Add Category
Posted
As Adelaide burlesque group Fafi D'Alour and the Delinquents prepares for an upcoming New York tour, their growing injury list could put a football team to shame.
"I've got acute plantar fasciitis," 21-year-old lead dancer Fiona said.
"Every time I get off stage I'm crying because my feet are so swollen.
"I've got bursitis in the hip and the shoulder and I've broken my collar bone," she added, as if reading from a shopping list.
Aerialist Georgia joked about how blood sometimes trickled down her back while rehearsing; the scratches have been caused by her hoop.
"My right shoulder has popped out while I was dancing," she said.
Meanwhile, 24-year-old performer Kate explained matter-of-factly that the unusual walk she had adopted was thanks to dancing.
"I've not had any major injuries so far but I can't walk with my feet parallel," she said.
"If they are not turned out it is quite painful, so I basically waddle in an elegant manner."
And vocalist Amelie said she almost lost her voice during the week.
But it appears nothing will stop the quartet taking their show to New York next month.
The group has successfully performed at the Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe festivals, but an invite to perform at the Soho Playhouse has seen them go into training overdrive.
At 4:00pm on a wintery afternoon in Adelaide, the group have just begun warming up for a six-hour training session.
All of them came straight from their daytime jobs to the studio — their enthusiasm for performance is contagious.
"I can't explain it," Fiona said.
"How can I be in so much pain and still love it?"
While all four performers are confident young women, they admit taking their clothes off in front of a crowd of strangers can sometimes lead to self doubt.
"I've performed so many times and I still get so nervous," Fiona said.
"But as soon as I hit the stage it is gone.
"I'm just in a trance, in a completely different world."
"Till this day I am still side stage thinking, 'Oh God, I'm too body conscious, I can't do this'," Georgia added.
"But the second I go out there I am completely different to who I normally am.
"My nanna saw me go down to nipple tassels in a show a few months ago and I was like, 'Don't care — Hi nanna, how are you?'
"Having that fear [of nudity] adds to the thrill of it; I used to be somewhat reserved."
The majority of their audience seats are filled by women.
"We often get groups of women on a girls' night out and occasionally couples, led by the woman," Fiona said.
She said their show ultimately was a celebration of powerful female singers.
And to have the opportunity to perform it in New York?
"I couldn't pass up the opportunity," Kate said.
"It's really scary and it is not something I thought I would ever get to do."
"I grew up watching Friends, but ever since I got into dance I know the best of the best perform on Broadway," Georgia added.
Topics: dance, performance-art, sexuality, human-interest, adelaide-5000