Why?

Why Blog?  Hell, I dunno.  Guess because I have somethings to say.  :-)

I'm assuming that anyone who reads this is a Second Lifer, familiar with the SL Dance Community.  Which actually, said community is the topic of this blog.  Not "Why?"

The Dance Community - somehow I keep thinking it is bigger than what I see.  Than what I have seen so far.  I know that new Dance Venues come into being often, and that takes me back to when we first opened the Paramount.  We being Lotta, LeAnn, and myself.  In the late fall/early winter of 2012 the Paramount was brand new and struggling to stay in existence.

I look at the, "known universe" (to me) of the sl dance community and realize how little I knew about it at the time we created the Paramount.  How little actual experience we had and how, we really had no idea what we were jumping into.  I'm glad.  Glad we didn't realize how many burlesque type venues we in existence.  I probably would have been scared.  In my ignorance, I was totally fearless.  :-)  Very nervous, mind you, but fearless.  Like walking thru a jungle saying, "Wow look at these big puttie tats!!!"

We have come a long way, and that has been due to the wonderful efforts of a great many people.  You see, back when we started, the dancers we had - US - were basically self trained - and we trained almost all our dancers for the next year plus.  I - We The Paramount - owe a great deal to Gunner and Babypea von Phoenix, for being part of our first Rocky Horror (horrid) Show which we presented late in 2013.  They had a continuing effect on us in many ways, including the fact that we tried to return the support they gave us for Rocky by attending shows at Elysium.  Through them we were introduced to much more of the SL Dance Community than we had previously been aware.  We branched out and started attending shows at a lot of other venues, and certainly Winds of the Sahara was of the venues we attended as often as possible.

2014 introduced us to a lot of dancers, many of whom had much more experience than we had.  Different ways of doing things, and several of those dancers have performed at Paramount - some as Guests and some have joined our permanent Cast.  From those experienced dancers we have learned still more and I know that the acts of others have improved.  I hope mine have.  Shrugs.  I do it for fun.  :-)

When Winds had some "real estate" problems this past winter we extended our hands to try to help; it turned out that the help wasn't needed, but friendships grew and we have grown into a close relationship between the Paramount and Winds, which is beneficial to both.  Significantly, Rebecca Dembo of Winds has become the "DJ and Audio Engineer" for paramount, taking a huge load from my shoulders.

Next time I write in this blog I will do it while logged into SL for I would like to name every dancer who performs at the Paramount; if I mention any more names, I'll surely skip someone and I don't want to skip anyone.  Having worked as a Reporter for a small newspaper, and edited and written the newsletter for a yacht club, I am very aware of the perils of not mentioning names.  Like the time I wrote about a Caney Creek Yacht Club project and left out the name of the Commodore.

This 2nd episode of my blog is kind of like a long, run on sentence.  I still want to learn more about the dance community in sl.  I'm certain it must extend beyond the boundaries of the "burlesque" community.  The Paramount is also a "Playhouse" - we do the occasional play and I would love to do more.  I'd like to learn about other venues who also produce plays.

I see things advertised - so I know stuff is going on out there.  I hope to expand my horizons and visit these other places.  In the meantime, I will work - and i plan to use this vehicle to talk about my work, - and feel tons of gratitude to those who have supported us, those who have helped us, those who have criticized us.  And a huge hug of gratitude to the Paramount Players - past and present - because - - - They are The Paramount.  Honest.

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