Jazida

Between International Women's Days...
Incredible women and the Canberra Community

At 2019 International Women's Day, I can't help but think about how lucky I've been to work with so many incredible people - especially powerful women creating fabulous and challenging art and making the world better for women and girls!

One year ago, I was at The Adelaide Fringe Festival where I produced 16 shows and took some amazing Canberran women/non-binary-babes to share their amazing talents with South Australia  (Miriam Slater, Francis McNair, Rainbow, Miki Minx).

Now I am fresh back home from another tour of The Adelaide Fringe Festival, where I produced 4 shows and took another gaggle of inspiring women (Charlie Chapstik, Rainbow, Miki Minx and some of the Fabulous Fan Dancers: Sara Martini, Jupiter Rayne, Doe Dantalion)!

Between these two fringes, I've had the great honour of bringing 12 incredible artists from across Australia to Canberra to perform at my shows (11 of them amazing women)

• Faraway Fever 20/04/18 (Michael Wheatley)
• Arabian Nights 25/05/2018 (Xaeda Raqasa)
• Decadence and Debauchery 16/06/2018 (Eva Devore & Camilla Cream)
• Arabian Nights 10/08/2018 (Virginia Keft)
• Decadence and Debauchery 15/08/2018 (Imogen Kelly & Desert Rose)
• Arabian Nights 16/11/2018 (Zoe Berry)
• Decadence and Debauchery 02/01/2019 (Alyssa Kitt, Maple Rose, Ginger Foxx & Elizabeth Burton)

If there is anyone on this list that you haven't got to know yet, I strongly recommend checking them out! They are all amazing artists with unique pasts that have helped ensure the Canberra productions bring together women of different cultures, backgrounds, ages, and identities.

Not only that, while they have been in town, I've had the pleasure of facilitating 15 workshops with them to help support the development of local Canberra artists

• Arabesques and Floorwork with Xaeda Raqasa
• Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites with Xaeda Raqasa
• Costume Upgrade with Eva Devore
• Neo FanDangle with Camilla Cream
• Beautiful Balady with Virginia Keft
• Pumped Up Balkan Pop with Virginia Keft
• Going Big with Imogen Kelly
• For the Love of Lille with Imogen Kelly
• Sensual Flow with Desert Rose
• Arms and Hands with Zoe Berry
• Three Sisters Fusion Choreo with Zoe Berry
• Big Bad Booty with Alyssa Kitt
• Charleston 101 with Maple Rose
• Connecting with your Inner Goddess with Elizabeth Burton
• Q&A Session with Elizabeth Burton

Feeling very lucky that I've been to play a part of sharing some of Australia's amazing women with the local Canberra community and also taking some Canberra talent across Australia! Let's keep sharing this love, building each other up and continuing to grow our amazing community!

Reflecting on the past 12 months

As part of looking back on the amazing people I've had the pleasure of working with other the past 12 months, I updated all my records and thought it was a good time to take stock of some of the achievements that have happened since last International Women's Day.

In one year (52 weeks, between 8 March 2018 and 8 March 2019), I:

• Went to Las Vegas and performed at The Burlesque Hall of Fame
• Performed at 85 shows
• Produced a total of 27 shows
• Performed at shows out of Canberra 23 times (not including the Adelaide Fringe Festivals) in
  • Newcastle (x3)
  • Melbourne (x3)
  • Mornington Penninsular
  • Lithgow
  • Las Vegas
  • Cairns (x3)
  • Townsville (x2)
  • Magnetic Island
  • Sydney (x2)
  • Alice Springs
  • Portland
  • Mackay
  • Blue Mountains (x2)
  • Batemans Bay
• Facilitated 15 workshops with interstate artists in Canberra
• Launched Jazida Dance Classes and started teaching more weekly classes
• Won #ACTtitalator (best Burlesque in the ACT) at the My Hashtag Awards at the Sydney Burlesque Gala
• Started co-producing Miss Burlesque ACT with Michael Wheatley (with our first MBA production running on 29 June 2019)
• Toured "Decadence and Debauchery" to Batemans Bay
• Toured "Decadence and Debauchery" to Adelaide and performed in other shows at The Adelaide Fringe Festival (performed at 25 shows and produced 16 shows in 2018 and performed at 26 shows and produced 4 shows in 2019) 
• Was nominated in the TOP TEN across Australia for FOUR different categories at The 2018 Busties (the Australian Burlesque Industry Awards): Best Solo, Most Supportive, Most Glamorous and Outstanding Contribution
• Completed my Graduate Diploma of Management
• Started a new day-job at The Office for Women

It has been a big year. Sometimes I think about how much easier life might be if I chose to go back to working my day-job full time and stopped dedicating so much time/money to producing shows, performing and teaching... but I really do love it and I know that my students and people who get along to shows and workshops appreciate the effort... and I can see the Canberra community continuing to grow and become more and more vibrant every day and that really does make it worthwhile!