Entertainment: Song, Dance, Laughter ...
By Rossland Telegraph
Entertainment! As the days draw in and darkness takes over the afternoons, getting together for music, song, dancing and laughter helps keep life fun and repels the dismals. Here are four kinds of relief coming up locally, in order of appearance:
Friday, November 2, at the Bailey Theatre in Trail: Cheesecake Burlesque – an evening of varied and rollicking acts by a group of lush and lovely women.
Saturday, November 10, at the Miners Union Hall in Rossland: “A Night Out in Rossland” has live music by the Eric Brown Band, dancing, appetizers by Cahoots Kitchen included in the ticket, a cash bar, and a silent auction. This will be great fun and an opportunity to support Seven Summits Centre for Learning – it’s their annual fundraising event.
Friday, November 16, at the Miners Union Hall in Rossland: The Andrew Collins Trio will introduce their new album, “Tongue & Groove” with a selection of vocals (“tongue”) and instrumentals (“groove”).
Sunday, November 18, at the Rossland Legion, the entirely volunteer Joe Hill Coffeehouse will provide a selection of local amateur performers for your enjoyment. Mark your calendar now! Admission is only $3. Doors open at 6:30, the show starts at 7:00 PM.
Read on for more details on each of the events, in order of date:
Cheesecake Burlesque: Nadine Tremblay sent us a transcript of her interview with “the Cheesecakes” for some pre-show entertainment:
Q: Why was Cheesecake Burlesque formed?
A: The Cheesecake Burlesque Revue is a group of talented professionals in their own right, coming together to embrace a fast-rising entertainment movement in North America! In 2006, we started with the desire to create an environment where we could cast off the shackles of 9-5 jobs and have some silly, sparkly fun. Any civil servant, art teacher, veterinary technician, environmental consultant, or student you meet, may have been out the night before entertaining a crowd, performing for fundraisers, or helping add some sass to an event. It turns out that not only is burlesque a lot of fun, it does good in the world too! We came together as friends and have become a group of sisters that seeks to empower and entertain our audiences!
Q: Why the name Cheesecake Burlesque?
A: Cheesecake is a style of pin up modeling which is often cute and funny, with tongue-in-cheek nods to ridiculous situations. It fits our style of performing to a ‘T’! Plus… we LOVE cheese (both the food and as a pop culture reference) and we love cake too!
Q: Who are your performers and what are the different skills that each of them brings to the show?
A: For this show we have this amazing cast taking to the road to entertain the audience at the Charles Bailey Theatre!
· Betsy Bottom Dollar – Co-Emcee and head choreographer, she’s a powerhouse singer and stunning ecdysiast, and she’ll give you her 2 cents… whether you want it or not!
· Kitten Kaboodle – Co-Emcee and head costumer, she’s silly and sassy and the audience is going to fall in love with her!
· Champagne Sparkles – As ‘Head Cheese’, she’s the wrangler of this bunch of cheezy-cakes, she’s an effervescent showgirl comedienne! This one brings the glitter, glamour and GIGGLES! She’s gonna *POP* your cork!
· Dollipop – Our musical genius! She’s a multi-instrumentalist, who’ll be singing adorable songs and slinging a ukulele, all to the delight of the audience!
· Lolly Lushbottom – She’s as adorable as her name is! This cutie pie will dance her way into your heart!
· Silk E Gunz – The sexiest six-shooter in town! This rock n’ roll sexpot has unstoppable energy and awesome dance moves guaranteed to tease and titillateyou until you scream for more!
- Quiche Lorraine – She’s the smouldering Prairie Chinook that brings the heat. You’ll want to make it rain for Quiche Lorraine!
- Van Candy – Our ‘Pick Up Artist’ extraordinaire! He picks up all our discarded costume bits, puts out the props, and makes sure everything is running a smooth as he is!
- Roamin’ Holiday – our stage manager – he keeps us in line and on time!
Q: How does performing make you feel?
A: WOW! Performing makes us feel so many things! Excited, creative, empowered, and powerful! Plus, there is nothing better than feeling the love from our fans!
Q: Is what people think of burlesque very different to how it actually is?
A: Burlesque is a performance art, so it really spans the spectrum of styles, there are definitely gorgeous costumes covered in rhinestones, fan dances, stocking removals, glove peels, and bumps, grinds, shimmies & shakes, but there are also performers that tell stories, and sing songs, perform with all kinds of skills, such as hoops, aerial props, circus techniques etc. Burlesque really can be anything: sexy, nerdy, serious, hilarious, scary, political, and MORE! And, it is often more than one of those things at one time!
Q: How does Cheesecake Burlesque differ from other burlesque performers/shows?
A: The Cheesecake Burlesque Revue is a performance troupe, so what you get from us is a group of performers who have been working together for many years! Cheesecake shows are vaudevillian-style variety shows, with dancing, singing, and comedy all centred around the classic art form of striptease! We have show-stopping group acts and scintillating solos in a range of styles – from classic to contemporary, and comedic to sultry. The Cheesecakes are known for our high-energy acts, standout performers, comedic timing, steamy seductiveness and girl-next-door accessibility. We focus on body positivity and empowerment, and most of all we’re there to entertain YOU!
Q: What are the common misconceptions about burlesque?
A: One of the biggest misconceptions about burlesque is that you must be a trained dancer with years of experience to be a burlesque performer, but one of the greatest things about burlesque is that it is a DIY artform, you can bring YOUR skills to it! It is still a lot of work to perform professionally, but what it takes is passion, creativity and effort to bring your ideas to the stage!
Q: What do you want people to take away from one of your shows?
A: The Cheesecake Burlesque Revue is out to prove that everyone is sexy no matter what age, shape, or size they currently happen to be! We hope our audience members leave with a smile on their face, a belly sore from laughing, a sassy strut in their step, pasties in their pocket, and feeling fabulous about themselves!
The Cheesecake Burlesque Review starts an amazing season of innovative physical comedy, puppetry, and bluegrass music for the E2 series from the Trail & District Arts Council with support from Trail Beer Refinery.
Tickets for each show are $24 in advance or $26 at the door. Or, get the whole exciting season for just $70. For a complete list of acts, dates and times please visit our events calendar at www.trail-arts.com
Tickets at the Box Office at 1501 Cedar Avenue in Trail, by phone at 250-368-9669, or online at thebailey.ca.
A Night Out in Rossland: tickets are $40, available at “Out of the Cellar.” Doors of the Miners Union Hall open at 7:00 PM.
Seven Summits Centre for Learning welcomes donation of items for the Silent Auction. For more information about the school, click this link .
The Andrew Collins Trio: The Rossland Council for Arts & Culture presents Andrew Collins Trio on Friday, November 16 at the Miners Union Hall.
7x Canadian Folk Music Award winner and 5x JUNO nominee mando-maestro Andrew Collins is joined by fellow Trio string-meisters Mike Mezzatesta and James McEleney to showcase a popular collision of folk, new acoustic roots, chambergrass and jazz, with a dizzying number and energetic interplay of instruments on stage. This dynamic genre-hopping show is propelled even further by Andrew’s captivating lead vocals and James’ soaring harmonies.
Mando maestro Andrew Collins is at the epicentre of Canada’s burgeoning acoustic/roots music scene. He didn’t invent it – but he’s certainly been a contributor, having co-founded seriously noteworthy Canadian bands like the Creaking Tree String Quartet, the Foggy Hogtown Boys and, more recently, his namesake Trio. That’s not to mention the fact that this prolific, robust performer – comfortable on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola and mandocello – composes, produces, arranges, writes and teaches across multiple genres, including a popular collision of folk, jazz, bluegrass, Celtic, and classical.
With fellow string guru Mike Mezzatesta, whose versatility shines through on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and mandola, and James McEleney holding it down on the bass, mandocello and vocals, they showcase a dizzying number of styles and instruments on stage. Bending and blending genres, these musical shape shifters land somewhere between the re-imagined worlds of Béla Fleck and Newgrass invader, David Grisman.
They recently released a new double album, grafting 11 vocal cuts (tongues) to 11 instrumentals (grooves) to create a seamless finish with their cleverly monikered double album, Tongue & Groove. Each cut is milled to perfection and represents a back-to-basics visitation on what the band does best — spontaneity of the stage and rapid-fire, improvisational exchanges.
For one example of their lively strings, go to this YouTube video. But it’s only one sample of their varied repertoire!
Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, 7:30 PM, at the Miners’ Union Hall, Rossland
Tickets $25 – available in advance online at www.rosslandartscouncil.com or at “Out of the Cellar” in Rossland.
The Joe Hill Coffeehouse was originally the brain-child of Michael Gifford, and has since been adopted by others to support this opportunity for amateur talent to perform. Its original venue was the Miners Union Hall, which is suspected of having sheltered the union organizer Joe Hill (known to the police as a “musician of sorts,” too) when he was being hunted by “Pinkerton men.” When the Miners Hall was closed for a year for renovations, the Joe Hill Coffeehouse moved to the Rossland Legion – and found that venue so much easier and quicker for volunteers to set up that it stayed at the Legion. Thank you, Rossland Legion!
If you’ve been singing, playing music, composing songs and / or poetry, if you dance — family-friendly acts only, please — get in touch with the current Joe Hill organizer at les@rosslandrange.org to get yourself on the list of performers. Joe Hill has been held on the third Sunday of each month of the school year; with enough performers, it can continue that schedule.
About the $3 admission fee: in case you’re wondering, the funds go to (a) give the Legion a modest donation toward their janitorial fees, and (b) to support the Rossland Council for Arts & Culture. The sale of goodies, tea and coffee at Joe Hill helps support the Gold Fever Follies – another important Rossland cultural feature, also run by an entirely volunteer board of directors.
Don’t let the dismals set in. There’s music and dancing and laughter to enjoy.
