Friday, July 24, 2009

Nouvelle Burlesque Competition in Dallas

So the nifty people that bring awesome burlesque talent to the Dallas crowd, La Divina Burlesque Productions? Looks like their putting together another wonderful event in Dallas on Oct 23rd. They also seem to need one more girl to fill in a performance spot. Ya interested in performing with some of the best performers in Dallas and abroad? Here's your chance! They're holding a competition on Sept 18th to find that special person. Read below to find out all the details.

Best of luck and remember to keep me in mind if you need a little something special to add to your costume.






La Divina and Diamond Jim of La Divina Burlesque Productions are proud to announce that on Friday October 23, 2009 at the Lakewood theater we have organized our next big show to follow the 2009 Atomic Frolic. The October show is called the “Burlesque Nocturne.”

BURLESQUE NOCTURNE
OCTOBER 23, 2009
LAKEWOOD THEATER


We have spared no expense and left no contact unused in the talent we are importing for this show. We are bringing in from Las Vegas, Nevada, the winner of the 2009 Ms. Exotic World and the undisputed reigning queen of Burlesque Kalani Kokonuts. Ms. Kokonuts will be gracing our stage with two of her show stopping dazzling routines. Along with Kalani, we are bringing in Renea’ Le Roux from Atlanta Georgia. Ms. Le Roux is performance is bigger than life. I have seen her perform twice and both times she brought down the house. Aside from her tsunami like stage presence, her costume design is truly over the top. We are truly fortunate and slightly overwhelmed we have both of them on one night. The question is will the Lakewood be big enough for all of our talent.

We have also booked Coco Lectric and Ruby Joule from Austin, La Divina, Ginger Valentine and other local talent. That said, we still have an opening for one or two more routines in the show, subject to contract negotiations.




Our normal motis operandi is that we have quietly recruited hand picked local and near local talent for the best cast for our individual show. We have almost secured every position in this cast for the Nocturne. But one matter has vexed us. We have a reputation for maintaining high standards for our shows. It is true we are choosy about who we hire, but we know there is a lot of great talent in the Dallas area and we are open to all of it. That said we have decided to open a contest.



NOUVELLE BURLESQUE REVUE
SEPTEMBER 18, 2009


The Nouvelle Burlesque Revue is a “club based low ticket price show” we have done several times in the past. Usually it is a show dedicated to veteran talent to try out new routines in front of an audience and new talent to get stage time. La Divina will be MC’ing the September show and will not be dancing. Consistent with the idea of the Nouvelle Burlesque Revue our September 18, 2009 show will be a contest for local burlesque talent.



We will recruit 10 to 12 of the best of local talent that is not booked for the Nocturne and let them perform one routine at the Nouvelle. The best in show at the Nouvelle wins a contract to do one routine at the Nocturne in October. This is not a burlesque festival. All the dancer that perform at the Nouvelle will get paid something, more if the crowd is good. The Nouvelle Burlesque Revue will be held at Club Excuses in conjunction with Panoptikon and DJ Lord Byron in deep ellum on Friday September 18, 2009



The winner of the “contest” gets a contract or one paid routine at the Nocturne and the chance to perform with Kalani Coconuts, Renea’ Le Roux and the rest of the Nocturne’s cast in the 800 seat Lakewood theater. There will be no crown, no trophy and no sash, just a paying contract and bragging rights.

RULES OF THE CONTEST:

1) No glitter

2) No blood work, real or otherwise.

3) No Wet work.

4) We, the judges, prefer classic burlesque but we are open to anything in this contest.

5) We believe in putting “strip” into striptease, so in your routine you strip down to pasties or their equivalent.

6) No merchins

7) No time limits on routines, we prefer over 3 minutes but under 8 minutes.

8) All music conflicts allowed, we do not care if 3 people use Man With a Golden Arm

9) No Divas, we are not running a charm school but we want reasonable harmony in the dressing room. In other words if you can not play well with the other strippers you will not win.

10) Crowd response is a factor so bring your friends to cheer.



What we need from you no later than August 2, 2009



1) Your name and a link to some place on the web with your photos and maybe yourburlesque/dance background (i.e. myspace, web site, etc.)

2) The name of and rough concept of your routine and music.

3) Send all inquiries to Management@ladydivina.com



Those chosen to perform will be notified shortly there after and music, prop list and blocking instructions will be due August 9, 2009.

Now please distribute this to any and all burlesque performers in the Metroplex. We are looking for local talent only.

May the best ecdysiast win.



James “Diamond Jim” Guinan
Manager, Lady Divina, LLC
Producer, Burlesque Nocturne

La Divina
La Divina on myspace
Dallas burlesque

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Dallas antique shop is going out of business

Sales!
Clearance!
Discounts!

Some of my favorite words, ya know.

So..... there's a local antique shop that's going out of business. I'm really sad that I'm just now learning about it. I went there earlier this week and a few hours later I emerged blinking in the bright Texas sun with my arms loaded up with goodies. I found so much stuff!!! I loaded up mainly on vintage clothing and accessories on this trip. It was incredibly hard to steer clear of the jewelry boxes. Very hard!! But, as always, I try very hard to keep my prices low so I wanted to wait until their prices drop a bit lower until I start digging for the jewelry. But even when I went this week most of the items in this shop were discounted at 75% off. Tell me those numbers don't make your wallets giggle in excitement.

The details...

The Boulevard Emporium
1010 N. Industrial Blvd
Dallas, Texas 75207
Hours 10 - 5
214-748-1960

They are closing shop on July 31st, so make sure to get in there before then!



A recap; Atomic Frolic

Whew, still recovering from all the work I did in preperation for the Atomic Frolic in Dallas. The show went very well! The ladies wowed the audience with their skill. Ricki Derek swooned us all with his wonderful voice. And suspiciously, there were many pretty heads with one of a kind, hand made Decadent Dame Designs pieces adorning them. The crowd really seemed to enjoy my stuff! I love having the pride to know that the stuff that I take so much time into making is being enjoyed to the fullest. That the girls are so happy with their purchase that they walk away wearing it... that is such a good feeling for me. Thank you to everyone who stopped by my table to chat and look around, and a huge thank you to everyone who spent their hard earned money on my designs. I appreciate it so much that my passion for design is shared with others.

In case you missed it, here's some photos!
Enjoy :)



The Lakewood, a wonderful place to be.




Ricki Derek. He's dreamy!




My booth buddy, Amanda, and me. Working hard!




Some ladies checking out my designs.




Rose Darling and Cora Coquette waiting in the wings about to go on stage. Two wonderful performers!!




Vivienne Vermuth and the headlining performer of the evening, Kitten Deville. Miss Vivienne was wearing one of my newest items (finished the evening before the event!) while she was panty wrangling for the evening.

For those who are not as familiar with burlesque, here's a lesson for ya!
Panty Wrangler = The person (often a female) that gathers up the discarded clothing and props of a performer after their done performing. A very nessecary person to have around! Can't have the panties getting lost, that would be a tragedy.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Atomic Frolic in the press!

The crew working in and around the Atomic Frolic have been doing a TON of promotion. Check out these photos and write-ups about the event in various places around town. I snagged the pics from the lovely Rose Darling who will also be performing on Saturday. Make sure to catch her perform on stage!


In local Metro ANE (ANE link is NSFW) the event gets a write up from one of my friends, Vivienne Vermuth. She's awesome!




In the Dallas Observer also!!





And the Thrillist!


Atomic Frolic in Dallas




This is going to be an amazing show. Many wonderful ladies will be taking the stage to dance new burlesque routines for your pleasure. My favorite Dallas man, Ricki Derek, will be doing a live show later in the evening for some great music.

I'm happy to say that I'll be working this event as well. I'll be setting up a vending table to sell my fascinators. So please stop by, say hi, and try on my designs! Oh yeah, and bring monies :)

The show will be at the fabulously restored Lakewood Theater located at 1825 Abrams Way, Dallas, Texas 75214. The doors will open at 8:00 and the show will start at 9:30. Additional parking for the show will be available to the west of the theater behind Faulkner Tower 6220 Gaston Avenue. The Lakewood Theater will have 3 full bars to serve you.

Get dressed up, toss on your dancing shoes, and come have a blast.
Looking forward to it!
-Cayla


www.AtomicFrolic.com
www.ladivinaburlesque.com



Friday, July 10, 2009

Photoshoot Maddness

Told you I was going to be busy! This Sunday I'll be heading out with a car packed to the brim with goodies.

It's Photoshoot Madness!!!
*jazz hands*

A little while back I was contacted by a local gal who had her pretty eyes on my items and was curious to see if she could model some of my creations. Well who am I to say no to such a sweet girl? It's for the good of mankind, you know. So she got the ball rolling on pulling together a photographer and a couple of other models for a day of fun.






So this here is Bondi Holly who I've been in contact with. In this photo she is modeling with the photographer of the day, Katie Decarlo. These girls have some awesome work and I'm thrilled to be working with them. Wish us luck, can't wait to see how the shots come out!!

My to-do list is jam packed in preparation of this shoot. I only have 2 days! Luckily, most of my fascinators are all packed up in their carrying boxes. But I also promised to bring along a bunch of my vintage clothing and accessories for the gals to wear. That'll be fun trying to collect everything together in one place. Where's my tylenol.... Even though it'll be a ton of hard work, I have high hopes that these awesome girls are going to rock this shoot.

Loves it!

New item for sale!

Whew... Been doing a lot of catching up this week! June was full of traveling, deadlines, stress, and family stuff. Glad that's over! Now I finally can get back to work and catch up on all the stuff I've had to put off. First thing on the order, I have a new item up for sale on Etsy!





This is a very pretty, elegant, sweet, and stunning black and white fascinator. It's one of the smaller ones, measuring only 3.75'' wide at the disk base. I love that it can go with so many different outfits easily. Someone better snag it up quick or I may put it on my shelf of items to keep and wear myself.




This design has a simple matte black base with a very pretty and feminine white trim. The netting is a soft material in white. It has 4 thin black biot feathers that can be arranged to your liking, but they curve downward to delicately sway with your movement and the wind. There is a vintage plastic black button at the back side of this fascinator to give it a little decoration. It is just a plain button, to go along with the elegance of this lovely hair accessory.






It sits on a very secure and easy to use plastic comb. Just find the right angle and slide it in. I love the combs, I can slip the item in and just forget about it. They won't budge until you're ready for them to come out.





Interested in buying this item?
Do it quickly, once it's gone it's gone!