Let's start simply, and decide from the beginning that we will start from the beginning, meaning let's start with the very first act that I ever did.
I'd never done anything like burlesque before in my life, and in fact, I had never expected to do anything quite so radical (as it seemed at the time). I was persuaded to take a Level 1 Solo class with Fishnet Follies Director Mynx D'Meanor by a good friend of mine -- this friend, I might hasten to add, is still owed $75 for the class fee...
Incidentally you might be interested to know that it was in this class, on the very first night, that I was given my nickname, Murder Face. Thanks Mabs!
Out of this new experience was born, after three months of fear and work and excitement, Live Deliciously, a slow burn act full of dark colors, a simple costume, and black velvet.
In my head, I developed quite the backstory for this piece, inspired very much so by the 2015 film, The Witch. In performing this story, I wanted to be an example for the main character in the film, Thomasin -- in that I wanted to be a witch who had signed the devil's book. To know the taste of butter, to see the world -- I wanted to feel, perhaps for the first time in my life, that decadence and enjoyment and sheer pleasure.
To achieve such lofty goals, I executed the following costume: panties, red and black; bra, red, black and strapless; long, black circle skirt, rhinestoned; and a black velvet cape that one performer told me she'd even dreamed about after seeing me in it.
I wanted what I felt was glittering beauty at the time.
The panties and bra both have a red base with black lace roses laid atop it -- the roses I rhinestoned in full, filling in each petal to completion with the same dedication that I was beginning to feel for Burlesque itself. In the lights of my newly erected Christmas tree, I remember putting on the bra and rotating back and forth to watch the small, individual lights reflecting off the hundreds and hundreds of Jet rhinestones.
The skirt was and is a cheap affair at it's heart -- I bought it off of Amazon and thought, "Good enough." Around the hem I laid a geometric design of larger rhinestones in Jet, Black Diamond, Siam, Light Siam, and White Opal -- I do a lot of geometric patterns even now because I am rubbish at affecting something that looks truly random, and making swirls even is terribly hard. Don't judge me, okay?
And the cape, the cape was practically perfect as it was. I bought it at Target on the clearance rack, of all places, for $12.99 - miracle! As soon as I saw it I knew that somehow I'd have to use this. All I did was add a small closure at the front and I was done. I performed the very first iteration of this act to a small group of classmates one early October night, and a few weeks later one of my friends confessed to dreaming of the garment.
Must be the slide of velvet on the skin.
The act itself was simple, was a vision. I was playing into a strength I didn't even know I had, that I didn't even know was a strength -- the slow burn. You run your hands up your legs, across your torso. Hold your thighs, caress your breasts, and run your fingers through your hair, fully aware that the audience is watching you do nothing but slowly revel in yourself. That's slow burn, my friends.
In front of a mirror, it's devastatingly hard to do. But in front of the crowd... that was the fulfillment for my desire for power and decadence and pleasure. That's it behind each mischievous look, or each murderous look, as it happens. The wag of fingers, the flip of hair.
I'm still exploring what I'd like to say to explain each of my acts as they come to me and exist as living, breathing pieces of art. But I hope you enjoyed the anatomy of this act, Live Deliciously.
