You can't always get what you want

I can't stop singing the Rolling Stones song. It's something I guess I needed to re-learn. 

I am a firm believer in choosing your own destiny. Making intentional decisions to create a clear path leading you to what you want. Ever since I took on this attitude with conviction it has, for the most part, worked. Set intentions. Be clear about what they are. Write them down so they are present physically in the universe and to create accountability....viola! Watch your dreams come true. Sometimes, the universe has other plans for you. Sometimes you can't get what you want. It's in these moments - the challenging, frustrating, unexpected moments when your true character shines through. How flexible are you? How creative? How can you see the positive side? 

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance"  - Alan Watts 

Ancient Castle Moat Hooping in Sicily

This quote has been repeated in my head for a couple days now. I was unexpectedly refused entrance into the UK for allegedly "seeking employment". Ironically, Swhoop and the World Burlesque Games, the only two commitments I had for the 6 weeks I was planning to be there were just for fun. I had saved up money working at the San Diego Zoo this summer and was planning to spend that time in Bristol investing in myself. Between volunteering for 3 months in Nicaragua, a knee injury that lasted way too long and working at the Zoo 7 days a week for a 67 day run; I have not been able to invest in myself much this year. Coming home from the UK this week has definitely been one of those harsh you-can't-always-get-what-you-want moments. In the wake of the incident I have to say I've learned my lesson (the hard way) and have found as many positives in the situation as possible. Now I really can focus on myself. I've signed up for a month of unlimited yoga at Corepower, started the Blogilates workouts daily, will be embarking on the Whole30 day food challenge (vegan paleo - no gluten, sugar, alcohol), will actually get to go back to Lyra class at AR and *gasp* take belly dance class from Sabrina Fox again! All of these things are things I've wanted to do this year but for whatever reason couldn't. Well now I can. Thanks UK Border Control!

Vegan Sicilian Food!

Before attempting to go to the UK, Bags and I had the honor of participating in the Ursino Buskers Festival, located in Catania, Sicily. It exceeded my expectations in every way. Sometimes messages come in asking you to go to remote parts of the world and perform your art. This one seemed like it could go either way. When the offer came in, it sounded exciting and perfect because we were already planning to be in Europe the week before and had no commitments at that time. A rarity. We'd never done a street show before though! Our style of performance lends itself to street and it's something we've both wanted to do for awhile but hadn't done it yet. Now we have! It was a great way to ease ourselves into actual street performing since we didn't have to draw a crowd, the festival itself did that for us. 

We had about a week in Catania. We taught two workshops....in their ancient castle! One of our workshops was in the dried (now covered in grass) moat of the castle. Yeah we taught hoop dance in a moat :) Our workshops were well attended and the hoopers were absolutely awesome! Such sweet people who welcomed us with open arms and took amazing care of us. We got to stay in the house of another artist performing at the festival only 2 minutes down the road. Walked through the various markets. Bought delicious fresh veggies. Paraded down the main street with the artists of the festival while a live samba band jammed all the way. We found vegan versions of the local food like "arancini" which is a fried rice ball usually with cheese and/or meat. We found vegan ones! We had granita which is a rich, sweet flavored ice dessert for breakfast, more then once. Pistachio and almond were my favorites! We connected with lovely people whom I'm sure I would be friends with if I lived there. We found our tribe!

Parading down the streets of Catania

Our performances were unforgettable. We did two 15 minute shows and one 5 minute act. The first night we did great but had a couple minor drops. We also didn't know how to talk to the crowd before or after our show since my Italian from living in Rome 8 years ago is gone and the people of Catania don't speak much English. It was kind of awkward putting a hat down without a word. The next night though we absolutely killed it! In our whole 15 minutes, we had no drops! Bags did his 5 club routine flawlessly and our hoops act was seamless. It was one of the happiest I've been from a performance. Complete bliss. With the help of Giulia, I prepared a little something to say in Italian after our show. Giulia was our tour guide, interpreter, fellow hooper and has become our new Italian friend :) We love you Giulia! So I spoke in Italian through a microphone (!!!) to thousands of Italians!!! They loved it! Needless to say our hat was much more full the second night. 

I can't even begin to imagine how much work went into creating the Buskers Festival. There were over 5 spots all within walking distance that had different performance art - circus, theater, live music, fire dancing. There were vendors, activities for children and workshops. The Gammazita bar organized it, which is run by a collective of Sicilians. They have made their area in Catania safer and more culturally rich. They run regular cultural events like film screenings, language courses and circus classes. They informally adopt local kids with hard family lives. These people are amazing. I am so grateful to have met them and experience Catania in this way. Thank you Giorgia, Giulia, Flo, Mic and all the others who put it together! See ALL of the pictures from our Catania trip HERE.

Performing in the Aerial Revolution Showcase - Sept 2011

Attaining the Unattainable: Perfection

- and -

You Just Never Know

This blog was actually meant to talk about my experience working at the Zoo this summer! There is just so much (good and bad) that has happened since then that I had to get it all out. SO rewind three years ago to when I was teaching regularly at Aerial Revolution. I performed in their showcase in September of 2011. It was a fun show. Nothing extremely memorable about it but fun nonetheless. I always enjoyed performing and teaching with the AR crew. They rock! Turns out Rachael and Pete Wray were in the audience that day and really enjoyed my piece. I remember them coming up to me after the show to tell me that it was their favorite act! Fast forward to March of this year, I get a message from Rachael asking if I know any hoopers who could perform at the Zoo this summer. My first thought was...me?! So I asked them if I could do it and they were also looking for another performer for that stage - Bags was the perfect fit! How lucky were we?! We got to do a regular gig in San Diego together. I mean, sheesh!! Exciting stuff! This proves that every show you do, no matter what it's for, how much you're getting paid, IF you're getting paid, matters. Every. Single. One. You never know what it could lead to!

Click here to watch my hoop solo from the Zoo

We changed our summer plans and were sad to not have attended EJC, the Heart & Hoop Dance retreat in the Netherlands and the German Hoop Convention. (Bags got to go!) BUT we had an opportunity of a lifetime! For awhile now I have dreamed of an extended contract gig. Something to bring in a little financial stability and help hone my craft. This was exactly the opportunity I was waiting for. When it all came together it was like the clouds opened up, the sun shined through and the choir started harmonizing in my head. Heavenly! 

I did 4 shows a day for 65 out of the 67 day run. That, plus the parade every other day made for approximately 293 shows. Wowza! That's a lot of shows! It was quite an experience. There were both some serious highs and lows. Looking back at the happy faces Oooo-ing and Awwww-ing at our show and hooping with the kids afterward was amazing. Getting to perform with Bags everyday kept me laughing, smiling and on my toes. I loved getting to know Kasey our hand balancer - she's a talented, smart, opinionated badass. Working with the whole cast and crew actually was unforgettable. Each person was so talented and brought something different to the table. 

Click here to watch Bags' juggling solo from the Zoo

Most of the hard parts for me were what happened psychologically and mentally. You'd think my first gripe would be about physical hardship. Yes exhaustion that was a factor but really what I think I got out of it was how to work through the experience mentally. With that many shows, there was bound to be a certain amount of error. There's just no way around it. We put specific tricks into our routines to help make them stronger. Doing something that many times will make you better at it right? Well it wasn't always that straight forward. There is no science to it, turns out. Even if you do something 300 times, you can still struggle with it on the 301st. I expected consistency, had an extremely high expectation for myself and strove to attain perfection. That led to disappointment sometimes and then probably mentally hindered me for the next show (or even during the show). It was a cyclical thing. Somehow I broke down enough to break through the cycle and come out on the other end! 

Click here to see our duet

I found myself actually daydreaming while performing! When you do something that many times, you start to think about what you're going to cook for dinner, what show you're going to watch when you get home, etc. I had to snap myself out of that and remind myself to Be Here Now. Completely in the moment. Also I found fun ways to concentrate, or actually take my mind off of the hard tricks (because sometimes when you concentrate too much it messes you up - sometimes you just have to let your body do it). Whenever we got to a certain section that required extreme concentration, I would think about happy positive words that weren't loaded with anything performance related. So thinking the word "perfect" or "seamless" didn't work because it was too much pressure. Instead I would think "cupcake" "sprinkles" "rainbow sherbet" :) It worked!

Those ups and downs, those break-downs and break-throughs; that process IS perfection. The experience in itself and what I learned from it is just...perfect. 

All in all, regardless of how hard it was at times, how tired, sore, hot, sweaty and cranky I got, I am still immensely grateful for the experience. Remember that dropless show I talked about earlier in Sicily Bags and I had? I truly believe that was possible because of all the practice we got in this summer. With a couple weeks space from the gig, doing our show again felt more solid and comfortable then it ever has and that is largely due to our work at the Zoo. I feel SO much more confident juggling and multi-hooping, two things I want to be solid at. So thank you. Thank you Pete & Rachael Wray most of all for trusting us to do our best this summer and taking us on board as part of the team. Big thanks to the entire cast of awesomeness, it was a pleasure to meet you and get to know you. I hope we all get to do it again sometime :)

2013: Grateful for a Wonderful Year!

On New Year's Day 2014, I will embark on another exciting adventure! One that is completely unlike anything I have ever done before. I will be throwing myself into the unknown - living in Nicaragua with a team of 6 other circus and dance performers, doing charity work for 3 months. What a life! I am both excited and nervous at the same time. There is no way I can know what it is I am about to experience, see, feel and learn. There will be inevitable growth from challenges such as living in a country that speaks a different language; living, working, performing, breathing, traveling with the same 6 people for 3 months and exposing myself to Nicaraguan people's lives. Since I will be volunteering for such an extended period of time, I am fundraising to get my accommodations, flight and other expenses covered, you can read about the campaign here. 

Before going on this project with Performers Without Borders, I want to give thanks for such a wonderful year. It really has been nothing short of spectacular. From the gapping cavernous landscape of the Grand Canyon, to the bustle and culture of New York City, the big stage in Las Vegas and then all the way to the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben; I have been fortunate enough to see these places with the love of my life and my other love, my hula hoop!

My year started out with a bang in February when I produced "The Burlesque Circus" a sold out, 2 night show at the Sunset Temple in North Park with my first international headliner Juliette Dragon & Rikkha of Paris. The highlights from Friday night's show can be seen in the video above. Right after the show I visited Bags in Nicaragua where he was doing the same project we're about to start in a few days. You can see an amazing video Bags made about the project here. In May, I had the opportunity to teach and perform at The Spin Summit in Colorado, there was snow on the ground when I arrived! It was another amazing flow retreat that helped the entire flow community soar to higher heights. They already have the dates for 2014, so check them out! Shortly after that is when I found out that my troupe, The Hoop Unit was accepted into the Best Group category of the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas! It was a serious milestone and an amazing experience. Watch our performance here. That was what prompted me to start my first official crowd funding campaign. I have learned so much from it! I am currently applying for the solo debut category for BHoF in 2014 and you can see the submission for it here. 

After the Burlesque Hall of Fame in June, I packed everything I own into a small storage unit

BHoF in Vegas!

and set off for a three month road trip across the United States with Bags! We taught in 17 cities, 3 festivals, drove through 29 states, 4 time zones and covered 9,500 miles. We performed in 7 shows and taught 45 workshops to about 400 hoopers! It was the longest running and most vast (in preparation, execution and geographically) project I have ever accomplished and I am extremely proud of myself! So much preparation went into it. Communicating with all of our lovely hosts. Figuring out venues, times, prices, dates, which workshops we were going to teach, setting up payment through my website. Making promotional material, promoting the workshops. Travel logistics, getting my car ready for the journey. I mean, Jeez! It was like nothing I had ever done and there were various points in which I felt I wasn't capable of making the decisions that needed to be made. But I made them, I did my best, and it all turned out alright. I can't explain how grateful I am to the hosts in each city. They really made this project possible. And the amazing hoopers who came out to learn from us! Bags made a really lovely video that you can watch here about our tour and you can see all of the pics here. 

Nothing really went wrong! My car never broke down and we didn't get pulled over once. I am still amazed about that! We hit almost every corner of the states...starting in the Southwest (San Diego) - driving all the way through the south to the Southeast corner (Miami!), up the East Coast all the way to Maine (Northeast corner) and then down through the Midwest to Burning Man and back to Southern California. What an experience! It was such an epic adventure that I can't really articulate the whole thing into words. I tried writing a blog post just about the Tour and have failed, it's a bit daunting to put something like that into a post of readable length! What I would like to do though is to mention one or two highlights from each city we stopped at. 

Grand Canyon Hooping

Los Angeles: Introducing my mom to Bags (and Gail & Emma!), playing in the park that I grew up next to with those 3 lovely UK hoopers.

The Grand Canyon: Walking and driving along the rim of the canyon, stoping at various view points and scrambling out to the farthest point we could get to, realizing Bags and I were scarily on the same page.

Sedona: Hiking up to two peaks in the distance with no trail to follow, and making it to the top! Chocolate Tree Restaurant - delicious vegan food.

Tucson: The beautiful Cirque Roots space, feeling so at home with Britney, Zoe and Stephanie that I wanted to stay there with my new friends, the cactus forest outside the city that looked eerily otherworldly.

Albuquerque: Eating home cooked southwestern chili made by Nicole Evans, jamming in the park, performing with Gilded Cage Burlesque.

Austin: Kim Patty, we love you! I loved teaching Burlesque at the Inner Diva Studio! Swimming at the big swimming hole in town, meeting up with my Irish friend Catriona :)

Miami Hooping!

New Orleans: Driving through a slightly sketchy neighborhood to get to our gig at Siberia with Big Deal Burlesque (they had amazing vegan burgers there), walking around the French Quarter, performing at the House of Blues with Bustout Burlesque (standing ovation!), seeing live washboard playing jazz musicians and saxophonists who got on top of the bar!

Sarasota: Sleeping in a rest area in between Nola and Sarasota because the drive was so long! Going to the drum circle at the beach after our workshop with Bonnie Brown. Thank you Abby Albaum for hosting us as well :)

Lake Worth: Casandra Tanenbaum felt like I had known her forever when I had just met her for the first time :) Driving in a torrential downpour to get there. Swimming in Casandra's pool with Jodi and Jasmin, helping Bags teach his workshop on the beach!

Miami: Having a complete giggle fit in the ocean, Bags in Banana Man pants, making dinner in a parking lot at a park and finishing the cooking right when a tropical rainstorm hits, eating dinner in the car :) Taking epic pictures on the beach for 4th of July and spinning at the park in Lake Worth with Casandra and her flow friends.

Jacksonville: Karma Kream - amazing vegan ice cream!

NY Sunset Skyline

Atlanta: Getting to know sweet Rebecca Deshon better and meeting her husband for the first time, hooping with them both in their basement and going out for delicious vegan food.

Carrboro: Staying in Beth's barn and getting closer with her, feeling such a strong connection and bond with that wonderful woman, drinking beer with Baxter, taking his weekly class, having birthday drinks with Jaguar Mary, eating at Vimilas, spending time with Julia at the FlowJo, hooping in Beth's skirts at the Haw River Ballroom.

Charlottesville: Going to a house party with Anne & Derek, there was a live bluegrass band playing in the living room, getting in their jacuzzi under the stars, walking in their forest backyard, driving to an orchard for a viewpoint of the city.

Washington, DC: Seeing the Lincoln monument and flipping off the White House. 

Bags teaching at R2R

New York: Staying at the Floasis with Tara & Rob, the invention of the 360˚ kiss (Times Square), meeting Evan Davis and his Synth hoops, drinks with Stefan, the Bex and Ali, going to the top of the Standard Hotel, the Met, Coney Island, Pure Food & Wine for my birthday, vegan Dunwell doughnuts and ice cream for birthday breakfast, staying with the lovely Claire de Lux.

Boston: Teaching the best Performance Skills workshop of the whole tour, drinks with Lolli at the lovely after party, finding the vegan food/yoga studio run by a happy family.

Brockton: Spending time with my dad, seeing Theraeu's pond in the rain, hiking and seeing owls and a snake.

Rockland: Walking into Maria's house and laughing hysterically from the combined sense of humor between her, her lovely husband and her wonderful daughter, hoop jam after the first day of workshops, drinks later with Maria, her daughter and Beth, finding the delicious food at the Food Co-Op.

Hooping at Boulder Falls - Photo by Hoopologie

Return to Roots: Epic play sessions, Bags taught Z Spins to practically the whole festival, Justin Aubuchon blew my mind with his beautiful DJ sets, ecstatic dance jam for breakfast on Sunday morning, performing my hoop burlesque act in the show, taking Stefan's performance workshop, teaching hoop burlesque, hanging with Lolli and the Bex in the cargo net, playing with Evan and Matt!

Chicago: Bags explodes with new ideas after flowing with Evan and Matt at R2R, stayed with Emily Perkulator, amazing downtown architecture, the Art Institute, Native Foods vegan dinner, the beach.

Bags in Moab

Madison: Beautiful bike ride through the town with Danielle, the massive and beautiful Madison Circus Space!

St Louis: The City museum (seeing the Circus Harmony show), going to the top of the arch, staying with the lovely Michelle Schaeffer, thank you for hosting us!

Columbia: Spending time with the fam! Hooping with them, jumping on the trampoline,  walking around their farm and finding caves and a vine to swing on, delicious vegan food at Main Squeeze.

Boulder: The Boulder Circus center, spending time with Danielle and Kanyon, hanging out with Cindy Marvel and going to the Boulder Juggling Jam, preparing for Burning Man, performing at Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret in Denver, photo shoots with Melinda of Hoopologie, going to the Identi-tape warehouse.

Moab: Riding bikes through the town, getting stuck in a rain/lighting/thunder storm and having to go under a rock overhang to wait it out with my love, the most beautiful place I have ever been!

Burning Man

Burning Man: Vulcan flow jams, hanging out with our Fire Spinning Squirrel Evan :) The hexayurt palace! Riding bikes and looking at art with my love, running into Allison on Tuesday night, hanging out with Jillian, spinning fire with the UK FireWorks collective in the Great Circle, getting the loudest cheer of my life while in a two high fire hooping, the Spin Cycle Hoop Jam.

Lake Tahoe Flow Arts Festival: Bunking with Emma, Revolva, Marria and Zach, the hot tub, playing games with Zach & Marria, juggling in a two high with the Ninjas, performing in the fire gala show, visiting Christy in her amazing shop Jai Yen.

Well that's it! That was the tour! I think one of the major things I got from it was realizing how epically beautiful some parts of the US are. I think I had this idea in my head that the only place in the US to live is either California or NY. But there were many times when I looked around and thought,"I could live here. I get why people live here." It was good for me. As Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

After the tour I got to live with my wonderful friends Matt & Lily. Their house is full of signed photos of

The Time Traveling Circus

Burlesque legends. I got to wake up to look at them every morning :) I got a job working with Life Play Productions teaching kids hoop dance after school every day. It was an incredible learning experience and I truly fell in love with my kids! I also started practicing Spanish everyday to prepare for the Nicaragua trip. I love exercising my brain in this new way. I have wanted to learn Spanish for such a long time and it's ridiculous that I don't know it so it's been the perfect opportunity to teach myself. In September, I was fortunate enough to perform at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival. I gained massive amounts of inspiration from seeing the amazing shows and meeting all of the lovely performers. In October, I produced another sold out show, "The Time Traveling Circus" and hosted a day of workshops (I called it "Find Your FlowDiego") with Caterina Suttin, Revolva, Aileen Lawlor and Tiana Zoumer. It was a dream come true to produce a show with women in it who have really inspired me quite a lot. I also performed a Vampire French Maid Burlesque piece with about 25 women, it was the largest group Burlesque piece I have ever performed in!

Stars of the Orient in Reims, France

In early November I flew to Bristol for Swhoop! Bags & I started working on our first indoor non-fire gala piece for the Saturday night show and put it together in just a few days. We worked our booties off and I really enjoyed performing with him. We also both taught there and took some amazing workshops. After Swhoop I went to Paris and taught a Hoop Burlesque workshop hosted by the amazing Juliette Dragon. Then I went to Reims to teach and perform in Houria's Stars of the Orient Belly Dance Festival. I got to stay with her family in her home and I felt really welcomed into their life. I feel like I gained a new French mother! She really reminded me of my mom - a leader of a big belly dance troupe, teacher, mentor, dancer, performer, organizer and promoter of a large scale event - sound familiar? ;) I also gained a new German best friend, Antje and loved meeting Stella from Greece and two fabulous Ukranian belly dancers, Katerina Golub and Darya Spitsyna.

La Tour Eiffel Amour

Then Bags met me in Paris and we spent a week celebrating our one year anniversary and exploring the city. We stayed with the fabulous Lila Chupa Hoops who also hosted us to teach a Partner Hooping Workshop in Paris. After Paris went straight to Brighton to spend time with Jo & Andy and for Bags to teach at the Brighton Flow Fest. We had my favorite UK day ever that consisted of walking around the countryside and along the seaside, mulled cider and chips in a pub, cooking vegan pizza and watching the Dr Who 50th anniversary special live. After Brighton we went down to Portsmouth to play with Sally Cox and her new baby Violet. We taught a huge Partner Hooping Workshop there. After that we were all over the UK - Reading (Samantha Peel), Sheffield (Charlie Ledger), Manchester (Cathy Mizula), Birmingham (Julia Hurley) and London (Anna Hulagan). Staying with Samantha Peel in her home with her beautiful family was one of my highlights. I loved teaching the Partner Hooping Workshop at their Steiner School in the community room. There was something about the chemistry between Bags and I as teachers and the vibe of the carefree students, it was one of my favorite workshops I've ever taught! Samantha's lovely family life in the countryside made me think that having one of my own wont be such a bad idea one day :) We also performed and taught for the kids at the Steiner school, one of my favorite parts of the trip! Thank you to all of our hosts in the UK & France! We loved coming to visit you!

The Millenium Eye in London

Since then Bags and I have been working on videos, putting new routines together, preparing for Nicaragua, practicing Spanish and spending time with family/friends for the holidays. We have also officially joined forces at Twisted Orbit! You can see the video Bags made for me at Troopers Hill in Bristol below. This video shows some of the new moves I have acquired this year. 2013 really has been a year of leveling up my skills within the hoop! I have started juggling - performed it for the first time passing 6 hoops with Bags at the Swhoop show. I bought my first pair of clubs. I started performing with 4 hoops - nailed the box and 2 hoops on each arm and I'm still solidifying my 4 hoop split. I've also started performing acrobatic hoop moves with Bags. I believe that the Nicaragua project will continue push me in these new areas of performance. 

Some more lovely people I got to work with this year also include Sassy Stiletto and Lizzie L'amour of Bourbon Dames Burlesque, Lola Demure of Demure Productions and Mynx D'Meanor of the Fishnet Follies Burlesque Revue. 

I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has made my 2013 so amazing. I hope we can continue to play, dance, perform and grow together in 2014 and beyond! I can't wait to see what the new year has in store for us. THANK YOU!






   

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.

Dreaming Circles in Nicaragua

Watch our Nicaragua Hooping Video HERE.

The combination of traveling somewhere new, an obsession with hooping and hanging out with someone whom I respect, admire and inspires me has done amazing things to my brain. I am absolutely buzzing! The thoughts, the words, the ideas, the poetry - it's all racing through me. Gotta get it all out. That's what this blog is good for...

I just got back from an exciting adventure in Central America with Bags! He is currently living in Nicaragua for three months and working with Performers Without Borders. PWB's main goal is to "teach performing arts to vulnerable children in countries of high child poverty." I got to see firsthand how amazing this project is! It seems to be truly effective and I hope to work on a project like it one day.

Cutie at the Barrileta School

During the first two days of my trip, I went to the Barrileta School where they've been teaching hoop, poi, juggling, music, stilt walking, diablo, staff spinning, acro, etc. for about a month and a half. The students performed 2 shows for an audience including other students, the PWB team, teachers and parents of the community. The first show included some traditional Nicaraguan dances as well as clowning acts and circus arts they've learned from PWB. What a fun, funny and vibrant culture they have! 

The next day they performed only the various circus skills they've learned while working with PWB. I was completely impressed! Stilt walking and juggling/hooping at the same time?! Full-on 6 person balanced pyramids with someone standing on top juggling?! Epicness. They seemed really happy, confident and stoked to be building these skills. One of the teenagers read aloud a letter she had written (in English) to the team, expressing their gratitude for the time spent teaching them such amazingly empowering hobbies. It was extremely touching and meaningful! 

Bags hoopin' at the cool park we found in Matagalpa 

I had fun on the second day during the free-time just hooping, dancing and playing with the kids. They were so excited to see the team everyday, running up, hugging and jumping on the team members. The kids had so much love to give. Even though I couldn't communicate with them very much because my Spanish is basically non-existent, I could still interact with them through body language, facial expression and play. This type of interaction helped me realize the universality of human nature. We are just people. We're all humans. We all want the same things in life. We all just want to love and be loved. Somehow my brief interactions with these kids exposed me to this realization in a whole new way.

After that project was complete, we headed to Matagalpa, a mountain town in central Nicaragua. We wandered through the town, soaking it all in...exploring the parks, the cathedral and the shops. We drank cold Tonas everyday, the Nicaraguan beer. Ate the standard meal of beans and rice with plantains at the "comedors" (dining room) - which literally felt like you were eating in someone's living room. There was usually a mom-like character cooking your food for you (delicious!), possibly some bookshelves with family pictures on them, a TV on in the corner and a few tables with modest table clothes covering them. We drank coffee locally grown in that region and ate frozen bananas covered in chocolate. YUM!  

One of my favorites days was when we hiked to the top of a mountain overlooking the city. I felt like we were super resourceful travelers! Bags had done some research in an outdated guidebook which mentioned a Centre that provided hike outlines. We could have hired a guide to take us but what's the fun in that? Through asking various people and looking at a map, we happened to find the Centre with the brochures and picked out a few hikes we wanted to do. The brochures were in broken English with instructions like: "When you get to the water pump, go under the roof covering the pump, find the side of the pump the handle is on and then go through an opening in the fence on that side." Huh? We were sure to get lost but we were up to the challenge and getting lost is half the fun anyway! 

On our hike

And we did. We got lost, had to backtrack, had to ask locals in broken Spanish which way to go, accidentally walked through people's property with angry dogs barking at us, laughed at the blank stares coming from village children as we walked by in crazy circus clothes and hoops strapped to our backpack....the usual :) But what an adventure! We romped through mountains, forests and villages. I saw a snake! We saw huge beautiful multicolored butterflies and all kinds of lovely trees. There were farm animals in the villages - chickens, cows, donkeys, horses, dogs and cats everywhere. When we made it to the top, it was so worth it! We went straight up to the viewing tower, cracked open a bottle of wine I brought from home and ate some much needed snacks. The view was spectacular! 

We made it to the top!

We had super intense and wildly satisfying hoop sessions as well. Before coming to visit, Bags told me he had 12 pages of new hoop material he had thought up! 12 pages! Swoon :) We only touched on a fraction of the material but still covered many epic partner moves that came from that brilliant brain of his. When we juggle-partner poi-hoop together, it makes me feel like I can do anything! Like I am an invincible super hero....a hooper hero! It is a feeling like none I have ever experienced and I actually remember feeling it the first time I met him in San Diego years ago. We went to the grass in OB to have a play b/c he was in town to teach workshops. Without actually explaining his partner Z-Spin sequence to me, he just started doing it with me and it was like I already knew the moves and their order even though I had never done them before. I remember being stupefied by this. You can imagine how this synergy has been intensified by the month we spent playing together in England and the countless hours I have spent practicing while away from him. I have to say I am proud of my progression. When we came back to play in Nicaragua, it was like we never left each other. I have never met someone who makes me want to practice so much! He really makes me want to get better and I feel like I am instantly better just from sharing the same airspace as him :)

View of Matagalpa

We shot some video in another beautiful scenic location overlooking Matagalpa - HERE it is. We are trying to create awareness and interest in our cross country US Workshop tour from June - September this summer! Woohoo! I will be focusing on that project now that the Burlesque Circus show is over. Oh and how could I forget to mention...The Burlesque Circus was an EPIC display of beautifully crafted performance art expressing endless passion for the fusion of sideshow and strip tease! We sold out both nights, rocked the house with inspiring performance, raised money for the US tour and created rippling feelings of empowerment for everyone involved. Thank you for coming if you were able to make it! Some of my favorite feedback includes:

The Burlesque Circus

"...this show was so amazing!!!! By far the best $20 I've probably ever spent. All of the performances were so detailed, emotional, sexy, powerful! I was especially inspired by seeing all the beautiful body types being so clearly valued in burlesque. I'm a bit closer to getting on stage myself because of what I saw at your show! Thank you!" - Keli Lalita

"Thank you for putting on such an amazing, sold out show last night! All of the performers gave me a new definition of what is possible in the arena of dance, movement, and expression. I was frequently at a loss for words. Can't wait for the next show!" - Daniel Walsh

Needless to say it was a success and I can't wait for the next one! Mark your calendars for the weekend of June 14th-15th!

What's coming up this month? Anah Hoopalicious is coming down to SD THIS weekend to teach 2 days of workshops! 

THIS Saturday night is Breaking The Chains: A burlesque Benefit for Autism at Sunset Temple. 

Saturday, March 16th is Bobby Burlesque's Fantasy: Masquerade Show in LA! BUY your tickets asap!

April has all kinds of goodies as well! Stayed connected to know about all of it.