Dozens of women took to the stage at the weekend for a burlesque extravaganza in memory of a young mum-of-two who died last year.
Aimee Cannon was a member of a burlesque chair dance troupe based in North Lanarkshire and would have been part of the show on Saturday at Motherwell Concert Hall.
Tragically, Aimee was discovered dead in her home in West Calder on May 7 last year. She had suffered a number of serious injuries.
A 25-year-old man was charged with murdering Aimee and appeared in court a few days after her death.
Aimee, 26, who was mum to two young children aged two and six, attended the burlesque chair dance group run by Victoria Watson in Wishaw, who was left heartbroken by the news of her death.
Victoria said: “We dedicated the show to Aimee, and were doing it in memory of her. Her death came as a huge shock. It was all over the news. To lose Aimee was devastating. She was so excited for the show and we had just received the printed tickets the week she died.”
Victoria and fellow burlesque instructor Adelle Barrett organised the Battle of Blondes event which featured 72 women, including members from Aimee’s dance group.
Members of the group Aimee attended were joined by others from Bellshill, Rutherglen and Airdrie.
The women of all shapes and sizes shook off their inhibitions live on stage as they performed well-rehearsed routines in front of a big audience.
And Aimee wasn’t far from their minds.
Women’s Aid benefited from the event, with over £600 raised from proceeds from sales of programmes, and bucket collections before, during and after the show.
The women showcased the skills they have honed at their classes thanks to Victoria, whose stage name is Frivolity Vixen, and Adelle, who is known as Poppy Chesty, in front of their biggest audience yet, with over 500 tickets sold for the event.
“It went brilliantly, it was fantastic and we’re well chuffed. We’ve now been inundated with requests to join the classes and they’re all full. It’s fabulous.
“The show was massive for us and it was completely sold out,” said Victoria. “We can’t believe that we sold all 545 tickets.
“We sold them through our friends and family network as we felt we wanted to have an element of control over who was in the audience.
“We have ladies whose ages range from their late teens to those in their 60s, so we didn’t want to attract the wrong crowd.
“ We knew it was people who were coming to support others so there would be no rowdiness or anything like that.”
While the show went without any major hitches, the lead up to the big night didn’t quite go as smoothly as planned, according to Victoria.
She said: “I think that everything that could go wrong had already went wrong.
“We had someone break their arm and the halls we had for dress rehearsals we couldn’t get into when we needed in.”
Victoria went on: “You wouldn’t believe it, it took over my life, I’ve had no life for the last four months. The last few weeks were a nightmare but we trained very hard for this and it’s great that we could do it in Aimee’s memory.”
There is now a waiting list for classes:burlesquechairdance.co.uk/scotland/ or their Facebook page.
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