Lethbridge Portrait & Wedding Photography & Design by Tanya Plonka

It’s been a while since they were last here, so Lethbridge was stoked Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz had finally returned to the city for one of their awesome rockabilly/burlesque shows. This was their first time playing at Henotic (which is unfortunately ending operations in two weeks), and it was a fantastic venue for this show. As usual I enjoyed every moment of their performance, and wish they could have played for several more hours!

Disclaimer: Some of these photos come pretty close to being topless (but in true burlesque style, the girls are wearing pasties!), so if side-boob offends you or if you are at work you better not click through the rest ;) (more…)

As you can see, I am still catching up on a few things! Back in December the JPS Trio invited all their fans out to Henotic to take part in the filming of their first music video, done by the multi-talented Dan Berdusco of Lethbridge Link. The cameras stayed rolling all night while the crowd danced to to the band’s energetic set of originals and a few funky covers. The band is hoping to get this video onto MuchMusic, so wish them luck! (more…)

Last week GS Lakie middle school and LA Dance company put on a fantastic dance show, Rush Dance Montage, with all of their students at the Yates Memorial Centre. Music students of the school opened the show with each of their rock bands while the crowd filled the auditorium (I wish my school had had a rock program!), and this was a first performance for many of them but they did so great! They were followed by an hour of super impressive dancing, with dancers ranging in age from teeny tiny (3 or 4) to adults. The show had such diversity, covering hip hop, lyrical, Latin, Afro-Caribbean, contemporary, Irish, etc etc. My favorites were the Bollywood piece (naturally) and the Michael Jackson tribute. There are a ton of talented dancers in this city! I really wish the show had been much longer than an hour! Kristi did such a fantastic job putting this together :) (more…)

Once again, it was a delight to see Beija Flor!
More photos follow…
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The week of festivities begins! My friend Andrew (who you may recognize from the Turncoats) has been teaching in Japan for the majority of the past two years, and he is back for a short while to marry Julie! I am so excited for their wedding, but to start out this week Andrew pulled together a few of his musician friends and held a CD release party for his new solo album (which is pretty darn good!).
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As part two of my Dragon Boat Festival photos, I bring to you the Desert Winds Bellydancers! This is a different troupe than I am in (I’m with Ammena), so I don’t always have a chance to see them perform. They debuted this circus routine at our big dance show in March, so I was only able to watch it from the side stage. It was so fantastic to sit in the audience for once and soak it all in!

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