Mandi Does Burlesque

So those of you that follow my antics on the Facebook fan page will have heard my proclaiming that I was going to challenge myself to lose 45 kg (100lbs) and do a burlesque dance for my 40th birthday.  I have till November 2012 to pull this off and figured I better get started.

I decided to do this for several reasons.
1.  I grew up as a tomboy and I somehow missed  learning basic girl things,  like how to walk in heels and flirt for that matter, that an just going from serial monogamy to married at a very young age I kind of skipped the whole flirtatious dating scene thing (I went to a 80% guys school and was in the U.S. Navy, I could have had 3 boobs and a watermelon growth out my head and I would have still had plenty of suitors).
2.  I am a Scorpio and we are naturally sensual and seductive.
3.  Now I am almost 40 haven't a clue how to flirt, overweight, and am single....but the brilliant part is I am free to go learn this stuff without anyone being able to say squat about it!!!!   And I want to.  It looks like so much fun.
4.  I have spent the last 7 years mucking in on a farm...enough was enough the girl in me wanted to come out and play.
5. After opening my photography studio and mulling for three years on my logo it finally manifested itself as a bright Barbie doll pink and I have completely found my groove photographing women and empowering them to look their most amazing and celebrate their bodies what ever size they came in, now I wanted to look as amazing as them somewhere.

So when I heard about Miss LaBelle's Burlesque class I thought.  "Right I am at my top weight ever.  I weigh more now than I did when I was nine months pregnant with my son and if I can learn to embrace myself at this size and stand tall proud and sexy with it then I will rock it even more when I am in a physically healthier space."  So I went along tonight in my red "hooker shoes" as my mum likes to call them and wobbled in.    Grace the teacher was disarming lovely and her studio "kitten" was in a corset fishnets and was roughly my size in the posterior regions.  I took one look at her and relaxed significantly.  Now learning the steps I reminded myself of a slightly less than graceful giraffe as in my three inch wedges I towered about a foot above most of the class and my legs seemed to not have a clue what my arms were doing.  But it was fun and by the end of the class I had a semi semblance of a swish to my walk...which I promptly practiced (a much subtler version) all the way up Cuba street to the photography meeting I was late for at Southern Cross.    But I felt sexy, and swish, all 120+kgs of me and that felt divine.

So if you have been thinking about it, but haven't had the nerve to try it.  I say go for it.  Grab a friend if you need to, but take the class.  Claim your feminine powers back! And stand strong and proud in your 3 inch hooker shoes with your new confident swish to your stride.  Get your girly on!