Encore, encore!

I am on cloud nine after the most successful and joyous event of my Burlesque Chair Dance Instructor career. On Thursday 5 December, me and my dancers performed our Christmas with Coco Cabaret Showcase at String’s Bar & Venue in Newport on the Isle of Wight. It was the most professional, slick and relaxed show I have ever organised. Everyone shone brightly that night, my ladies danced their hearts out and we also had so much fun in the process!

In the past shows have been a high pressure and fast paced experience where I spin multiple plates organising everyone, while also keeping my performer head on so that I can do a good job on stage myself. This time, maybe it is because this is my fourth Christmas show and my seventh showcase, that everything felt like it flowed and I was able to relax for the first time and enjoy the show as much as everyone else.

There are so many thank-yous that I need to give, that I am not going to try to put them in any order. Everyone has been absolutely incredible and I am thankful and grateful from the bottom of my heart. I feel so fortunate to have some of the most dedicated, passionate and positive women in my troupe. They make me feel valued as an instructor and I could not be more proud of you ladies! I watched each and every one of you from the audience and I just couldn’t contain my excitement and pure joy watching you all outdo yourselves. I was happy with the rehearsals, but then on show night, instead of nerves getting the better of you, you dug deep and gave it even MORE! Wow. I still feel speechless and I can tell you, it was a pinch-me moment watching you all flourish and slay on stage. At the end of this post I am going to mention each and every one of you.

We also had a special guest, the beautiful Shannon, of Wight Arts. She sparkled in her sheer body suit revealing a svelte figure covered by just a tiny bikini. She danced a slow and sultry aerial. hoop routine to Belong To You which had us open mouthed as she swung, scissored and contorted herself elegantly on the hoop, pausing to give a knowing look at the audience. It was spellbinding!

Our very own Burlesque Chair Dance dancer RUBY is a professional singer and songwriter, and she smoked the stage out with her cover of Glory Box while performing her own choreography stripping down to a gorgeous lingerie set. What a bombshell; and a true professional with a wireless headset so she could cavort and move languidly over the chair. Just stunning. She certainly had us all feeling like a woman by the end of it!

Lola Sparkles was our hostess with the mostess. Lola dances with the Bembridge Bombshells, and knowing that she is shy, I was thrilled when she agreed to present the show for me. Well goodness me, she is an absolute natural! Her natural humour carried throughout as she spanked and whipped the audience into shape with her quips, whips and sultry teasing. She told us stories, told jokes, encouraged lots of audience particpation (very important) and held the show together. Thank-you Lola, you were phenomenal! Oh and with costume changes as well, for the second half! Love her.

Kitty Bang Bang and Saucy Minx were my “chair bitches” which means that they dress up in glamorous corsets and manage the chairs on stage to make sure they are in the right position for each routine. It is actually a huge job and means that they can’t sit in the audience to enjoy the show, and I am so so grateful to them for doing this important job. Kitty and Saucy did all of that while also performing in the finale! I LOVED watching them in You Can Leave Your Hat On, smouldering and pouting and engaging with the audience. You two were amazing, thank-you! A special thank-you to Honey Love for helping me set up the venue with decorations and turn Strings into our own little cabaret nightclub!

Angel Delight and Velvet Nightshade also deserve a special mention. Their routine, (which they choreographed by themselves, I would have you know!) was absolutely phenomenal. Not only was it a duet with girl-on-girl play (much to the delight of the lesbians in our audience!) and they went full on bondage with their costumes leaving little to the imagination (you’re welcome). Those factors were titilating yes (pardon the pun) but for me the ingenuity of the choreography was what blew me away. Choreo is something I struggle with, and these two were so creative and clever. I was speechless and I still am to be honest. I keep trying to find words to describe how much I love it and I can’t.

A big shout out to all of the ladies who danced solos! Wow did you smash it out of the ballpark! Award winning Miss Peaches Parfait outdid herself with You Don’t Own Me, a stunning slow and sultry routine that she danced with precision and personality in her negligee creating beautiful lines with her long legs and being so expressive in her dancing.

Velvet Nightshade sashayed her way through Black Velvet with her trademark pout oozing sultry vixen vibes. She ended with an impressively prolonged plank on the chair which was justly rewarded with a huge round of applause.

Honey Love gave us all a treat with her Whore routine, performing a solo for the first time! This routine has lots of chair tricks and requires flexibility and agility and she did it all effortlessly in a stunning bondage outfit with a cheeky smile on her face for her husband who was very much enjoying the view from the front row!

Another solo virgin was Temptress Empress who performed Earned It. And boy, did she earn that raucous applause at the end! You can’t take your eyes off her, she just smokes and oozes confidence. I just love this routine when she dances it.

Then in the second half we had the stunning Cherry Darling perform Oh Santa, an exceedingly complex, fast paced, chair trick galore routine, which she did effortlessly. Cherry executed her moves to perfection and to be able to perform this routine to the standard that she did is seriously impressive; and all with a gorgeous pout on her face!

Angel Delight-ed us again with another of her own choreographed pieces to I See Red with a cape revealing red PVC boots and teddy. She teased us with suggestive moves, a flogger and managed to crawl seductively through chair legs!

Photo Credit: Creative Photography

A special mention to Lady La Tease, Ruby Rox and Fleur Dior for their first ever show appearance!! Well done ladies! How awesome do you feel now!! You did so well, it is incredibly intimidating going on stage for the first time, but I think you’ll agree that the high you feel afterwards is addictive! You all have worked so hard to get show ready and each of you smashed it.

Now these ladies that I am about to mention are just gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!! Not only are they beautiful outside, but inside they are golden. Most of you have been dancing with me for years and have grown in confidence, flexibility and dance ability. Not only that, you are my rocks who keep me topped up with love and support. Miss Sultry Siren, Red Vixen, Mystique and Madame D’Amour, I loved seeing the cheeky expressions you were making and you danced with pure joy and sultry sass! You have been on stage so many times now, you are so relaxed and comfortable and you are just a joy to watch and ooze confidence. You are great examples of what Burlesque Chair Dance with Coco Monroe is all about.

I danced my award winning Pony routine with another unsuspecting audience member being my guinea pig on stage. Thank-you Honey Love for lending me your husband! This routine starts like Michael Jackson vibes and then Magic Mike style I strip down, followed by more feminine choreography. In the second act I performed a Burlesque Chair Dance routine to Tough Love which is fast paced and with an impressive handstand chair trick. My thighs are still aching from the number of fast drops to the floor (we call them slut drops) there are in this dance!

Thank-you to Claydon, Dalen (I hope I spelled your name correctly) and String’s Bar and Venue for making our show effortless and fun. You kept us topped up with drinks (we do love a prosecco!) you were lots of fun (frolics with the crop! hehe) and nothing was too much for you. I felt so looked after, thank-you, and the lighting and sound was on point. Having all these elements taken care of for me meant I could relax a bit and bask in the amazing feeling of watching my girls ace their dances.

A HUGE thank-you to Michelle of Chapel Studios Boudoir Photography for taking these incredible photos that completely captured the vibe of the night. It was very hard to work around our seated guests and you are so kind and conscientious, you were so discreet yet managed to capture so many gorgeous moments in the dancing as well as moody atmospheric shots too. Photographing a moving target is the hardest thing, and you did delivered! Thank-you! I’m truly grateful.

Thank-you to everyone who came to support us in the audience, and to our volunteers on stage! hehe I do love a bit of audience participation. You were a fantastic audience, we felt very loved with all the whoops and clapping, it really means a lot. I was so happy to hear lots of people raving as they were leaving and some people saying how surprised they were at how good it was and some women definitely are keen to do a trial class! Thank-you for driving me home Red Vixen, I missed my last bus because I wasn’t ready to leave! I had the best time and wanted to savour the moment.

Catch Up With A Live Recording

If you are wishing that you could have seen it, well, you can! The live footage is available in my member’s area here. For just £3.00 flat fee, you get unlimited watches for a year. Enjoy!

I really hope I haven’t missed anyone in the thank-yous. I just feel so happy and I know my girls are all too. What a lush sense of achievement we are all feeling this weekend!

Big love, Coco x