Rincón Roadshow Presents: Tropical Sinferno / Full Video Performance!

Full Video Performance Link: https://vimeo.com/903059273/04b36af7aa?share=copy

This has a very special place in my heart. In the past couple of years, the universe has taken  from, and added to my life in innumerable ways. I guess you could say that’s true of everybody lol… But the meaning for me behind this routine is transformation. So much of it. I no longer see myself as a woman. I know I look like a woman, I still embrace my feminine parts and pieces, but the one thing that identified me a woman, my uterus, I no longer have. I identified as queer many years ago and I’m still realizing the dimensions of that. Within the last two years I’ve had my uterus removed, a diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia, a tumor removed from my face (non-cancerous), serious mobility issues, got married… to a man… a  couple days later my new husband lost his father, in death and we went immediately from wedding euphoria into deep mourning.   

While all of this is happening, the world is on fire. Political upheaval everywhere. Genocide is the accepted norm. There’s nothing I can do about it, but watch. Stupefied at how the world can still be turning, folks still working, eating, socializing, falling in love, bringing forth new life. Life goes on.. and that’s so cruel.   

But there it is. It’s like life is saying “I told you I was mean”.   

Yet, so much beauty and celebration are still present amongst chaos. There is still rhythm in the crackle of that intense fire. There is still entertainment value in the meanness of it all. And so we package it up and sell it and we celebrate the meanness by poking fun at it. Transforming cruelty and meanness into beauty and celebration is truly  an art form.   

About the costume, most of the costume is made by Christina Manuge at Manuge et Toi Design an insanely, talented, burlesque designer out of Canada. The silk fire cape was hand painted by DOR. The fire face mask was embellished by me, it is a leather base that was made by another artist, I cannot remember their name. The red boots came with the red crystals already, I added the fire crystal embellishments. My fishnets are so fun, I love the  fringe, hanging off the back. Those originally were on my gauntlets, but had started to fall off Because of overuse so I attached them to the back seam of my fishnets. I’m really happy with this decision, I love it when I can recycle end of cycle pieces instead of throwing them out. I look forward to showing you the rest of the show with everybody else’s video footage. But for now this is my routine to symbolize where I am in my life right now, and I feel very fortunate that I was able to present this piece at La Estacion in Rincón, surrounded by friends, Burlesque and Drag family, and some really drunk locals that had the time of their lives!  

The beginning of the routine you can see why I selected this powerful statement piece, the fire silk, Kate. With my mobility issues, becoming more of an issue, the weight of a garment or fabric is very important, and since this is silk, it is almost weightless, so it allows me More  movement and more control over my movement. As I move through the audience, you can see I have red tassels attached to my middle fingers to symbolize blood, as I take those off, I toss them in the lap of my friend, Vivienne's father, I knew they would safely get back to me if I put them in a place or someone actually cared so that seemed like the best place for them. Good news, I got them back! I knew he would take care of them. As I make my way through the audience, I realize this is definitely not a Chicago crowd, Chicago Burlesque crowds are used to seeing performers come into the audience and go to the back of the room and climb up on that bar top. I definitely got the feeling that this move was new for the area where I was performing. I’m so inspired by my Chicago Burlesque family in part because of their bar top burlesque shenanigans. I have seen the most incredible things. Take place on a bar top late night in Chicago clubs. Our tops are magical! I had a small ladder set in place but unfortunately it had been moved so we quickly figured out another way to get me up on the bar top. Everything worked out just fine. Everyone around me was so concerned, they thought I was going to fall, they didn’t know what they were going to see, it was also scary and exciting for them, I laughed my ass off at this! And made me feel so supported and loved, but it also made me feel so excited to share this experience with them. I plan on doing much more bar top Burlesque on any bar top that will take me in Puerto Rico.  

While life may be chaotic and scary at times, it’s important to find that rhythm through these transitions. These transitions can set us back and really knock us out of the game if we don’t have the ability to adapt to the transitions. I have no answers for anybody, my only answer is keep moving, keep finding reasons to wake up, creativity is working beautifully, so I’m gonna just keep doing that. Thank you for watching, thank you for being part of the reason I wake up.

Video by Francis X. Guzmán

Full Video Performance Link: https://vimeo.com/903059273/04b36af7aa