Photography courtesy of Space Ibiza
Let me tell you a little story about ten minutes of my life. Ten glorious minutes, perched on the edge of a railing, my eyes glued to the most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes upon in my whole entire life (aside from my cats, clearly). Ten whole minutes where I didn’t once think about deadlines, diets, DJs, fashion, friends, shopping, sleeping, shoes, stress, money, make-up, music, beaches or even my boyfriend!
For these magical ten minutes of my life, I was mesmerised, completely under the spell of the one and only (major league drum roll please!) Dita Von Teese…
Photography courtesy of Space Ibiza
The ‘Queen of Burlesque’ had jetted into Ibiza as special guest star for the closing party of Café Olé at Space, tweeting as she did so: ‘Landed in Ibiza tonight… the bird’s eye view of 1000s of open-air ravers was astonishing! Happy to be back in electro-mecca!’
Her face was splashed all over billboards and bus stops across the island in the weeks prior, and the pop-up MAC boutique in Ibiza town reported a sudden demand for red lipstick!
But I digress… back to the tale of ten minutes!
Photography courtesy of Space Ibiza
We arrived about an hour before the show was due to start, to find a good position to watch (and I’d worn my very highest heels to ensure optimum height) and I was happy to see the stage had been built high above the DJ booth in Space’s famous Discoteca… which meant you could see from everywhere in the room. Still, Miss W has to admit when she found her friend and fellow Dita-enthusiast Lhea Taylor, who also oh-so-conveniently happens to be a co-promoter at the club on Saturday nights, she didn’t say no to the opportunity to view the show from the VIP (thank you!).
So this leads us to the edge of the railing I was perched on for ten minutes (or slightly longer, if you account for a few minutes of anticipation). Café Ole’s own dancers were posturing and writhing around on a glittering gold horse and in an antique bathtub respectively, but as the house lights went down and the silvery curtains began to swish and sway they scurried down to make way for the saucy star of the show.
And there she was… all five feet and five inches, apparently but a mere 52 kilos and what looked like another five kilos of Swarovski crystal embellishments and a flurry of fuchsia feathers in a glittering, gilded Victorian birdcage…
So it appeared we were being treated to Dita’s famous ‘Bird of Paradise’ performance, apparently a tribute to Burlesque legend Sally Rand (one of her inspirations, according to good old Wikipedia) where she reinvents the classic feather fan dance with two E-NOR-MOUS magenta feather fans.
Slowly, surely and oh-so-sexily, Dita (a classically trained ballet dancer by the way, who spent most of the ten minutes en pointe – except when she was hanging upside down from the cage of course) removed almost all of her barely-there-anyway costume, before spinning around on her sparkly perch while water showered over her body and ohhhhhh wouldn’t you know it, the ten minutes were over already!
Strip strip hooray!
Photography courtesy of Space Ibiza
THE LOWDOWN
THE GOOD: What a performer! It may have been only ten minutes, but my, oh my, that girl’s picture-perfect pretty face never faltered. Not once. Not to mention her incredulously impeccable timing… even when en pointe for the majority of her act and even underwater! And not a hair out of place either. Hmmm, I think a few Ibiza club dancers could have learned a thing or two… if only they’d had the night off!
THE BAD: Ten minutes. I mean, really? JUST TEN MINUTES? It was all too brief, excuse the pun. I know there weren’t a lot of clothes to be strewn off… but hasn’t anyone ever taught Ms Von Teese the value of layering when you get dressed in September in Ibiza?
THE GOSSIP: Miss W spied her own personal Ibiza style icon, Claire Manumission (obviously before the ten minutes in question here), up in the specially constructed VIP corner with partner Mike, Space owner Pepe Rossello and all the club’s dancers and performers. And wouldn’t you know it, the following day Facebook was all a-flutter with the news Dita Von Teese has agreed to play legendary Burlesque performer Sally Rand in the Manumission – or should I say Cinemission – duo’s latest all-new project. Style attracts style…
Photography courtesy of Space Ibiza
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