On Friday 31st May, Fifi Fantôme & La Viola Vixen present Cabaret of Curiositease as part of Berlin Burlesque Week 2019.

Imagine stumbling upon a night-circus of burlesque dancers, human oddities and freaks from all walks of life. A bizarre world of wonder with an avant-garde twist, featuring circus, neo-burlesque and dark cabaret acts.

Cabaret of Curiositease invites you to stumble forth and fall head-first their freakish world on May 31st at Ballhaus Berlin.

There you’ll taste decadence from many different eras and art forms, with freaky performances such as infamous sword swallower Missa Blue.

An active voice globally, supporting black performance art, she is the first sword swallower ever to perform in the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Missa doesn’t shy away from bringing politics into her work.

Another legend in the line-up is Aria Delanoche, a competitor for this year’s Queen at the Burlesque Hall of Fame. She is an enigmatic force to be reckoned with and was voted 65th in the Top Burlesque Industry Figures by 21st Century Burlesque. She is also a political activist in her work and loves the world of burlesque as a feminist form of resistance.

Then comes Armi Von Vep. Armi Von Vep’s emergence into the world of burlesque was perhaps not the most typical one. She debuted in 2014 with a prohibition-themed shindig for the elderly residents of a retirement home in Helsinki. A gig she still considers to be one of the most important of her career.

No stranger to the extraordinary and outré, her work is intuitive, surreal and thought-provoking: her body of work is a cavalcade of transformations and re-births, trading symbolism with her own highly-stylized imagery.

Walk into a bizarre world of wonder.

The event line-up is an ode to the old freakshows of yore, with conjoined twins Les Inséparables.

Based on Daisy and Violet Hilton, the conjoined twins from the movie Freaks, their performance is a homage to the trials and tribulations these two women went through on- and offstage. Comprised of Aria Delanoche and Fifi Fantôme, these sexy freaks are joined at the hip… for better or for worse.

Then there’s the boylesque. Artist Seymour Bottoms takes male burlesque, adds a pinch of drag and mixes it with comedic theatrics, all blazing with high energy. Joining him are circus artist El Lee and queerlesque performer Hedoluxe, who has come to save you from your boredom… and ugly clothes.

Our host for the evening will be the incredible Elsie Marley.

Born and raised in Munich, having Indian roots and a British background, she is a spicy mix indeed. With her touring ensemble, Tits and Jazz, she aims to bring the art of burlesque to the remotest areas of Germany.

The show is produced by Fifi Fantome and La Viola Vixen.

Fifi Fantôme is a Canadian-born, Berlin-based queer performance artist. Fascinated by the idea of intimacy, embodied experience and the language of movement, Fifi experiments with how to assert and perform gender roles, whilst breaking labels in regards to sexuality.

Fifi has performed all over Europe, Canada and the United States in circus, theatre and burlesque shows, including Festival Montréal Complètement Cirque, Copenhagen Opera Festival, The Chicago Art Institute and Stockholm Burlesque Festival. She is a burlesque dancer, aerialist, performance artist and drag-king, mocking the stereotypes of gender, challenging cliches of the sexualized woman and using the body as a tool to express the abnormal.

Tickets cost 17EUR. Get yours here.

Cabaret of Curiositease
Friday 31st May 2019, 22:00-01:30

Ballhaus Berlin
Chausseestraße 102
10115 Berlin, Germany