Description

 ORCHESTRE L´POW! & DRAMBUIE PRESENT

“Shimmy! Shake! Shindig!”

Starring Bettina May

Swingin' 60's Burlesque a Go-Go Performed to Live Music at

The Bossanova Ballroom, Saturday, March 9th

Portland, OR - February 1, 2013 - Orchestre L'Pow! continues to blow the doors off the Bossanova Ballroom with the baddest burlesque show in town. We kick off our 2013 season with a bang, featuring two-time New York Burlesque Festival, Golden Pastie Award winner Bettina May. She's so good that the U.S. Immigration Service awarded her a green card based on her "artistic genius". We're gonna shimmy! We're gonna shake! We're thrown' a Shindig!

Shake it 60's style with Orchestre L'Pow!'s version of the dance party. Featuring the music of Henri Mancini, Burt Bacharach, Dick Dale and others of that swingin' musical era. We're gonna give our go-go dancers a workout! Be sure to join us for a mingle at our pre-show Cocktail Soiree, beginning at 7pm and featuring Deejay Reigh Lee spinning 60's lounge mashups. We'll be serving up hip cocktails at a deal from the fine folks at Drambuie Liqueur.

Also gracing the stage are the fabulous L'Pow! Company Dancers; Madison Moone, Itty Bitty Bang Bang, and The Infamous Nina Nightshade. Our hep host with the most is none other than internationally renowned burlesque MC, Vincent Drambuie. All dance routines performed to the post-punk big band sounds of Orchestre L'Pow! - the Northwest's premier burlesque pit band.

March 9 at the Bossanova Ballroom / Cocktail Soiree 7:00pm / Show 8:00pm / 21+ / $10-$40. Tickets are available online through the Bossanova Ballroom (www.bossanovaballroom.com). Visit the Orchestre L'Pow! Facebook page (www.facebook.com/OrchestreLPow) for special incentives and ticket giveaways.

About Bettina May:

Bettina May has been a pin-up model and burlesque performer since 2003, starting her career as a model for SuicideGirls.com. She was featured on an HBO special on the rebirth of Modern Pin-up shortly thereafter, which introduced her to an international audience. Since then she has performed internationally on stages in Paris, London, Berlin and Lisbon, as well as touring nationally constantly for the past 3 years. In the autumn of 2012 she was awarded the first ever green card from the USA based on her outstanding ability in burlesque and pin-up modeling.

Her stunningly authentic classic burlesque performance has been featured on The Real Housewives of NYC, and she has also performed for Brooke Shields, Kanye West, Jude Law, and she was in the "Shake Your Blood" Probot music video featuring Dave Grohl and Lemmy Kilmister. She is also an in-demand performer for corporate clients like Patron, Dos Equis, Harley Davidson and MTV.

She frequently appears as an expert of vintage style in The New York Times Style Section, is the current cover model for Secrets In Lace Lingerie, and has been profiled in the New York Post, Toronto Star, Shimmy Magazine, Dynamite Magazine in Germany, and Portuguese Vogue. She currently performs and models full-time in NYC.

Bettina has received a number of awards for her innovative yet classic dance style, earning the title "Most Energetic Dancer (Female)" in the 2003 local Monday Magazine arts awards show and in 2006 she was again recognized by Monday Magazine readers, being awarded "Favourite Dancer." Most recently Victoria's Times-Colonist daily paper named her "Most Fashionable Woman" of 2008. She won a coveted Golden Pastie award for Miss Congeniality at the 2011 New York Burlesque Festival, for "the performer who is always a lady on and off stage", which made her mother very proud, and in 2012 she won another Golden Pastie for being a Classic Pin-Up.

She has performed at burlesque festivals in New Orleans, New York City and Vancouver, Canada, and has lent her talents to a wide variety of benefit shows, including the 2006 Miss Exotic World Show in Las Vegas, as well as benefits for New Orleans musicians after Hurricane Katrina and has modeled for PETA's anti-fur campaign.

She is also a much sought-after pin-up photographer and vintage stylist, putting her love of vintage style to good use as a consultant for period films and running her successful pin-up makeover classes, which she styles and shoots herself. She has been teaching classes since 2006, bringing her unique body-positive full-day experience to Canada, the US and Europe. Her class has appeared nationally on NBC's First Look and has been profiled in the NY Times and Greenpoint Gazette.

Not content to limit her talents to the stage, she founded a male pin-up magazine called An Occasional Man, which she ran from April 2008 - July 2009, but her hectic touring schedule demanded that she put the print magazine aside, though it still exists online. She also ran a successful vintage-style glamour accessory company, Coquette Faux Furriers, outfitting the likes of Bernie Dexter, Dita Von Teese and Kitten DeVille.

About Orchestre L'Pow!:

Orchestre L´Pow! was prominently featured in the 2008 independent documentary, “A Wink and a Smile,” which chronicled Seattle´s burlesque scene and received great reviews from the New York Times, Daily Variety, the Village Voice and other publications. Orchestre L´Pow! has delivered pasty-twirling tunes for some of the most enticing members of the NW region´s Neo-Burlesque and Alt-Tease troupes, including the Heavenly Spies, Rose City Shimmy, Suicide Girls, The Gun Street Girls, Atomic Bombshells and the Glam-O-Rama Girly Show. Drummer and founder Dain Hudson was a member of internationally-known band Green Apple Quickstep, whose song “Dirty Water Ocean” was revered on “Beavis & Butthead”. Keyboardist Ralph Huntley leads OPB's Live Wire Radio Band and performs also with local favorites Klezmocracy. Bassist and band leader Sean Hudson has performed with country artists Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers and Mark Stuart, and shared the stage with comedians Bob Newhart and Lilly Tomlin. Guitarist Nick O'Donnell performs regularly with the Shanghai Woolies, and is a music educator. Saxophonist Scott Johnston is a member of long-time Portland band Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts. Trombonist Monte Skillings has performed with a wide range of Northwest artists including Lily Wilde, La Mayor Salsa, Mt. Hood Kicks Band and Professor Gall.