Long Snake Moan

Song by PJ Harvey (here) or vid down below

"You wanna hear my long snake...moan!
You oughta see me crawl my...roar!
It's my voodoo working..."

Three acts into this run and I have done three holidays. This time it is St. Patrick's Day.  I will save the rant about the persecution of the Pagans that this holiday represents, since I had it here last year at this time when I did "Union of the Snake".  

Immediately after I was committed to doing the Duran Duran tune last year, I stumbled back across this PJ Harvey song, and knew I must do it next year.

Changed the set around, got all new costumes, and instead of riding off into the rainbow on a huge snake, I became one instead.  It was a little challenging to find the right movements for the Land Naga that I became.  So many of my dances had the snake tail doing all sorts of improbable motions.

This one was really fun, and damn sexy, at least it was goood for me, hope it was for the audience too. *wink wink*

My next act will not be attached to any holiday, I promise.  I do not even get all caught up in them in real life, so this was kind of weird for me, but I feel the acts can stand on their own so I know I have not gone completely overboard.

Birds Like It

Song by Tape Five (here) or embedded below
I used the shorter album version, but for obvious reasons I like this logo/vid better. *wink*

"I just got to tell you baby, while we're standing here,
anytime that your're around me - all the birds appear..."

It was a stunningly beautiful fall afternoon, when the rain stopped and the blue skies forced a brilliant rainbow over my drive home from work. I had Tape Five in the CD player and this song just said, DO ME! ;)  So I did!

A Mardi Gras act, that was on some sort of float, had been on my mind since last year, but its look was eluding me. First I researched the oldest Mardi Gras floats and they were inspiring. But having just seen Catching Fire, I was still buzzed about the costuming for the citizens of The Capital.  Oversize flowers and animals with a futuristic color scheme won out.  I wanted to have some platforms and such on the float, but once I started doing the dance, it became obvious that we needed space to dance.

I was working on a Harpy themed costume, and when I announced to the group that was the direction I was going in, SexyS saved us all a whole lot of bank by offering up her collection of really awesome Harpyia outfits from !Devious Minds! for The Fantasy Gacha Faire. And a flock of Harpyia was recruited, or hatched, as the case may be.

Choreographing group numbers with the Group Formations HUD from Spot On is a dream come true.  My alts had to dance their asses off on this one, and spend hours just standing on their movers, but for the triplets, my Solid Blaze Dancers, that is what they were made for. *grin*  A little work in progress shot...

The night of the show, the set did not rez right (the pics above with only blue sky background).  That is a super frustrating thing when it all goes just fine at home and rehearsal, and then not on the night of.  But the sheer awesomeness of this flock made a set fail unnoticeable.  In fact, since I was so distracted by juggling 7 other people and not wanting to cam about and make myself crash, I did not notice until I saw the pics from that night.

The act was performed a second time at Burnal Equinox, a month later.  After many larger than me tech troubles, the act went off with out a hitch back at our home theater and the set parts were all in their right place.  I am sorry for my lousy pic taking and cutting some folks off.  Taking pics while performing and having a screen full of huds and windows tends to make less than ideal framing. *sigh*  I also did not want to take snaps while performing and get out of synch, but we look damn good in our perching poses. 

Me and "my" Shadow ;)

The act itself was dedicated to a certain bird I know, Jasmin, though she did not get to see the shows due to RL complications.  Thanks to SexyS Quintessa, Shadow Tarber, Gamma Infinity, Meegan Danitz, Diawa Bellic, Jill Mackenzie & Aubreya Joszepe. You all were stunningly beautiful and it was great to fly with you! 

Destiny

14 February 2014

Song by Zero 7 (here)

"When I am weak
I draw strength from you

"And when you are lost
I know how to change your mood
And when I am down
You breathe life over me

"Though we are miles apart
We are each other's destiny"

After a six week break it was absolutely wonderful to be performing again. This song was my Valentine to GB and some other special someone, as well as all the geographically challenged lovers in the audience. GB has always meant a great deal to me and as we got back into working mode, I realized the importance of, and love I feel for my extended SL family. I am also a firm believer in synchronicity...in this case, the people who you need to have in your life will find you, if you just open the doors and put out some comfy chairs.

As for the act itself...it was always meant to start out in a hotel room of sorts. I had this house from a hunt a long time ago and it was perfect to the stage size.  The song also dictated that I start out in a "hotel dressing gown" but where it went from there was a little "up in the air."

I contemplated many many ways to fly home before deciding to keep it simple. The night of the performance the clouds evaporated and did not bother to make an appearance, but it is what it is.  It was a good night to be with my destined ones and to fly home. *big smiles*

Peel Me A Grape

20 December 2013

Song by Diana Krall (here)

"Send out for scotch..."

After a year of dancing burlesque it became apparent to me that I had not done a classic torch song. About the same time Kait had im'ed me a fantastic video of a rl burly girl doing a song that Sho had used, but more importantly, she was a red head dancing in a red room. (Link here) So after a little bit of digging through my music library, I picked Diana Krall's version of Peel Me A Grape.  It was a song I had seriously considered sveral times but thought it had been done.  Anita O'Brien did the original song, but it was just a little up-tempo for my liking.

It became a wine colored hair girl in a purple room.

Truth be told, this song had been on my mind since long before I started performing and was still working up the skills to do this art.

I ran with it and frankly, I feel it is one of my best acts.  I really pushed myself with the set, and the choreo just happened so naturally, it was magic.  More like a little voodoo, inspired by a certain gentleman I recently had the pleasure of getting to know. When I learn how to make machinima, I am going to film it, but until then here are the stills.

Toxic

14 December 2013

Song by Britney Spears, covered by The Glee Cast (here)

"With a taste of your lips
I'm on a ride
You're toxic, I'm slipping under
With a taste of a poison paradise
I'm addicted to you
Don't you know that you're toxic"

When I was dreaming on becoming a dancer I put together a few sets and costumes hoping that one day I could do the act. On the same day that I finished my Poison Ivy, GB posted the promo for the week and it was Sho, in a Poison Ivy costume. Honestly I cried a little, disappointment and a little frustration that this act would have to be canned or wait a long time, if I ever made it into the troupe.  I saw the act at GB that week, and it was a fabulous romp with the old school Ivy, Sho did an awesome number.  Now that I know Sho, I realize that it was just a case of "great minds think alike". *grins*  And in the end I am glad that it did have to wait, the whole act turned out better than I originally envisioned and I pushed myself to learn new things.

I trashed the old version of the costume and concept and went with the Arkham Asylum version of Poison Ivy, and set it in her lab. I struggled with making the costume out of found clothing and was never happy with it. I spent days trying to find a red shirt similar to the one she wore in Arkham Asylum.  Just when I was giving in to settling for good enough, I came across a designer who did her full avatar. Not one to wear other shapes, I squished mine into the mesh shirt, and bought some good boots, and it turned out just right. Yay!  

I recruited a Batman (Shippy) since the version of the song that I chose was the Glee Cast one that had multiple singers, but emphasized the male-female duet.

I did my first choreo-ed couple's dance, which was a lovely challenge. It made Ender spend a lot of time shopping for the right dances and warming the mover as Shippy's stunt double. 

Batman was poisoned in the end. I just could not help it, could not go against my nature. *wink*

Thanks Ship, for rockin' The Black Knight and tolerating a Glee song!

Thanks to Toy for the pics with Ship & I, I was way too busy performing to get any myself. You are awesome for snapping our shows each week, you have a great eye.

Chillin' like a villain, on the set with a dead Batman (Ender).

Eat The Menu

22 November 2013

Song by The Sugarcubes (here)

"I'm just a maid

But yes to food, is yes to life"

Yes! Yes! 
As I have come to realize each run at the theater is a beautiful mix of songs that I had planned on from the beginning and ones that smack me up side the head one day and say "Do me!" Well this one was planned, but I put it off because I was not prepared for the technical complexity involved in the set. I also had to be on the schedule for a group dance. This was my first! I have used back up dancers before but never a full on group act beginning to end. 

Luckily this coincided with the recent release is Spot On's Formations HUD. So I bought yet another toy. *grins* And I have to say I love it!  No dancing pics, because coordinating this took all my focus.

Thanks to Chewie for figuring out how to make 10 plates of sushi go around the belt in the right way, without you, I would have thrown up my hands, flung raw fish all over my skybox, and smashed my designer ring.

And thanks to Jess, for being her silly self and inspiring the posers to be mermaids and not just naked women with strategically placed sushi.  I loved that touch!

And thanks to Chewie, Zahra, Deb, BabyPea, and Jess for wearing their outfits so well and coming along for the ride. Much fun and love to you all!

Left of Center

8 November 2013

Song by Suzanne Vega (here)

"If you want me you can find me

Left of center off of the strip

In the outskirts and in the fringes

In the corner out of the grip"

Once again, there was a concept crisis. I knew I was not ready to do the act that was next in line in my season's agenda, so I looked around to see what I could manage. A trip to the roller skating rink of my youth emerged. 

 I had done an 80's hunt a while back and got some really cool clothes. I did buy the skates, since the ones I had were just not cool enough.  As a former derby girl, I am very particular about my skates.

I worked damn hard on this one and bought a lot of skating anims. It was a different type of choreo and synching with the mover was as challenge. But a fun one, I just wish I had those moves when I was a young rink rat.

The best part of the set came from Ender's inventory.  The creator had long since disappeared, so I could not buy my own, and had to use him as an alt to get it there. But it worked out quite well.

Hanging in the arcade would have been a wholely different scene in this outfit.