Oh, how I love these shows. It’s been a while since Julia and I got to perform as Intimacy for Rogue Burlesque. So low stress, such high energy, it’s hard to not have fun at Middlesex with these lovely ladies.
We’ve a routine that’s been tweaked at least half a dozen times. Originally conceived for Madame Tullule’s Grand Fiasco, where Julia was half of a Conjoined Twin and I was the Alligator Boy, this piece has been set to Bond, Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band, and then Bond again. We’ve taken it to Oberon in Cambridge, the Somerville Armory, and Temple at Underbar in Boston. Every time we perform it, something else gets changed. We built a number that can grow with us, that can grow with us as we become better acrobats. For this performance we added in the first piece of geometry we’ve done on stage, a set series of arm and leg motions that form changing patterns in the air around us. Intricate material, and with any luck as compelling to the audience to watch as it was for us to learn.
The performance went wonderfully. The crowd was responsive, and everything seemed as though it went as it should. People “oo-d” and “ah-d” at the proper moments, and it felt like we put on the show we meant to. The last time we’d shared the stage with the ladies of Rogue Burlesque we had been performing a shibari-bondage-acro routine that, while good for what it is, doesn’t really impress on the technical skill of our tricks. It relies heavily on our stage presence, acting, and how gosh darn sexy we are together. It’s nice to revisit that stage with a more advanced piece, and know that we’re just getting better as time goes on.
