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Missy Fatale presents……
The Swinging Burlesque Boudoir
Burlesque beauties and hot rhythms from the golden age of jazz!

Friday 16th July, 2010 at Proud Cabaret
Luxury supperclub & Jazz piano from 7.30pm
Showtime! 8.30pm
Social dancing and late-night floor show 11pm – 3am

Prize for best dressed (and best-undressed)….

Sponsored by Kiss Me Deadly lingerie

Join Missy Fatale, London’s most formidable red-head, for a night of decadent jazz, vintage strip-tease and wild swing dancing.
July’s revue presents …gin-soaked strumpets, eye-popping Lindy Hopping, Marilyn Monroe and her fabulous cake, steamy -solo Charleston, flaming LP’s and fire tassels, singing sirens, champagne showgirls, French Mannequins, and a banana-shaking finale!

Miss Fatale

**Missy Fatale**
Missy is one of London’s most sought after burlesque stars. Devoted to 1930’s swing dance, audiences across the world have been captivated by her hypnotic performances, including the red carpet opening of London Burlesque Week and the launch of Kiss Me Deadly lingerie.
This sassy burlesque siren has her five-inch heels firmly rooted in the formidable era of the Femme Fatale. With a passionate love of all things swing and an addiction to shimmying, she intoxicates her victims with her dark mysterious eyes and bewitches with her hips.

Banbury Cross

**Miss Banbury Cross**
Banbury Cross is a true vintage beauty, oozing the sex appeal and glamour of Hollywood’s Golden age. “She is a real show stopper” and a figure that will make any man weak at the knees. Debuting at the infamous Madam Jojo’s in 2008, Miss Banbury Cross is has quickly become the shinging star of British Burlesque, and show no sign of slowing down.

This Blonde Bombshell, Pin-Up and Sex Goddess draws her inspiration from The greats of Classic Burlesque and the timeless style of Marilyn Monroe.

Laurie Hagen

**Laurie Hagen**
A burlesque performer, actress and star of the screen, Laurie Hagen was also one of Miss Polly Rae’s original Hurly Burly girls. Her cabaret mentor is the sensational Dusty Limits who took her under his tarnished wings at an early age, leading this drunken strumpet to the glittering heights of London Town’s cabaret scene. The lesson you will learn is not to cross this dazzling lady – especially when she’s been at the gin…

Ivy Paige

**Ivy Paige**
Ivy Paige is a modern day diva who’ll break your heart and rock your world. With her trademark red hair, her lyrics, music and stage presence, it is no wonder she has been dubbed “A singing sensation and burlesque star.” As a presenter, Ivy has a sassy and witty rapport and has entertained audiences across the globe. She has presented and hosted shows on The West End Stages, including Cabaret Nights, London Burlesque Week and supported John Waters (The creator of Hairspray) on his UK Tour. One thing is guaranteed – this “Burlesque Rockstar” will continue to break your heart and rock your world!

Swingcopation

**Swingcopation**
Sensations of the London swing scene, Swingcopation have set the town on fire with their show-stopping lindy hop and solo Charleston routines! Authentic swing dance evoking the feel of 1930’s Harlem and the Savoy ballroom – they make the crowds cheer the hardest, and they don’t even take off their clothes….now that’s talent.

Tallulah Tonic

**Tallulah Tonic**
The gorgeous Tallulah Tonic is one half of the sensational singing duo Twin and Tonic, and our sultry stage kitten for the evening. This multi-talented songbird is inspired by the glamorous and sophisticated stars of the silver screen’s 30s and 40s hey day, and will blow your mind with her show-stopping legs!

Riddum ‘n’ Blue, and Boogie ‘n’ Woo with Fingers Wolfenstein on the 88’s (AKA the piano, for the uninitiated…)
Swing DJ Benjamin Cook will be hotting up the social dancefloor from 11pm – 3am. Bring your dancing shoes for some Lindy Hop, Charleston, shag, balboa, cakewalk, blackbottom or slow-drag!

Tickets
Advance show tickets £8 (More on the door)

Social dancing only (after 11pm) £5

3 course Supperclub & show £25 with Missy discount (email HQ@missyfatale.com for reservations)

BUY TICKETS ONLINE

24/7 Ticket Hotline: 01224 443377

For info call 07771 393 347
www.proudcabaret.com Tower Hill
Proud Cabaret No.1 Mark Lane (Corner of Dunster Court and Mark Lane) London EC3R 7AH

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Missy Fatale presents…

The Swinging Burlesque Boudoir

Burlesque beauties and hot rhythms from the golden age of jazz!

Friday 18th June, 2010 at Proud Cabaret | Luxury supperclub & Jazz piano from 7.30pm

Showtime! 8.30pm | Social dancing and late-night floor show 11pm – 3am
Prize for best dressed (and best-undressed)….

Sponsored by Kiss Me Deadly lingerie

Join Missy Fatale, London’s most formidable red-head, for a night of decadent jazz, vintage strip-tease and wild swing dancing.
June’s revue presents …1930’s freakshow burlesque, Lindy Hop aerials – apache style, the birth of Venus, hot solo Charleston, classical piano striptease, Chap Hop, singing sirens, and a banana-shaking finale!

Missy Fatale

**Missy Fatale**
Missy is one of London’s most sought after burlesque stars. Devoted to 1930’s swing dance, audiences across the world have been captivated by her hypnotic performances, including the red carpet opening of London Burlesque Week and the launch of Kiss Me Deadly lingerie.
This sassy burlesque siren has her five-inch heels firmly rooted in the formidable era of the Femme Fatale. With a passionate love of all things swing and an addiction to shimmying, she intoxicates her victims with her dark mysterious eyes and bewitches with her hips.

Chrys Colombine

**Chrys Colombine**
Chrys is an international burlesque starlet, pin-up model, and a classically-trained pianist . She has graced and headlined stages all over the world, and has featured in many major publications such as French Playboy, and Glamour Italia. With the ethereal looks of a fairytale princess, and a number of stunning, unique routines she is a truly charismatic performer. She is also the only burlesquer who plays classical piano and strips at the same time!

Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

**Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer**
On a one-man mission to introduce Hip-Hop to the Queen’s English, Mr. B is delighted to present Chap-Hop.
Having spent the best part of a decade bringing some manners back to popular culture, this dopest of fellows will entertain and amuse you with his ingenious stylings. Aiming to dazzle with dignity, Mr. B takes to the stage with his Banjolele and stiff upper lip to perform ditties of pipe-smoking, high society, Cricket and sexual misadventure, as well as some more well-known pieces from the world of Hip-Hop, re-worked in true Chap-Hop fashion. Watch him in action here

Mood Swings

**Mood Swings**
This dynamic duo presents the flagship dance of the swing era – the Lindy Hop! Complete with high-flying aerials, fabulous costuming, and buckets full of charm. Their combined experience specialises in vintage and eccentric dances from the 1920’s – 1940’s, reviving popular dance crazes and steps from the Jazz age, then adding their own unique twist.

Tallulah Tonic

**Tallulah Tonic**
The gorgeous Tallulah Tonic is one half of the sensational singing duo Twin and Tonic, and our sultry stage kitten for the evening. This multi-talented songbird is inspired by the glamorous and sophisticated stars of the silver screen’s 30s and 40s hey day, and will blow your mind with her show-stopping legs!

(more…)

With the London Jitterbug Championships but weeks away there’s never been a better time to brush up on your solo Charleston. The Newington Green kids had a go a few weeks a go, with some pretty impressive results it has to be said. So here we have a bit of a Charleston for dummies…be sure to stay to the end of the clip for something to do on those long taxi rides…

If I was a guy, I’d be Al Minns. As I am a girl, I’d just like to know where he gets his shoes from. If you watch this extract from The Spirit Moves you’d be hard pushed not to be amazed by his Solo Charleston. Yes, I know…we’ve gone a bit solo Charleston crazy of late, but this guy is the true legend.  His knees are heading for both exits while his feet glide around effortlessly . All topped off with that HUGE grin…just to remind us what dancing is really all about. Enjoy….see you in the solo charleston round at the London Swing Festival

So, I was acquainted with a the phrase ‘white and upright’ recently, it’s a great phrase.  How many times have we been told in class to bend our knees a bit more? I often feel that there’s a tendency to forget lindy hop’s african dance roots for and a preference for dancing it like your gran. Which is why I love the story of the Cakewalk. It’s often claimed that the Cakewalk was the first American dance to cross over from black to white society in America. But what’s best is that it’s thought to be a mockery of the ‘white and upright’ formal dancing preferred by white slave owners back in the day. Satirical dancing? Now you’re talking.

The dance was usually performed as a competition and the winners were said to receive a massive cake, hence the name Cakewalk. During the 1890s, the Cakewalk was one of America’s most popular dance styles. However its popularity died out between 1915 and the early 1920s, when it was replaced by other the Charleston and Black Bottom.

Dancing + Cake = Winning combination, time for a revival methinks.

Burlesque beauties and hot rhythms from the golden age of jazz!
In association with the London Swing Festival, Sugar Blue Burlesque, Swingcopation, and the Wam Bam Belles.

Friday 14th May, 2010 at Proud Cabaret
Luxury supperclub & Jazz piano from 7.30pm Showtime!  8.30pm
Social dancing and late-night champagne floor show 11pm – 3am
Prize for best dressed (and best-undressed)….

Join Missy Fatale, London’s most formidable red-head, for a night of decadent jazz, vintage strip-tease and wild swing dancing.
This revue presents 1930’s burlesque, hot solo Charleston and vernacular jazz dance, body burning and fire tassels, burlesque’s answer to Billie Holiday, Lindy Hop, traditional belly-dancing, and a sparkling champagne-soaked finale!  Starring…Missy Fatale, Miss Banbury Cross, Swingcopation, D’arcy Beau, and the fabulous Trixie Tassels (all the way from Sugar Blue Burlesque in Perth, Australia!)

Hosted by the glorious Ms Fanny La Rue (of Sugar Blue Burlesque fame), Fingers Wolfenstein on the keys, and the gorgeous Ginger Blush as stage kitten.
Swing DJ Benjamin Cook will be hotting up the social dancefloor from 11pm – 3am.  Bring your dancing shoes for some Lindy Hop, Charleston, shag, balboa, cakewalk, blackbottom or slow-drag!

Advance tickets £8  (More on the door) | London Swing Festival ticketholders   £5 | Social dancing only (after 11pm)   £5

3 course Supperclub & show £37.50 | Luxury Supperclub & show £47.50

Buy tickets online | 24/7 Ticket Hotline: 0122-444-3377 | For info call 07771 393 347
www.proudcabaret.com |   Proud Cabaret No.1 Mark Lane (Corner of Dunster Court and Mark Lane) London EC3R 7AH

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Strictly Come Dancing, I know I know…not the greatest show. I still cringe when I think of it. However, I  can’t help but have  soft spot for this Charleston routine to Pencil Full of Lead by Paolo Nutini. It’s such a tune!

Week 11: Ali Bastian’s Charleston – Click here for more blooper videos

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A different kind of Tandem humiliation

A student take on tandem charleston and swinging with the Aussies….

As a young, liberal woman living in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, my tendency to good old-fashioned English stiffness never ceases to amaze me. My penchant for reserve and congenital awkwardness are some of the national inclinations I have earnestly tried to shake. I like to blame these social disabilities on my ‘Englishness’, for otherwise I am surely mad. My obsessions with privacy and personal space are debilitating, my aversion for drawing attention to myself, unbounded and my capacity for embarrassment, infinite. As such I am the sort of person that you would probably never expect to find in a Swing School. Certainly not a Swing School run by Australians.

Swing dancing is not naturally compatible with my more ‘English’ tendencies. My personal space is continually invaded, the potential for drawing attention to myself is limitless and the opportunities for embarrassment are abundant. Tandem Charleston is perhaps the most mortifying example to date. It basically involves turning your back on your partner and doing a series of kicks and walks backwards and forwards. All the time your partner is behind you, holding your hands and swinging them about as if you were some kind of puppet. Of course, I am deranged with embarrassment throughout this whole process. Normally I race through the steps and breathe a sigh of relief when finally facing my partner again. Consequently I tend to get kicked in the calves and receive some luke-warm feedback about allowing the guy to lead. I have often thought to explain that my failure to grasp this move is not misplaced feminism. It’s just that I am, in fact, ‘hideously English.’ However, the more I say it to myself, the more ludicrous it sounds and so instead I’ve nicknamed this particular move – in and out of tandem humiliation.

If I could bring myself to look around the class I’d be hard pushed to find any Aussies in the same predicament. If the British are characteristically awkward, then the Aussies are suspiciously laid back. Of the ones I have met, I could never accuse them of taking themselves too seriously. Their tendency to be relaxed in any given situation appears to be the golden ingredient when it comes to learning to dance. Envy aside, I would go so far as to say that this is a quality I have come to admire in them and I often wonder why my ancestors didn’t have the courtesy to save me from generations of ingrained awkwardness by emigrating.

I confess to knowing little to nothing about Australia. I know that it’s big, I know that it’s hot and I know that I find the accent quite hilarious. Aside to this I know little. As a native of tiny island I find myself naturally suspicious of any land mass whose entire centre is almost completely unusable and as an ‘English rose’ I am in no doubt that I would find its climate intolerable. But that’s really it. In fact, before moving to London my contact with Australia had been limited to re-runs of Neighbours on the BBC and the occasional pint in a Walkabout pub – neither of which I would recommend as a valuable spend of your time. Through my involvement with Swing Patrol I am discovering the more enviable characteristics of our less socially-inhibited friends and whilst I still have nightmares of being stuck in a perpetual tandem Charleston, It has to be said that I am enjoying every second of it.

Laura H Knight - Old Street ‘tandem charleston hater’

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A couple a Janes

It’s Friday, we’re hittin on all sixes,  time to get a wiggle on, head down to the juice joint  and shake a leg with the other hoofers!…ahem, in other words, it’s the weekend, why don’t you grap some dancers and head out to some of Londons great events this weekend? We’ll mostly be shaking it down at Club Thunderbird, The Big Ten Inch or maybe the Last Days of Decadence.

Don’t forget to go prepared with some more essential twenties slang

Hair of the Dog – a shot of alcohol
Handcuff - an engagement ring
Hard Boiled – a tough, strong guy
Hayburner - (1) a gas guzzling car (2) a horse one loses money on
Heebie-Jeebies – The jitters
High-Hat – To snub
Hit on all sixes - to perform 100 per cent; as “hitting on all six cyclinders”
Hooch - Bootleg liquor
Hood - hoodlum
Hoofer - Dancer
Horsefeathers - an expletive ; same usage as applesauce
Hotsy – Totsy – Pleasing
It – Sex appeal
Iron - a motorcycle
Jack - money
Jake - OK, as in , “Everything is Jake.”
Jalopy - Old car
Jane - any female
Java – coffee
Jitney - a car employed as a private bus. Fare was usually five cents; also called a “nickel”
Joe - coffee
John - a toilet
Juice Joint – a speakeasy

Essential twenties slang A-B

Essential twenties slang C-D

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