Burlesque Update #14

In my last Burlesque Update back in April I said that I had no idea how things would be panning out in this Rona-induced shutdown. As of now there are no live performances happening, although some shows are doing online pay-for-view events, with performers recording their acts at home. 

From my point of view we have had no face-to-face classes, but have managed a few online tutorials, more about which below. But I have managed to keep my hand in with some small online projects.

The first involved bins. It was rightly pointed out that the only time most of us went out was to put the bins on the kerb to be collected, and a group of people in Australia decided that it was right and proper to dress up for what was the biggest event of the week. This grew into a viral and international Facebook group. Our burlesque school got in on the act and produced a video montage showing various of us doing the bins in our own style. 

The video is only available via Facebook (I think), but you can find it here if that's your social media thing: An aMUSEing Bin-Night Adventure

If you can't or won't use Facebook, here's some photos I took to promote the contribution Catherine and I made to it. Our daughter also took part:

I did do a complete video of my piece. It's a bit rough (it was planned, rehearsed, choreographed and performed/recorded over about three lunch-breaks - I had time for just two takes on the day) but you can see it here: Isadora Persano in 'Doing The Bins'

It was a useful exercise in seeing what could be done at home, as well as how to film and do the sound editing for a video performance; I learned a few things even for just that short exercise. And I enjoyed it enough to have a go at another online project - The Burlesque Blender.

The Blender takes a piece of music and chops it up into 15-20 second chunks. Performers grab a chunk and record something to go with it, and then they are edited together to make a coherent whole. I really enjoyed watching the early ones, so decided to give it a try. Again, it was designed, rehearsed and implemented during my lunchbreaks. It took five hours to come up with a mere 17 seconds of action, but was a great learning experience. Here's a still (with a bonus cat in shot if you look closely):

You can see the full video here (via You Tube) - The Burlesque Blender 6 - Rocklesque (For some reason my section was edited in such that it's slightly out of time with the music, but hey ... it still works. The original was spot on, obviously.)

A couple of weeks later I did another one. This time Catherine also took part, in a slightly bizarre celebration of crunchy potato-based products.

Again you can see the video on You Tube here - The Burlesque Blender 8 - Chips

And at the start of my post I mentioned that we were doing some online tuition. This has involved us being mentored in producing a new act. Catherine is having her first go at solo performance, and I am developing an act for which this will be my 'character':

As you can see, it's something of a departure from my previous burlesque adventures. At the time of writing a few of us now have laid the essential groundwork for our acts. It's been a lot of fun seeing what everyone's been working on, and I'm excited to see the finished performances. But really we're at the point where we need access to proper rehearsal spaces and face-to-face tuition.  Rumour has it that towards the end of this month that might be a possibility here in NSW, so we can finish what we've started then. And maybe ... one day ... we'll be able to perform what we've created for a real, live, audience.

Until then I suspect it will be little quiet on the Burlesque Update front, though.