Moxie le Femme burlesque/cabaret - Circus show, August 04 2012

Moxie le Femme is a little part-time cabaret/burlesque/danc​e group that my wife are involved in. We have a show every two months with a different theme each time. This month's show was "Moxie goes to the Circus."

This was the biggest production we've ever done, both in terms of the dance troupe, and in terms of my growth as a photographer. To promote the show and also to generate some new content for the website, we had a two-day photoshoot with all the performers (13 regular dancers, one "stage kitten," and two guys/man-props). We spent weeks building up the set and props and coming up with poses and circus personae, then two full days of shooting, then a couple weeks culling, processing, and printing. My wife worked hard as an assistant during the shoot and had a very significant hand in the processing.

I really gained a lot as a photographer during the setup and shoot - building set and props; coordinating, directing, and posing models; lighting; selecting/culling; processing, and finally printing.

In addition to the base promo photos, we shot some with the specific intention of making retro sideshow-style posters.

Then we had the show! The audience seemed to regard it as the best show we've ever done - the house was packed with the biggest crowd we've ever had (160 paid and maybe 30 on "the list"). At the end of the two-hour show, they almost didn't want to leave, which made me feel really good.

For the promo shoot, I was using the 60D, then I took my brand new 5D3 to the show. Still finding my way around the camera, I blew the exposure on way more than I liked. I'm used to having to push the camera to its limits during the shows, but the 5D3 handled the low-light conditions without batting an eye...er, shutter? So more than a few came out overexposed.

Here are four of my favorites from the promotional shoot, one of the posters, and three of my favorites from the show. There are two full sets on Flickr so please click through if you want more.

Of course, any C&C is appreciated - and thanks for reading if you got this far.

1. Aston Martini, the Sword Swallower (and my lovely wife). Sitting on a stool, which I removed in post.

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these are GREAT!

I'm surprised at the lack of replies here - this is a lovely set! Then again, I'm quite a big fan of burlesque imagery. I particularly like no.1 and no.4, as I think they both have a very authentic burlesque feel, but I also really like no.2 and no.8.

Leigh, thanks for the kind comments. I didn't get to show off every member of the troupe here since I was limited to just 8 images, but there are more in my Flickr sets if you liked these - one set from the staged shoot and posters, and one set from the show. I hope you enjoy them. I still have a lot more that I'd like to process from the shoot but have had to set them aside for just a bit.

The troupe has never really been entirely "traditional" burlesque - everyone does something a little different. Several of the performers do fast-paced, athletic dancing; some do ballet-influenced routines including en pointe; some of the members (including my wife) still lean more towards the traditional styles with the fans and feathers and such; our singer doesn't really dance much but can still turn a song into a full performance. It's been really fun to watch how the different girls have really developed their own styles.

Unfortunately, lately we've had to tone it back down the "traditional" stuff even more - the mayor has a personal grudge against the owner of the venue in which we perform, and is looking for any reason to shut him down. So the girls have to stay pretty well covered... instead of peeling off a bra to reveal pasties, they peel off a bra to reveal a slightly smaller bra

This particular shoot and show was really done with the intent of making up circus personae, but we've got another couple of shoots scheduled - one little one to promote the Halloween show and then one that's more general-purpose headshots that we can use for a variety of purposes. I think I'll try to do more pinup/burlesque style for the general-purpose stuff, but I have some dark and fun ideas for the Halloween shoot.