Anna Fur Laxis at Dr Sketchy Nottingham

As a little treat before our Bettie Page tribute show on Saturday we thought we’d take a closer look at one of our performers.

The intro on her website says it all. “Praised for her creativity, humour and originality, Anna’s unique take on traditional burlesque performance has gained a truly international reputation, with shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Milan, Paris and Tokyo.”

Described by New York burlesque legend Dirty Martini as having "the absolute best take on the current Bettie Page mania. In a time where every rock-a-billy chick is sporting the Bettie pinup look, Anna takes it to a new level with a witty twist and a totally charming and accomplished stage persona.” Who else could we possibly be talking about, but the breathtaking, pulse-raising, and occasionally fatal, Anna Fur Laxis.

We feel very lucky indeed to have tempted Anna to our stage and can't wait to see the audience reaction to her "Viva Bettie" act, where she brings the 50's pin up icon to life through "woman's eternal dilemma: Should she try and be good? Or is it more fun to be bad!?!" It's definitely one of our favourites!

In true praise of Anna’s talents one of Bettie Page’s friends, Joan Branden, contacted her last year with this lovely personal message...

"Dear Anna,

I worked with Betty Page in the early 1950's whilst I lived in New York and before I was married. I loved working with her and she was very professional, a sweet girl. I was thrilled to hear that you are performing a Stage act about Bettie Page and I know she would have been delighted that you are doing it, it makes me so very proud that people still remember those days of Irving Klaw and us girls.

Joan Branden."

Anna's response was understandable. It's not every day you are contacted by the old friend of one of your heros! "Bettie Page died while I was working on my tribute act to her, so I felt it was very important that I do her memory the best justice I possibly could. I am so proud to be able to follow in the footsteps of Bettie and Joan and so many incredible women over the years, and it was a true honour to receive this message."

To see Anna, as well as Fanny Divine and Betty Jane, performing and modelling in our Bettie Page show come to Escucha on Fletcher Gate in Nottingham on Saturday 20th February at 12:30pm. Tickets are on sale through the website http://www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk/ or on the door (first come first served). We truly can't wait for this one and hope to see you there!

For more info on Anna and her upcoming shows click the link below!

Scarlett and Charlotte x

Mini Dr Sketchy Pit of Curiosities Special

Much fun was had on saturday at our mini taster event - inspite of lots of tired faces from the night before! The mini event was a follow on from Pit of Curiosities, a big event held on Friday night by Danse Macabre. Scarlett and I were both heavily involved with Scarlett performing as a robot all night in a costume we made together.

Our models on saturday were -
Emma Neale (aka Miss Rain Photographym, who stepped in last minute as Barbarella!)
Mat Douglas who posed as both a maid (Rocky Horror style) and an Alien Autopsy (his costume from Pit of Curiosities) and
Hannah Morgan who posed as a steampunk babe in Eternal Spirits corsetry and some pretty cool goggles!

We were a little short staffed but with a lot of comraderie and hard work and a very understanding audience we pulled it off and had a great turn out! We had to fetch more chairs and squeezed everyone into the upstairs room at the Central. There were lots of new faces which is always fantastic!

Massive thanks to Natalie J Watts who took over as photographer when Emma stepped up as a model and provided all the music when we reallised we had none due to my laptop meltdown two weeks ago!! Everyone took on several jobs to help out, doubling up as DJs, doorstaff and sales clerks! What a bunch of troopers, THANK YOU!

We can't wait til this Saturday (20th) event now, it's the BIG one, the real McCoy and we have a fantastic line up for you! Grab your tickets in advance from the website or pay on the door, Doors open 12:30 at Escucha!

x Charlotte

Well it's happening tomorrow whether we like it or not! Pit of Curiosities 2 at the Pit and Pendulum kicks off at 8pm ! Finishing touches


are being made to costumes, there's no gong back now! Look forward to seeing you all there!

Ps. Don't forget to join us on saturday from 1.30 at the Central for Dr Sketchy mini event with models from tomorrows Pit if Curiosities event!!

Www.drsketchynottingham.co.ukfor details

Www.dansemacabre-art.co.uk/pitofcuriosities2.html

X Charlotte x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bettie Page Special - Saturday 20th February

Well it's not long now until the first Dr Sketchy Nottingham show of 2010!

We're kicking off with a corker of a show, a tribute to the fabulous Bettie Page. Taking to the stage this time around we have two of the UK's top burlesque performers Anna Fur Laxis and Fanny Divine and an extra treat with Nottingham's very own Betty Jane modelling for us too. They will be providing us with the very best of good and bad Bettie poses to get your pencils smoking!

We have more fantastic prizes, thanks to our ever growing list of wonderful sponsers (there may even be another Robin Hood scribbling book in there if you're lucky) and more cupcakes than you can possibly stuff your faces with, courtesy of Dotty's Cafe on Mansfield Road.

Tickets are as usual on sale through the website and will be available to buy at the mini event we are running at the Central on Saturday 13th February as part of Nottingham's Light Night celebrations.

We'll hopefully see you there!

Scarlett x

New Sponsors announced for 2010!

We're really excited to announce new sponsors for 2010 for Dr Sketchy Nottingham !

Baby Tattoo Books, a US based book publisher specialising in beautiful artist/illustrator led books have donated one book per 2010 Sketchy event for us to give away, the prize table is looking more appealing already!

Charnos, yes, that well known lingerie company, will be dressing some of our models in 2010 with their Hourglass range of lingerie and shapewear. More info on this to follow but we believe they will feature as a part of our February 20th show....watch this space!

We also need to say a big thank you to our regular sponsors who have supported us continuously through 2009 - Susi from Eternal Spirits Corsetry who has clothed our models and donated prizes for the prize table, Susie from Dottys Cafe the mistress of cupcakes! Matt, Paul and Jody from Danse Macabre who we mutually support and who help us promote all the events, The Shop who continue to promote us and donate prizes and by association The Smears all girl punk rockers who donated limited edition Vinyls at our last event. AND of course our Photographers -

Spike from Vapour Trail Photography, Emma from Miss Rain Photography and stepping in at our last event Paul from Monsignor Photographic.

A big THANK YOU to everyone and most importantly, all your arty folks who have attended the events and made them so much fun! 2009's events blew our socks off, we had no idea how popular Dr Sketchy would be in Nottingham!!

x Charlotte & Scarlett

Arty Ideas for Dr Sketchy December

Heres some info about our Dec models to get your creative Juices flowing!

Missy Malone and Leyla Rose are delicious stars of the burlesque scene, raven haired temptresses with dazzling costumes. I have done studies of both these women in the past and I can only begin to express what a treat they are to draw.

Leyla Rose is 100% curves! Perfect for charcoal, thick marker pens or other soft flowing media... or why not sneak in some watercolour crayons. Leyla is elegant and voluptuous with a big dose of sauciness, think classical venus meets bettie page! You'll be able to create some beautiful curvy artwork.

Missy Malone is a bundle of larger than life energy on stage and strikes a great pose, her expressive face is great to capture, if you like drawing cartoons and charicatures you'll LOVE drawing Missy. Simple media for quick sketches is recommended, try sketching her while she performs as capturing her movements makes for a dramatic image.

Both women have great faces to get likenesses of or to charicature if that's your bag! They will be doing some joint poses and the juxtaposition between their very different characters and figures is a great thing to focus a drawing on.

Also, dont forget if you fancy meeting the ladies in person and having them teach you a think of two about burlesque, their fan dance workshop is on Sunday at the Ropewalk, more info on the sketchy website www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk.

Our additional model for December is Peachy Clean, a local lass with a lot of attitude and style, she plays in all girl punk band The Smears and it'll be her birthday at Sketchy, cake cake cake!

I'm just uploading a few pics from the last sketchy, taken by me so they're a bit rubbish, our proper photographers images are on the way, i'm sure they're a million times better than mine! Theres a video that i've just put on youtube too, check the group as i'm adding it shortly.

Dont forget about our FREEE mini Sketchy event, open to all ages (parental supervision for under 16s please) on Nov 14th at Danse Macabre exhibition www.dansemacabre-art.co.uk
It'll be at the old Beatties Toy Shop, round the corner from angel row Library. It starts at 3pm, be there or be terribly uncool! Bring your own media as usual, you may want to bring a cushion or blanket as seating may be limited however we will make sure there are seats for anyone who has genuine difficulty sitting on the floor....and we'll mop so it's nice and clean!

Our models are Maleficent Martini (gothy punky ballerina!) and Dee Christopher illusionist extraordinaire who will be performing at the private view later that night. Bring your black crayon, it's going to be dark and spooky!

Tickets for Decembers event are on sale now! www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk
Hope to see you there!
x
Charlotte

Doctor Sketchy Deux Round Up

A BIG thank you to everyone who attended the very funny second Dr Sketchy Nottingham!

I havent read all the comments cards yet as I've been struck with the dreaded lurgie and excessive amounts of deadlines but feedback we will be listening to so far is ....

• More opportunities to talk to and get to know the other guests. This is being addressed! We are looking at ideas that won't involve embarrassing team building-icebreaker games that are popular at conference and swingers parties and that will hopefully involve more social time for drinks and a natter before and/or after the event...we will keep you updated!

• Better spot lighting on the stage for more defined shadows. This is something I'm pretty sure we had at the first event but neglected at the second due to last minute panics over the sound system.

• Not having the DJ sat in a prime drawing spot - now this is something we can't address at Escucha as literally there is no other place we can put him, we dont have a long enough lead!!! As for the organisers taking up prime drawing spots, WE DRAW TOO! And I actually have evidence of the DJ drawing, his erotic stick-women are legendary! Another reason I need to be next to the stage is to wave my arms frantically and pull faces at the backstage crew (stage directions), I also need to be able to leap onto the stage in a split second incase of major disaster or costume failure or if a scuffle breaks out over the prize table (those robin hood colouring in postcards are a rarity you know!) . We will however be looking at getting higher chairs behind the DJ sofa so our big heads aren't getting in your way so much!

Further updates on feedback are on their way, another blog post is soon to follow. Dont forget our next event is a mini Dr Sketchy and is FREE it's the Danse Macabre special, check out www.dansemacabre-art.co.uk/dm_nottm2009.html.

Our next full Dr Sketchy is on Dec 5th with Missy Malone and Leyla Rose, a real treat NOT TO BE MISSED!

Following that, for those of you who have got a taste for burlesque and fancy having a go, Missy & Leyla will be doing a burlesque fan dancing workshop at The Ropewalk, check out the main Sketchy Nottingham website for details and tickets. Its open to men and women and focusses on the art of fan dance, theres no nudity required or tassel twirling involved, it's all in the best possible taste and guaranteed to be fun and informative. We think it makes a great early Xmas gift, OR even better, learn and then surprise your other half with your dancing skills on Xmas day!

See you all soon!
x Charlotte