So Anna, what have you been doing for the last SIX MONTHS, and why haven’t you been blogging?!?!? Hmmm???? 

Well t’s a long story, I think best told in photos…

*DISCLAIMER*

This NewsBlog is mainly written as record of adventures to entertain myself when I’m on old lady. I only talk about the good bits, so if you’re not me (hell, if you ARE me!) it could be a little nauseating. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! :D 

ok. So I went to Birmingham for Enchanted Burlesque:

And then to Wales for Dr Sketchy

Which was filmed for TV

Tampere, Finland for Halloween “Horror & Tease” (It was cold)

And Moutier (where there was a hot tub in the backstage)

And Basel (where a Sailor called Daniel asked me to sign his stomach!)

And THEN, I went to tour in China for a month with the wonderful Lady Wildflower! 

We didn’t mess about AT ALL during rehearsals

We kept it classy

We shared our skills with other performers

And met a cat called Small Hong Kong Paul

We really did keep it classy

Especially in the First Class carriage of trains

“Treasure”

And we were very conservative because it’s “a little bit Communist” (actual quote from our Agent) OH! - and we’re NOT naked in a bar. We’re wearing pasties.

We met some AWESOME PEOPLE

Had a Chinese Christmas

And worked very hard

I came back to the UK for like 5 minutes and I was all “I miss China” so I immediately went back and started at Mandarin Language school. I was a very keen student. 

I made new friends

And even taught one of them a Chinese character she didn’t already know (It’s very rude. It’s important to learn the essentials).

Then I came back to the UK. Yeah yeah, define “offensive”.

And then it was time for Kinky & Quirky! One of my fave shows ever :D

It was 2 days of shows so we were able to relax at the seaside:

And an awesome fun photoshoot - here are a couple of the resulting photos by Elizabeth Armitage:

I saw my grandma (she looks kinda annoyed, but trust me, she’s cool that I “shake my bottom” for a living).

How did that get in here?! ;D

And went to the Helsinki Burlesque Festival 

Why wasn’t I invited to the Knife Party?!?!?

And I did my homework like a good Ninja 

Then it was time to go to Sheffield for another top-notch UK burlesque show: Burly Q

And Milan

And then I was all “I miss China!” So, guess what…

Yeah I went back to Mandarin School.

I packed for a MUCH warmer month than it turned out to be, thanks to the dreadful advice of a local friend (who should have known better)

And got to see my awesome classmates and teachers again

Was chased around a Metro Station by a Korean man because I “look like Snow White”

Caught up with awesome friends

Saw bugs markets, temples and parks

And attended a Martial Arts performance

Then it was time to go back to the UK, so I went to Cheltenham for Missy Malone’s awesome show

(Did you know Cheltenham has a Wishing Fish Clock??)

Then to Zurich for Ooh LaLa Cherie

And to Leeds West Yorkshire Playhouse.

…Where we all had a BEDS in our dressing rooms:

Oh yeah, and I was in some magazines in Milan:

And the UK (Accent Magazine April 2013) With the gorgeous Bettina Spankenhaus and Constance Peach

Alt Fashion Magazine Summer 2013)

So I think that about brings me up to date.  This month I’m doing some training for secret future projects, as well as performing in Bradford with Catherine D’Lish:

Then next month I’m off to Los Angeles to throw axes on board the Queen Mary for the Ink & Iron Festival.

After that, who knows?!?!?! - Whatever happens, I hope I get to see you! :D 

Anna xx

Well, my lovely friends, you know how much fun I’ve had this year ninja-ing off on my Asian jaunts?  I am thrilled to announce that I will be ninja-ing off once more - this time to perform! I’ll be touring China with the lovely Lady Wildflower from next month. If I have any friends reading who live in China, maybe I’ll be swinging by! I’ll publish my schedule & show dates as soon as I’m able. I’m back in the UK to perform at Salon Rouge in Cambridge on New Years Eve. - hope to see you at a show soon!

Anna x

Brrr! It’s getting a little bit chilly isn’t it?!?!   But the good news is: THERE’S PARKIN IN THE SHOPS!!! (well, there is if you’re in Yorkshire! Which for the next few days, I am). I bang on about it every year, but it’s delicious. If you get the chance, I do recommend you try some with a lovely cup of tea.

Anyway. I didn’t come here to talk about parkin, I came to write a little update about the next few weeks’ shows! I’d love to see you, and if you’d like to see me, this is where I’ll be:

This weekend (20 October) I’ll be in Birmingham, UK for “Dangerous”. I will be taking my axes, and I’m pretty excited about that! 

Then on 23 October, I’ll be in Leeds UK, hosting a vintage hair & make up workshop - I still have a few spaces! details available here :D

On 25 October I’ll be zooming over to Chester for Dr Sketchy. 

Then 27th October it’s Tampere, Finland for Horror & Tease:

Then I’m hopping over to Switzerland for the Moutier Festival on 9-10 November:

…And SUD Basel on November 17th. (Details here)

THEN I might be disappearing from Europe for a bit. We’ll see. To Be Continued…

Ooh! Before I go, Last week’s “Bang Tidy Burlesque” Show in Leeds was  a BLAST! if you’d  like to see a review, there’s an absolutely lovely one here!

Anna x 

It’s been a little while since my last newsblog, and since I’m currently spending the day sitting under a palm tree with no pressing concerns, I thought I’d quit looking at pictures of Bruce Lee for 5 minutes, and use the time to write a little photo-diary-catch-up on what’s being going on , and where I’ve been wheeling my little suitcase recently!

I had a shoot with the fabulous REN Photography, and I LOVE the resulting images! here’s a sample: 

Hair & Make Up By Evil Twin Creative

And my butt ended up on stickers! :D

I also had a shoot for Arcanum Accessories, during which I was thrilled to model their amazing new leopard range, check it out here!     

Check out the awesome gift sent to me by the fabulous Dave & Lesley Dent!! A ninja coat hook! :D

Sarah from Kinky & Quirky appeared on TV in a Kev Grey-designed Axe T Shirt! (Available here if you’d like your very own!!)

I ninja-ed off to China again for a bit to do some more weapons training because I loved it so much last time

Iko Uwais (Wait! I didn’t train with Iko Uwais! How did that get in here?!?!?! ;D Hahaha!!)

Hmmm. Mysterious…

I met a beautiful Showgirl called Raina, with whom I tore up Shanghai

NO BUGLES!!!

A beautiful gift! - I’m not going to tell you what’s in these boxes, but essentially, it’s a killing kit. 

I did some fabulous fun shows! 

The following 3 photos are by D. Glossop, Darkstar Imaging:

…And caught a cold :(

I did a photoshoot for a secret project that I can’t talk about just yet ;D

Performed at the AWESOME Hotrod Hayride (and came home with all my clothes this time, hooray!)

And swanned off to Spain for a week to perform at the awesome High Rockabilly 2012, with the gorgeous Missy Malone!

Here we are with High Rockabilly’s wonderful Jose :D

We worked REALLY hard. 

We did actually do some work too…

Our regular Stage Manager for the event, Andreu, normally celebrates his birthday at the event, but this time it was off by a few days, so, sadly, we didn’t get to do anything to help him to enjoy his 16th birthday.

…But we worked him pretty hard.

Anna x

And the winner is…

Charlotte Warboys!

A  copy of the print will be wnging it’s way to Charlotte this week!

Thank you for all of your entries! 

Anna x

www.annafurlaxis.com has teamed up with the wonderfully talented Artist Becky Ryan for a fabulous giveaway!

 

If you’d like to win one of Becky’s A4 prints, as above - (as it comes, or I can sign it for you if you’d like- it’s up to you!), all you need to do is answer the following question: Where will Anna be on 20 October?!?! (clue: check out the calendar at www.annafurlaxis.com!) - and email your answer before Sunday 2nd September to: info@annafurlaxis.com, with “Becky Ryan Print” in the subject line. 

If you don’t win but you’d like one of Becky’s prints they’re available in my shop here, or you could even commission her to draw you! - Just visit her website for details! 

 Anna x 

Rules:

*Entries will be accepted until mid-day GMT on Sunday 2 September 2012. 

*Entries must state “Becky Ryan Print” in the subject line and be emailed to info@annafurlaxis.com

*The winner will be drawn at random from correct submissions on Sunday 2nd September.

*Prize will be mailed as soon as the winner’s address is supplied.

*The winner must advise of his or her address within 3 days of the competition ending.

*The winner must advise if they would like me to sign the poster and of any specific or preferred message within 3 days of the competition ending.

*I may change any message that I deem too saucy ;D

*Competition is open to everyone and includes worldwide postage

So for the last few days I’ve been in one of my favourite cities in’t world - Helsinki, Funland!

One of the things I love most about Helsinki is the way the city feels. As soon as I arrived, I felt as though I’d never left. The sun was shining (this was new to me! - the month I’d spent there was during the winter, when Helsinki is dark almost all of the time. This visit was the opposite, with daylight until super-late!) and I went straight to the park for a spot of weapon-based playtime. 

The next day I headed over to see my good friends Photographer Tinttu, and (fellow Knife-Thrower) “The Baron”. We had a super-fun photoshoot, which combined some of my absolute favourite things in a way I’d never had them combined before…

Denied tea! true sadism from The Baron! …

Then in the evening was the fabulous Bettie Blackheart’s Helsinki Burlesque Spring Awakening Show. The venue, Kaisaniemi, is fab, and there’s a lovely story of a secret door into the building for a very famous Finnish Politician, Mannerhaiem.

 

The following day I headed to the Helsinki Burlesque dance studio where I hosted 2 of my workshops. It was so good to spend some time with the women of the Helsinki Burlesque Scene, it really is a wonderful community.

On Sunday, I had a beach photoshoot with Jari Mittienen & Mai Puttonen. I was full of cold, it was freezing, and there were quite a lot more people around than the photos would suggest, but very little can stop me stripping off!

I was especially excited about this shoot as it had been in the planning for a long time, and was set to produce the promotional shots for the new act I’m working on. I’m absolutely thrilled with the results, and I can’t wait to get this show on the road later this year! 

After the beach we headed to the Helsinki Technical Museum for a concept shoot in my goldfish costume, which I loved! Photographer Jari had booked part of the Helsinki Technical Museum after seeing me perform this number on Friday night - as hooks are key in my goldfish number, I loved being a little fish caught on a real hook!

That evening I had dinner with friends and relaxed on my final night in the city before flying home the following day. 

It was a great trip for lots of reasons and I very much hope to return very soon. I have big plans which include this city… and a LOT of weapons!!! ;D 

Anna x

This week has seen the opening in London’s Brick Lane, of the eagerly anticipated “Brush With Burlesque” art exhibition.  The exhibition runs until 13 May, and showcases some incredible UK based Artists and their work inspired by the burlesque scene.  I’m gutted that I can’t make it to see the exhibition while it’s on! You can read a lovely review of the exhibition by “This is Cabaret” here.  

(All exhibition pictures snaffled with permission from FaceBook)

I think he likes my shoes :D

Exhibition Organisers Mark & Sarah (who are not only lovely but multi-talented - Mark is the wonderful artist responsible for the paintings in this photograph, and together, Mark & Sarah are also known as “Kinky & Quirky”  & organise awesome Burlesque events!) 

One of the artworks on display is Joe “BoneShaker” Armitage’s depiction of me as Ninja-Poster-Girl for the May “BoneShaker” event.  I was thrilled when Joe invited me to be a BoneShaker girl,  and he’s written an (extremely flattering!) newsblog about our collaboration on the image here. 

As Joe’s motif in his artwork is vinyl records, he’d asked me how I’d like to incorporate a record into our shoot. I suggested that I’d like to be throwing one, shuriken-style, and he very kindly indulged me - even when I asked for Bruce Lee-style “scratches” to be incorporated into the final piece!  Joe was great fun to shoot with, and I very much enjoyed being menacing in a bikini. Here are some of my favourite shots from the afternoon:

And this is the final poster! 

I’ll be there, as will Guest DJ “Jazz”Hans, and if you come along, I promise to try not to kill you! ;D 

Anna x

So yeah, I went to China! :D 

*WARNING* As I’ve said before in this NewsBlog, I write mainly as a way of remembering my adventures so that I have a record of it all to read when I’m an old lady. Consequently, I’m aware it can sometimes read (to other people) like a nauseating list of fun things I did. So, if you’d like to read about my adventures in China, you have been warned!! - grab a bucket and read on…

The first amazing thing about arriving in Shanghai (ok, I guess you have to be a fan of elevated railways, as you know I am), is that you can travel from Pudong Airport into the city on the Maglev train. It’s FAST!

It’s also quite heart-stopping when you pass the Maglev coming in the opposite direction!

The second cool thing about arriving in Shanghai (and I didn’t know this before I arrived), is that when you leave the Maglev, there’s a little Maglev Museum!! A museum about trains??! YES PLEASE! 

*DECELERATING* GLASS!!! How cool is that?!?!?!! 

OK. I think that’s probably enough about trains for now (Although I’ll probably mention the subway later because you know me and underground railways…).

Arriving in Shanghai was bonkers. In a good way. I felt like part of a Star Trek Away Team.

After a restful (HA!) night of jetlag, I headed to my first training session. I’m not going to go into too much detail about what I was doing, because I’d rather show you, but I’d travelled to Shanghai especially to train with a particular Martial Artist called Tom as I loved his adaptation of traditional weapons and I’d arranged to train twice a day, every day. INTENSE! I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. Would I be rubbish at it??!! I really hoped not, but I needn’t have worried - I loved every second. Even the ones where I was smacking myself about the legs & face :D 

In between training sessions and disco naps, I did manage to see a little of Shangahi. I travelled on the metro system as much as I could (the world’s longest, Subterranean Railway Fact Fans!), ate a lot of ramen, and even went to the circus!

I’d stupidly expected to be able to take picnic lunches to the city’s parks and spread out for a spot of practice - but this turned out to be a naiive plan… China is, erm,  populous!! Turns out you can’t go around swinging weapons around Chinese parks without causing carnage. 

I didn’t think it would be true, but people really do tai chi in the park (actually, they do it *everywhere*) 

No idea what this means. I *think* it means “please enjoy the park”!

Something I wasn’t expecting was the innovative use of bicycles and scooters for transporting things you wouldn’t think possible, like refrigerators and 100 chairs. These really weren’t unusual sights - just the ones I happened to catch pictures of!

But what if I *want* to follow strangers to the fun places? 

So (despite the lack of prostitution, porn or drugs of *ANY* kind!) I had a wonderful time in Shanghai, and can’t wait to crack on with practicing what I’ve learned. In fact - I love it so much, I’m hoping to return later in the year for further training!

Anna x