by Stevan Morris. This was a creative decision made by Marvin that I don't think Bags and I would have chosen for ourselves. But it ended up being one of my all time favorite performance experiences ever. You can watch the video and see the pics here and here. Stevan's music is so dreamy and beautiful to move to. I can still remember looking at Bags, on that big beautiful stage while Stevan played behind us and being in pure blissful heaven. It was the beginning of what I hope is a long friendship and working relationship. I am so grateful to Marvin for that! I also began hooping at the Bahia Hotel that month for the rest of the summer every Thursday to a live band, The Mar Dels. That was a fun regular gig! I love their music and I loved being a gogo dancer/hooper right on the Mission Bay beach. 

Sizzzling Circus Sirens - 5 nights!

In July we went to Colorado for the Colorado Burlesque Festival. I met Midnite Martini for the first time and got to perform right before her at the late night Thursday show. I always love performing at Lannie's! We got to stay with Melinda of Hoopologie and her wonderful family. It was a pure treat to spend time playing with Evan, Mark, Matt, Pam, Danielle, Caterina and Jennifer Alberts! I loved the ping pong games at Evan and Mark's. We went on a gorgeous hike through the Rocky National Forest to Mills Lake for a photoshoot with Melinda, Evan and LOTS of Hoopologie hoops. We visited the mansion that inspired the Shining! 

The Hollywood Burlesque Festival

I also turned 30 in July, right before producing "Sizzzling Circus Sirens" at the Lyceum Theatre for the San Diego International Fringe Festival. Wow. That was an experience. 5 nights almost back to back of shows. I had never done anything like that before! It was intense! Tito Bonito was our host and stayed with us for a whole week. I loved being surrounded by my Burlesque Brother from Another Mother (BBFAM) and my silly husband all week. Lots of giggles! We were very well received at the Fringe with lots of packed houses and a different show every night. We had some great reviews too! We busked pretty much every day and did shows the same night, talk about labor of love! 

After the Fringe show we went to Pennsylvania to teach and perform at Return to Roots. We had taught there in 2013 and loved it so much we wanted to go back! It was on a Christmas tree farm, a really big property of gorgeous land. We slept in hammocks in a forest and relaxed. Another challenging performance experience in the showcase, outside in the dark with bright lights shinning into our eyes while we tried to pass hoops with each other, whoa! Somehow we managed it :)

ABurlyQ!

August brought the Hollywood Burlesque Festival, ABurlyQ and another photo shoot, this time with Scott Saw of Vixen Photography. I competed in the non-local LA performer category in the Hollywood Burlesque Festival and the Vaudeville Vixens performed in the showcase night. It was SO HOT backstage. It was during one of the many heat waves this summer and not AC in the backstage area. Phew! We were melting back there. It was the first time I had competed in a burlesque competition in which I was legitimately disappointed that I didn't place. But it was made up for the next weekend when I did win first place in the Variety Arts category at ABurlyQ with my Dance of the Seven Hoops piece. Emeraude LaStarr and Luna Divine of the Vaudeville Vixens joined me at ABurlyQ in the troupe category. We didn't place in that one but I know we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Watch our act here. The community was so warm, welcoming and inclusive. It felt like a big burlesque family love-fest and I truly believe it was due to the two main women who run the festival. An event is always going to take after the energy of it's leader, and these two - Vivian Mirann and Jane Sweeney are truly wonderful, open and sweet women! I was fortunate to teach two hoop workshops in Albuquerque and meet up with my friend Nicole who had a baby since las time I was there. 

Fee Fi Fo BUM in SF at Hubba Hubba

In September the Vaudeville Vixens had a weekend trip to San Francisco and performed in Hubba Hubba Revue's 9th Anniversary show! We did both our Pasties & Parasols number as well as the "Fee Fi Fo BUM" Pirates number. It was a long show! We were the last act in a show that ended up being around 3-4 hours long. I taught a workshop at the Alonzo Lines King Ballet studio again and we went out dancing and drinking in the Mission. I got to eat at my favorite restaurant ever, Gracias Madre and hang out with both Marria of Ninja Hoops and Revolva. It was a fun trip!

I also got to go to New Orleans that month to perform in the New Orleans Burlesque Festival. I was in the House of Blues show, The Queen's Ball. I taught two workshops at Audobon Park near the big beautiful tree with the help of McCalla. I ate vegan begneits at Seed, oh man was that place good! And got to watch the "Bad Girls of Burlesque Show" which I thoroughly enjoyed. Jeez Loueez was by far one of the best MC's I have ever witnessed. I hung out with a lovely bunch of Canadian burlesque performers from the Cheesecake Burlesque Revue. Another highlight  was the performer pool party on Sunday. 

After our Green Card interview

Bags and I joined Fern St Circus for two days of hot summer shows at the Carlsbad ArtSplash then headed up to Santa Cruz for Hoop Camp! The day we left for Hoop Camp we had our long awaited Green Card interview! It was such a stressful thing to lead up to, but it wasn't as bas we thought it was going to be and we passed! Woohoo!! It's a huge victory for us this year, Bags is legal here in the states! Hoop Camp was a blast! We loved teaching, performing and playing with so many epic hoopers. 

After returning home from Hoop Camp, we hosted a fun World Hoop Day celebration at the White Box Theatre with a community showcase, raffle and DJ'ed Hoop Jam. We raised more money for the World Hoop Day than last year and I really enjoyed this change of pace from previous WHD celebrations. There were so many talented hoopers in the show!

10 person corporate juggling gig

Bags and I headed to Marvin Ong's Manipulation retreat in Idlywild while the Vaudeville Vixens went to perform at the Las Vegas Burlesque Festival and represent us there. You can see the video of them performing here. A cool video of MOPs can be seen here. MOPs was epic, as usual. A big beautiful gym for training in all day and night, a gorgeous location and of course the best instructors out there. I loved learning from McKenzey, Gail O'Brien and Melissa Daly. In October we had a very exciting gig through Circus Mafia and Bollotta Entertainment doing a 10 person juggling show for an IAM San Diego event. It was circus themed and quite the production! I was honored to be booked primarily as a juggler :)

Florida Flow Fest

We headed to Florida Flow Fest at the end of October. Casandra is a genius. I loved the model of having a flow festival in a park in the middle of city. The festival is free to attend but you just have to pay to take workshops. So the exposure is truly wonderful. So many people who might not have otherwise known what the flow arts are get to find out about it. I helped produce both nights of showcases and Bags & I performed as well. The shows went really well and I felt appreciated for my addition. We enjoyed teaching, hanging out with Sharna, meeting and staying with Troy and of course spending time with Casandra. 

The Midnight Carnival

November was a big month! We produced the Midnight Carnival, I went to BurlyCon and we had wedding #2 (or number 3 if count the renegade Hoop Camp one). The Midnight Carnival was the biggest, grandest and most exquisite production I have had the pleasure of orchestrating to date. It was a dream of mine to do, and we did it! Midnite Martini headlined and we pretty much sold out the 500 seat theatre. Epic circus acts, flow artists, belly dancers and burlesque performers from all around the country as well as the Hoop Hooligans from New Zealand graced that stage and made me so proud! My students rocked it, troupes killed it and the audience was the best dressed, most loving and most understanding of my seating snafu ever. 

BurlyCon with SD Burly Babes!

Somehow the following weekend I made it to Seattle to have both my body and brain blown away by BurlyCon. I had wanted to go to it for about 5 years but money or scheduling always stopped me. Well this year, even though it was sandwiched between my wedding and a huge production, I went!! And man am I grateful that I did. I learned so much. I think I am still processing all that I learned. I felt like I got to know and bonded even more with some fabulous San Diego performers as well as met and learned from Burlesque stars and legends from around the world. I danced, I stretched, I workshopped, learned, took notes and brainstormed away those 5 days and have over 25 pages of notes to show from it. Whoa! Thank you BurlyCon!

The Second Wedding!

I came home basically to an apartment full of Brits! Bags' best friends Emma, Emily and Sandy all came out to San Diego to be apart of our wedding. Bags' mom and her partner were also in town for a couple weeks. Most of my family were able to make it too! It was a Circus Ukulele Hula Hoop Vegan Potluck wedding, of course! It wouldn't have been possible without the help of everyone who attended, that's for sure. It was a community effort. Everyone pitched in somehow and it ended up being a dream wedding. You can see some fabulous photos of it here. One of my favorite moments from the wedding was singing and playing uke to our own rendition of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz in the ceremony with all of the 100 guests! While bubbles floated around :) We then spent Thanksgiving with both mine and Bags' mom which was a real treat.

Ensenada Gig Adventure

December brought some fun holiday gigs. The most memorable was at a convention center outside of Ensenada. The REMOTE convention center was down 30km of washboard dirt road, with crazy colorful Seussian architecture, sculptures, gardens, cacti and the ocean. We performed a 30 min circus show for the local employees of the organization. The org brings leaders from developing countries together to promote development in those regions of the world. I MC'ed our entire show in Spanish! Whoa! Performed in it as well and then came off each act huffing and puffing while trying my best to speak Spanish into a microphone in front of 450 Mexicans. It was intense but I feel really accomplished and of course my desire to work on Spanish has been re-ignited. The kids were the best! I am grateful to Mango and Dango for the referral, to Miriana for the Spanish help, to Bags for pushing me to learn a new routine, MC the show and for being the best adventure/performance partner a girl could ask for. I am excited to welcome more opportunities into my life that bring adventure, attainable challenges and abundance!

Naughty Christmas Burlesque

We also had a fun gig with Circus Mafia doing a holiday themed burlesque circus show for the WomanCare Global Evofem holiday party. That one gave us an excuse to create a fun Christmas-y burlesque routine to "I'm a Little Christmas Cracker" We got our cute costumes from Temptress Fashion. Bags and I have closed out the year working on filming videos of ALL of the skills we have to offer. It has been an intense process! We are working hard, investing in our future and creating gorgeous video content in hopes that clients will have a real idea of what we have to offer. You can see our newest glow hoop video here and my Multi-Hoop Solo routine promo video here. There are lots more on the way! 

Now that I have reviewed 2015 and picked out some of the highlights, I will go through the process of writing down what I am particularly proud of from this past year. I will also hone in on what it is that I want from the year to come. Practicing gratitude for what I already have and pride in what I have accomplished is the best platform for creating attainable goals for 2016! Can't wait to see what we all create!

#effyourbeautystandards

I recently posted one of the most inflammatory posts I've ever made. One of the comments on my post was #effyourbeautystandards, giving the inspiration for this blog post's title. 

What does beauty mean to you? I asked myself this recently and found that what draws me to people, what I find the most beautiful in someone, is confidence. The ability to not only know the power you are given in this life but use it, to me, is absolutely gorgeous and irresistible.  

Usually, I keep my negative ranting on FB to a minimum. However, what I experienced last week was the most extreme case of discrimination and sizeism I have ever faced. My outrage and the painful sting was so much that I felt I had to share publicly. Though at times I wished I hadn't written that post, I believe there is a reason I live my opinions out loud; so others experiencing similar situations will know they're not alone and to draw attention to archaic ways of thinking that still exist, in hopes one day it will change. 

On a Wednesday I got a very exciting call asking me to hoop for 4 days in two cities, (one

city being San Diego at a location very close to where I'm living right now) with a very good pay rate. I was excited to be given this opportunity especially because the gig was specifically looking for hoopers with multiple hoop skills. Multi-hooping, in circus on-body splits, various boxes, juggling and Native American shapes have all been a passion of mine for a couple years now and what I have been focusing on most in my training. This seemed like exactly what I had been spending all those hours training for. A high level, high paid gig asking for the same skills I love. 

There was one catch, I had to do someone else's choreography...three different ones to be exact and I had to learn them all in two days. Because yep, the client waited until the last minute. Surprise surprise. The choreography was a disappointment but really a small concession for 4 days of good work as a hula hooper! So I watched the videos of the choreography, was slightly underwhelmed and checked with the agent that they had various sizes of costumes for the various hula hoopers. The costume was an important part of the look for the performance. Turns out no, only one size and lo and behold my size 8 was too big. WAIT! WHAT?! They made the costumes for the performers before booking the performers? They assumed they would only be hiring someone size 0 - 4? 

It's totally normal to think they would find a model sized, talented multi-hooper NOT booked for a Friday and a Saturday two days beforehand. Yeah. Right.

Before it was determined that I was too large to fit into their body suit, the agent asked me if I knew someone else who could also do one of the cities. They needed another performer for LA. Yes as a matter of fact, I know several people who could do this gig with me from San Diego. Let me refer you someone. 

As soon my dress size was brought up, the agent told me I might not get the gig at all but the person who I referred (who has a smaller dress size than me) would be getting the gig. All four days. It's a dog eat dog world out there in corporate land. 

I have to hand it to the agent. She worked hard to get me the gig. She felt awful that the client was turning me down, someone completely qualified and specifically trained for the skills requested, because of my dress size. 

It was a rough couple of days. I had serious ups and downs and I was extremely emotional about it. I had to send pictures of me hooping, body shots, selfies, head shots, natural-looking pictures. At one point it seemed I had convinced them but then it turned out no, I wasn't getting hired but the woman who I referred was. Also turns out they picked someone else in my place who only had one-hoop skills but is model sized. 

That's when my FB post hit:

Turns out being skinny is more important than being skilled. I just lost out on a incredibly highly paid semi-regular gig b/c of my dress size. I want to cry and punch something at the same time. It doesn't matter that I am the best person for the job (multi hooper) or that I've dedicated my life to training, performing, teaching, living and breathing hoop dance. All that matters is my body type. The shallow nature of this industry and society in general is depressing. I'm bringing booty back!

About 100 people commented within half an hour and I was in tears all over again. People wrote some of the most touching things to me I have ever read. Real life instances in which I had inspired, worked with, taught, danced with, performed with or mentored were coming out of the wood work. Some of my favorites include:

"... you're my IDOL. I've agreed to do a hoop burlesque performance this month and you are my inspiration, you are the Fairy Burlesque Hoop Goddess who whispers to me, 'Cookie, you are sexy with those curves!' " -Jennifer Mountain

 "The way you love, embrace, and use your body has always been such an awe and inspiration to me. And on top of that, you're extremely successful and thriving, rocking a gorgeous body, without a size 0 build. So basically fuck 'em The impact you've had on me and probably countless other girls is way more important than some dumb gig that doesn't see the beauty in you." -Katelyn Carano

"What I love so much about dancing with you is that you know and teach us how to have FUN rocking your body, and that all the women you are making happy don't fit a standard body type but are confident enjoying the body they have, no matter what shape or size! Whoever can't appreciate this doesn't deserve it! Keep up your amazing work performing and teaching and inspiring people around the globe!!! And yes, I'm all about booooootay!!! Bring it on!!" - Tine Be

"Valentina, because of you I moved beyond what I thought my ideal body image for myself was. You inspired me to love my body just the was it is, and flaunt it. I've been a size 12,10,8,6,4,2... Cellulite, stretch marks, saggy skin - all of it! This is the main reason I'm involved in performance art, to pay it forward and show men and women what FEELING good looks like!" - Emeraude LaStarr

Needless to say I was crying reading all of these comments. I decided to let it all go and

went to go take a shower. When I had washed off the icky feeling of being emotionally dragged around by shallow, inconsiderate corporate whores, I looked at my phone and saw that the agent had convinced them to hire me! WHAT?! They changed their minds? After I went public about their sizeism I was being offered the gig. What to do now?

It took me a while to decide what to do. A large part of me wanted to refuse the gig to prove a point. They didn't deserve me anyway. In the end I decided to take the gig because I knew I could rock the body suit and I knew I could rock the hoop moves! I wanted to show them that you do not have to be a size two to be publicly viewed on stage as a performer or even as a model. Now I definitely don't consider myself a model but ironically around the same time this happened, Sports Illustrated published a "plus sized" model Robyn Lawley in their February issue. She does not look plus sized to me. But she definitely looks beautiful.

So I did the gig. I felt both curvy and sexy in the body suit. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. The make-up they did on me, though it was a bit heavy, was fun to play with for a couple days. The most ironic thing about it was that multiple people, both the general public and the employees of the company, complimented me relentlessly on my body. "You have the perfect body!", "I want your body!", "Can I have your body?" These phrases came at me all day. I was gracious, said, "Thank you" and laughed to myself inside. See, you little corporate piece of shit, this is the type of person who should be seen on stage, the REAL, healthy, strong, empowered, talented woman. The one who is more like the everyday woman than the photoshopped models on the cover of magazines. 

The 2015 Face of Temptress

So many hoopers reached out to me who had gone through the same types of experiences. Someone skinnier and less skilled (or even in some occasions more caucasian) got the gigs over them. Even people who had been offered the same exact gig with the same company but in a different city also feel victim to sizeism discrimination. 

It hit me hard that there are still people out there in this world who think like this. I have surrounded myself with people who do not think this way. And maybe closed myself off to current prominent ways of thinking. Homophobia, racism, sexism, sizeism, they all feel like "isms" of the past. This experience showed me that they're still out there. In full force. 

Ironically, the same weekend as this gig I had entered myself into a Pin Up/Talent Pageant for my favorite store in San Diego, Temptress Fashion. This store has tempted me into becoming my most glamorous pin-up self on many occasions and I have dreamt of representing them as the "Face of Temptress" for about 5 years. Since I had always been at Burning Man or traveling the world when they had their pageant, I couldn't consider doing it until this year when the stars aligned. Their pageant was in February AND I had made a conscious decision not to travel internationally for at least a year. So it seemed to be my year! I competed in the pageant and I WON! Yup, right after almost being denied a job I was completely qualified for because of my body; I was celebrated and elevated to a representative position of a Pin Up company, because of my talent. Every single woman who entered the pageant was curvaceous and gorgeous. Every single one, when asked why they wanted to be a pin-up model said it was because the pin-up world encouraged women of all sizes to feel beautiful. 

My winning performance

All of this in the same weekend!

This experience has showed me even more how important Burlesque and Pin-Up culture is to me. Burlesque is full of superstar women who are absolutely rocking life and they're not a size two. Women who inspire me so much because of their talent, business sense, success, creativity and passion...still not a size two. For some women, particularly my students, I have a similar role in their lives. I dedicate my life to dance, performance, art, teaching, traveling, fulfilling my dreams, circus and genuine small business practices...and guess what...I am not a size two! I feel supported, loved and encouraged in the Burlesque, Hoop and Belly Dance communities for who I am. EXACTLY WHO I AM. Thank you to those of you who shared your personal experiences with me, how I have effected you positively through what I do. When you take the time to tell me, it gives me more inspiration to keep doing it!

At the Face of Temptress Pageant

When I first started performing Burlesque, one experience that I will never forget is a couple of women came up to me and said that they loved my performance because I am not a size two. They said they could see how much fun I was having being in my not-society-approved-perfect body, how sexy, confident and beautiful I felt. They said that if I could feel this way about myself on stage just as I am, then they could feel the same way about themselves! Huzzah! That's exactly when I knew what my purpose as a Burlesque performer is! And it has carried onto my purpose as a dance and Burlesque teacher as well. 

I want to say that sizeism can go both ways. There has been a huge anti-skinny movement lately that has left those size two ladies feeling slighted. I DO NOT believe anyone should be considered beautiful because of their dress size. As I said in the beginning of this post, what I find the most beautiful is EMPOWERMENT. Even though the song below walks the anti-skinny girl sizeist line, I still can't stop singing it and feel parts of it are a new anthem for me. Particularly this Postmodern Jukebox version :) Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top!

Click the image!

My First Year of Burlesque Festivals

On the way to Vegas!

The Hoop Unit Goes to BHoF
June 2013

As if it were even possible, somehow my drive and dedication to my art has been increased by attending the Burlesque Hall of Fame. I have been given even more courage to do what I do, to the extreme. There is no reason to hold back. No reason to fear that anything I do is too crazy, silly, sexy, out there or wild, because it's not. After what I saw performed on that stage, NOTHING I do can be too out there. There will always be someone who is more flamboyantly ridiculous or fabulous than me :) How awesome is that? It's comforting to know there are so many people out there like me that are completely obsessed with Burlesque. I have never been surrounded by so many people that are that into it! I felt like I was definitely a virgin at the Burning Man for Burlesque Performers. I also feel like I have found yet another place to call home.

Seeing so many performers embrace their unique selves through fashion, costuming, performance, movement, dance, theatrical concepts and of course creative strip tease has really encouraged me to BE MYSELF to the fullest extent of the law. I can't wait to see what my brain comes up with after this!

It was a true celebration of the human body, in ALL of it's forms. Men, women, small, large, young and old got up on that stage and owned it! There really is no time in this life to be ashamed of what you got. Own it!

On the big stage!

My favorite night of performances was Thursday, the “Movers, Shakers and Innovators.” These were the alternative acts that fit nowhere near classic. The more and more I surround myself with Burlesque, the more I start to formulate an opinion of what I prefer. And it's clearly anything that involves circus or outside-the-box concepts. When you've seen lots of women take their clothes off on stage, after awhile it just becomes ass and titties. And then some more ass and there are another set of titties. I want something different. Something radical! Thursday gave it to me and I will never forget it. Jett Adore came onstage with the largest pair of feather fans I have ever seen in my life! I mean they were gigantic! Lolli Hoops, my Hoop Burlesque sister from the other side of the country, did a hilarious Mary Poppins Hoop act. She rocked 4 hoops and nailed it! I was extremely proud of her :) Other highlights of that night include Gilbert de Moccos of Japan, Miyuki Divine & Raven Virginia and Russell Bruner.

The Hoop Unit at BHoF

Friday was the Legends showcase. The groundbreaking ladies who paved the way for us 40+ years ago got on stage and brought it! It was inspiring to see older women still rocking the stage. It gave me a different perspective for my future. Not only were they owning the stage but the audience loved them! This is reality right here. We all age eventually and it is a beautiful thing. Not to be ashamed of or scared of. It is to be celebrated! The reverence for the women who started the Burlesque movement is endless. I love seeing the respect and adoration for our previous generation.

Saturday was our big night! The competition! 3 full months of rehearsals for the troupe and 3 years of anticipation for me was finally coming to a head. To say we were nervous was an understatement. Performing Burlesque for 800 other Burlesque performers is no joke! It's such a niche community that the people within it are what support it. It is starting to branch out and get support from the mainstream as it becomes more popular but for the most part, Burlesque performers support Burlesque. I haven't been as nervous to perform since I was featured on Showtime's LiveNude Comedy in 2008. It was a live taping of my newly created Hoop burlesque act (I had only been hooping for one year at that point) for a national television show. It was the most nervous I had ever been to perform. Fast forward to backstage at the Orleans Casino theater for Burlesque Hall of Fame 2013 and THAT has become the most nervous I have been to go on stage. BUT WE ROCKED IT! You can see the video here. Sure, the performance wasn't perfect. But heck, it was close enough for me. It was a very challenging routine for 4 people to nail flawlessly. I am extremely proud of us. We worked so hard! We trained, made our costumes and fundraised through Indiegogo so we could afford to get out there. I consider the whole project a complete success and I am so grateful to Sarah, Jessica and Madison for making it such a priority. Also, to everyone who helped support our Indiegogo campaign, THANK YOU! We couldn't have done it without you.

After the show w/ Lolli Hoops!

Some of the competitors on Saturday that really stood out to me was Laurie Hagan in the debut category for her reverse Burlesque act. Her music was in reverse, her dancing was in reverse and so was her striping! It was a completely original take on the classic idea of reverse Burlesque. I loved Midnite Martini's act for the Queen title in which she had feather fans on her gloves. How she was able to strip with feather fans on her fingers will forever baffle me. Imogen Kelly (last year's Queen) from Australia performed her farewell performance. It was absolutely breathtaking. Her dress had a manipulatable hoop inside of it that changed shape as she moved. It ebbed and flowed, the performance brought tears to my eyes. In the end we didn't win our category but I wasn't really there to win. I was there to share and to inspire...and to be inspired! I was there to express my vision of Hoop Burlesque Fusion and entertain the crowd in a hopefully unique way. I already know what I want to enter with next year and have been thinking about it, plotting it, ever since! Bwahahaha. I am determined to take home a title at some point in my life. It will happen!

Sunday we got some pool lounging in and saw the Icons & All Stars show. I was awesome to see Roxi D'Lite perform live. I have been watching her videos for years! She did a Cyr Wheel strip, it was amazing. The strength that woman has! Jeez! Catherine D'Lish AND Dita Von Tease ended up showing up which was a huge surprise for the audience. It was Dita's first time attending BHoF! Michelle L'amour was ridiculously sexy as well. I mean wow!

You can see more pictures from our adventures in Vegas here. 
A documentary style video of our adventures in Vegas will be ready soon!

Valentina Goes to the New Orleans Burlesque Festival
September 2013

I just got back from an adventure at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival and I am still

reeling. The first night I was there I performed in the Mondo Burlesque Show at the Harrah's Casino. It was an amazing show to be apart of! The stage was beautiful and big, just how I like it! The crowd was right there with me as I pulled off most of my tricks! Yeah I had a few drops but for some reason when I pulled off the trick I had attempted (and dropped) the first time, the audience cheered even louder. It's something I talked about in my "Performance Skills for Hoopers" workshop this summer on the US Tour. Sometimes an audience likes a drop and a recover more than pulling off the trick perfectly the first time. It makes you seem more human as opposed to a magical hooping super hero. Also, you tried again and succeeded which makes your perseverance commendable and the audience got to go through some adversity with you, you all prevailed! Woohoo! I have to listen to my own advice, try again, put on a big smile and try not to get discouraged when I drop a hoop on stage. Overall I am happy with my performance and happy with the response I received from the audience and other performers at the festival. 

On Saturday I walked around Jackson Square and the French Market Quarter. There was some awesome shops, flea markets and farmers markets. It was a rainy day but I didn't let that stop me from being a tourist. The Saturday night show at the House of Blues was spectacular! My favorite acts were Kitty Bang Bang's Pink Panther act (she came out of a huge trash can!), The Acromantics, Russell Bruner & Pink Lady and The Ruby Revue ended the night with a large group number which was beautifully choreographed and executed. I loved Kitty Bang Bang's "F**k You" attitude and absolute silly humor. It was like she knew that what she was doing was ridiculous (taking off our clothes for an audience is ridiculous, btw!) and the acknowledgment of that made me giggle. When I found out she's from the UK it all made sense, as I seem to have an obsession with British culture. The Acromantics did an amazing acrobatic comedic Burlesque number. It made me think of Bags and all of the fun acro stuff we did over the summer. Russell Bruner & Pink Lady did their silly Little Bo Peep act. 

After the show I had an amazing time getting to know some of the performers from the

festival at the after party. I have a major crush on Gogo McGregor and Dr. Sick. Confetti Eddie was fun. I love David the Pope of Burlesque and Saphire Snow from Australia was a total sweetheart! Her bubbly personality backstage was very much appreciated by social butterfly me :) Vicky Butterfly's act in the Mondo Burlesque show was very cool. She had LEDs and El Wire in her flowy costume which made for an epic effect on stage. Oh and I forgot to mention that El Dorado (who has only been doing Burlesque for 5 months!) did the first ever ice skating Burlesque act (as far as I know!) It was beautiful!

On Sunday I went to the park with Kimberly, my friend who I was staying with to see a live funky jazz band. We ran into a few hoopers on the way in and ended up hooping and dancing with them the whole time! It was such a serendipitously perfect occurrence. I love that carrying a hula hoop around automatically makes you friends wherever you go! We hooped under the huge beautiful trees on the cool grass and I thanked the universe that I'm alive.

The Courage to Ask for Help, Counting Your Blessings & Diving Into the Unknown

The Courage to Ask for Help

As I sit on the brink of my biggest dreams and projects getting ready to unfold, I reflect. 2013 is almost half way over! Wow, that went fast. Pretty much all of my 2013 has been spent in anticipation of this moment. Or the moment I'm about to experience actually, The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Vegas and my US Tour with Bags. I have been planning, organizing, promoting, creating, communicating, working and dreaming about this tour since December of last year. 6 months in the oven! This project has been baking real good :) And it's about to be ready for consumption! It's the oddest feeling to about to be doing something you've spent the last 6 months thinking about. I just want the next few weeks to happen already!

They are going to zip by! I know it! In about a week I will be driving out to Vegas with 3 amazing women to compete in the Best Group Category at the Burlesque Hall of Fame. We are SO excited! We have been working extremely hard to get ready for this. I launched a crowd-funding campaign to help us afford this expensive endeavor, and we made our goal! Thank you to everyone who contributed or helped spread the word about our campaign! It was the first time I have launched such a project and I have to say it was an amazing experience. It made me think about the concept of asking for help. It's hard to ask for help. I know I struggle with it. Something inside me tells me I'm supposed to seem as if I can do everything, all of it, on my own. That's just craziness! That mixed with my own notion of...if it's going to be done right, I have to do it myself. Silly! I watched Amanda Palmer's Ted talk "The Art of Asking" and was so inspired by her courage to ask for help. That video is definitely worth a watch! 

Not only did I put myself out there in a new way to ask for help financially with BHoF, I have also asked dozens of hoopers to help us with our tour. We will be hosted in about 20 different cities this summer! That is a lot of hosts! I have hosted countless hoopers over the years in San Diego and I have also been hosted in Canada and the UK. I know what it takes to host a touring workshop instructor, it's no small feet! Organizing the space rental, spreading the word to your local hoop community and managing sign-ups. Hard work but totally worth it! I wrote a blog post on The Hoop Hub about the benefits of hosting and taking workshops from out of town hoop instructors. It brings in outside inspiration, grows your community, creates a bond within your community, generates revenue and allows the host to network and pay it forward. 

I hope that my Indiegogo Campaign as well as my tour has inspired you to have the courage to ask for help! Sometimes dreams are so big that they take the greater community to manifest. I know that both of these impending projects are bigger than any other dream I have attempted to bring to fruition. That's why they required collaboration on a larger scale. Dream big! Ask for help! One of the most satisfying things I do in my life is help people's dreams of performance come true. I alter people's life-paths by providing empowering performance opportunities, and it feels great!

Counting Your Blessings

On the news with The Hoop Unit as 1950s hula hoopers

April might have been one of my most exciting months to date! I got to do a few gigs with Anahata at the Figueroa Hotel in downtown LA, taught some awesome hoopers private lessons (including Kana from Japan!), The Hoop Unit performed at Lucidity Festival, I was flown to the Bay Area to perform at the Vaudeville Festival in Tracy, CA, I performed on a yacht for The High Seas Tease, Ninja Hoops from Oakland came to town for workshops AND we were featured on San Diego Living's morning news show to talk about Hooping as a tool for health. Whew! 

The Hoop Unit at Lucidity!

Lucidity was amazing! Our performances were different than any I have ever experienced. We were slated to do a renegade performance of our new Space routine at the main stage in the middle of the crowd at midnight on Friday night. Earlier that evening we looked at the main stage and wondered how we were going to work our way into that massive crowd! We were certain people would give us room when they saw a dozen girls all in the same spacey outfit coming through with glow hoops. We got ready and rehearsed a few times at our camp. Even that caused a scene! This routine is different because it isn't set strictly to music with counts like all of the other numbers I've choreographed in the past. It has a lot of partner work that's more loose. We set off from our camp as a caterpillar (each person's hoop looped on top of the person in front of her) and snaked our way over to the main stage. I was in the front and waved our train all over the place! The reactions we got from people were amazing! When we got to the main stage just after midnight, the music was off! Turns out the person who booked us forgot the music ended at midnight, duh! Well we didn't let that stop us! We set up and did our whole routine anyway and allowed a crowd to form around us. It was interactive and spontaneous. I loved it! We did the same thing a few more times in various places around the festival. Pretty much wherever we felt like...at a silent disco (people all wearing headphones listening to the same music), at the Spin Cycle camp, etc. I am usually performing on a stage and it is very planned out. This was the exact opposite! It is so nice to have opportunities to switch it up every so often!

Performing at the Vaudeville Festival in Tracy, CA

One of my favorite shows I have EVER done was at the Grand Theater in Tracy, CA for their Vaudeville Festival w/ the Fishnet Follies Burlesque Revue. It was in a huge, beautiful original theater from the 1920's! The stage was amazing, the cast was epic and the show was spectacular. I really enjoyed being surrounded by such beautiful Burlesque stars in a venue that was truly worthy and deserving of our talent! The night that I arrived in my hotel room, after driving from the airport in my rental car (all of which was provided by the festival who hired us) - I laid in bed and counted my blessings. I was feeling so grateful! I thanked everything that I could think of. I started with the things that were closest to me and the gig I was doing. Thanking Mynx, the festival organizers, etc. then I started moving outward and thanked everything in my head that I could think of, getting as far away as the moon, stars, mother earth, trees...everything! Naming them all off in my head. Thank you "fill in the blank." I can't stress enough how important it is to carry gratitude with you through your daily life! It is the only way to move forward.

The High Seas Tease

The High Seas Tease was definitely one for the books! I danced with my snake, Manasa as well as performed my 4 hoop routine. It is the first time I have done a summersault on a moving yacht while hooping on my foot :) I am always up for a challenge and I love firsts! The Bourbon Dames Burlesque will be producing another amazing event on June 7th at Sunset Temple: Rack of Ages. I am really looking forward to performing to one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs. It's one that I have wanted to dance to for years! Don't miss it!

Ninja Hoops came to San Diego to teach 2 days of amazing hoop workshops! Wow! My brain was all full and melty. I loved it! Thanks to Zach and Marria from Oakland for making the trek down to teach us your amazingness!

Ninja Hoops Workshop in San Diego

The weekend after Ninja Hoops were in town, I went to Colorado to participate in the Spin Summit. This was my second year teaching and performing. It was a really good time for reflection because that event last year was the start of my huge self-initiated life change. I got to sleep in the same exact bed I slept in last year and think about  all that I have experienced since then. I got to compare my current self with my past self. Something I noticed was how much more comfortable I feel inside myself. I am so much more ready to be me. And nothing else. No one else. Just me. I also feel much more empowered within my potential as a hooper and circus artist. I have grown a lot as a hooper in the last year. I can feel how much I have pushed myself to grow. 

Diving Into the Unknown
I like details. I thrive on organizing and planning them out. Something about my tour that is both scary and exhilarating is how unfathomable it is. I can't fathom all of the details. It will be for 3 months and it will mostly be in places I have never been. There is A LOT of unknown factors. No matter what I do now to prepare as best as I can, there is no way I can know everything. I'm freaked out and excited at the same time. I think this must be the reason I'm doing this. I'm in a phase of my life where I am pushing myself into the unknown, the uncomfortable, the unfathomable. I think if you're not scaring yourself, you're not really living your life to the fullest. Scare yourself. Just a little bit. Get out of your comfort zone and grow! I am also pushing myself into a place of discovery about what I really "need" to survive. Putting everything back in storage, and packing up only enough for a 3 month adventure in a car is going to put the idea of "need" into perspective!

What's Coming Up!
Rack of Ages - June 7th at Sunset Temple

Bags is coming to teach!

More info: http://rackofages.eventbrite.com/

Show Variete - June 7th at Queen Bee's
More Info: http://queenbeessd.com/

Del Mar Fair Performance - June 9th at the Del Mar Fair
More info HERE

Double Hoop Workshop w/ Bags in San Diego! - June 13th at Dance Place San Diego, 7-9pm, $40
More info: http://unityhoops.com/events/bags-uk-hoop-workshop-san-diego

OB Spin Jam and Farewell Party! - June 14th at the Saratoga Greens in OB
More info HERE

UK Hoopers Invade LA - June 15th at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Pasadena w/ Bags, Kenna Hoops & Gail O'Brien
More info: http://unityhoops.com/events/uk-hoopers-invade-la