Joining
Fuego de Samba was a happy accident.
One
day I decided to try samba class at the Dallas School of Burlesque.
It was fun, but due to scheduling conflicts,
I couldn't return for a while.
A month
later I found myself with some free time and dropped in again, right in the
middle of rehearsals for the
Latin Burlesque Festival.
Suddenly I was a part of the troupe.
I felt like an interloper at first.
There was a lot of catching up to do, and I
wasn't sure I could embody the fiery spirit of the dance.
However,
Lily LeCroix put her faith in me and
I pushed myself to master the fast footwork and convey more confidence.
After
weeks of rehearsal and hours of costuming, we made our unofficial debut in the
2014 Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade.
I
say unofficial because not all of the troupe was present and we didn't perform.
We were in full costume though.
It was good practice for getting used to the
headdress and the feathery bustle.
I had
a lot of fun in the parade, but I still had apprehensions about doing the
troupe justice.
And the Latin Burlesque
Festival was only five days away…
 |
Fuego de Samba
By Samuel Hsu |
To make
things worse, a sore throat threatened to take hold of me that week.
I couldn't figure out if it was allergies, an
on-coming cold, or too much exposure to E6000 (it's not fun being a
perfectionist sometimes).
Thus
performance day got off to a rough start, and work kept me later than
intended.
As if
that wasn't enough stress, I had a freak-out moment with my
contacts that wound up being a lens needing more rinsing and my eyes more
moisture.
On the plus side, I got some
last minute make-up inspiration from a Sephora e-mail.
Thankfully
everything came together for the performance.
Fuego de Samba was the surprise opener for the Latin Burlesque Festival,
and everybody loved it!
The routine
never felt exhausting until we were finished, and with adrenaline rushing, I
was a bit winded.
Ali and I didn't have
much time to chill or celebrate since we were the stage kittens for the night.
 |
By Mr. Photopix
(https://www.facebook.com/mrphotopix) |
Unfortunately,
that was when my bad luck caught up to me again.
I got a bit of glitter in one eye just as we
were going to pick up for the following act.
As much as I tried to ignore the pain, it was too intense (any
discomfort you get from having something in your eye is magnified 100-fold with
rigid gas permeable lenses).
I rushed to
the dressing rooms while
Black Mariah stepped in.
The timing could have been worse, and I'm
thankful I was able to fix everything without missing too much.
The rest of the night went smoothly, and it
was such a pleasure to help out all these amazing dancers, including the legendary
Kitten Natividad.
She was so sweet and
humble.
 |
By Musico Roots
(https://www.facebook.com/MusicoRoots) |
After the
show, several of my troupemates were hungry for pizza so The Companion and I
drove
MayMay and
Jay Scarlet to meet with everyone.
This little pizza join wound up getting a
late night invasion of burlesquers.
Even
though most of us changed into casual clothes, we still had our stage make-up
so it must have looked odd.
After lots
of laughter and nerdy discussions, we called in a night and prepared for Night
Two.
I had
wanted to take a couple of the workshops on Saturday, but that specter of a
sore throat reared its head again and I opted to stay in.
Since The Companion had gone to a video game
tournament, Jay was my seat buddy for the show.
It was competition night, and the judges had their work cut out.
I predicted that
Eva Strangelove and Justin
Credible's bullwhip paso doble and
Fat Bottom Cabaret's energetic group number would get
recognized because they're impressive no matter how many times you've seen
them.
Then there was our dear MayMay who
took drag to another level in an Addams Family duet with
Buck Wylde (I look
forward to more duets from them) and her
Pan's
Labyrinth solo routine.
That Faun
costume blew everybody's minds.
I had no
idea who was going to be Queen because everybody was on point.
It was cool seeing different forms of Latin
dance be reinterpreted for burlesque from both competitors and the headliners.
In
the end,
Tiny D was Queen of the Latin Burlesque Festival with
Bianca Dagga
as Princess—double win for NYC!
After
another night of celebrating with all the dancers, I thought about how
fortunate I was to have stumbled into samba, as well as burlesque.
I was honored to be a part of something
really important for the burlesque world.
I'd been going through a rough month where my insecurities got the best
of me.
I'm more awkward and serious than
wild and sassy, but I've learned that I can make it work even in a flirty,
energetic samba number.
Now I'm starting
to think about how to add some Latin flavor to my brand of burlesque because I
definitely want to submit something to next year's Latin Burlesque Festival.
For more photos, check out my
facebook album. Also, if you think that cupcake looks delicious, you can usually find them at the Texas Burlesque Peepshow performances. All proceeds go to
Rowdy Rory's surgery fund.
