Our guest food blogger Melina Zachariou shares her thoughts and insights on a new vegan dish at Wagamama Noodle Lab.Continue reading “Veganuary at Wagamama Noodle Lab | My Soho Times”
My Soho Times popup at WeWork 2
My Soho Times hosts another pop-up at WeWork Soho. Pop-in to find out more about My Soho Times and how you can get involved as a business or contributor!
Continue reading “My Soho Times popup at WeWork 2”SPIDER DANCE: celebrating the transgressive lives & performances of Fanny Kelly & Lola Montez
PREPARE TO BE HORSEWHIPPED!
Come on a fantastical journey through the lives and loves, romances and revolutions,
and conquests of one of the great women of the nineteenth century, and the woman who was her muse.
Fanny Kelly ran London’s first drama school from her Royalty Theatre in Soho. Her
cross-dressed performances enthralled and appalled in equal measure. She was a
noted and notorious Drag King a hundred years before the term first appeared in print.
‘You are very partial to a disguised Male Dress but let me not experience any more of your Folly!‘ – shouted by an audience member as he shot her with his pistol.
Lola Montez was a stimulant and inspiration to all who saw her perform on the stages of the world. From the Outback of Australia, through the Opera Houses of Europe, to the Wildest West of America, Lola Montez shocked, scandalised, enthralled, delighted, amazed and offended all who saw her dance. She started revolutions.
Watch Fanny Kelly’s gender fluid performances and Lola Montez’s transgressive
dances. Hear their words and be astonished by what is presented before you.
‘utterly subversive to all ideas of public morality.’
‘A tigress, the very comet of her sex.’
Sunday 26th January 2020 CRAZY COQS & Friday 7th February 2020 NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
LOLA MONTEZ
Irish-born, Soho educated, mistress of artists and kings, catalyst of revolution, political firebrand, and celebrated creator of contemporary dance, Lola Montez was most famous woman of her age.
She was born Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in County Limerick in 1821. She was sent to England to be educated but at the age of 16 eloped for a short-lived marriage that ended in divorce six months later. By then she was in Calcutta, A return to London was her transform herself into an exotic Spanish dancer by the name of Lola Montez. With her new identity she began a life as a dancer, performer, writer and courtesan. She had relationships with some of the most famous men of the age, and some of the women as well. The Ludwig of Bavaria created her Countess of Landsfeld in gratitude for her companionship. She travelled the world, with fame not just in Europe but in Australia and America as well. By the time of her death at the age of forty in 1861, she was noted and notorious having shocked the world with her passions, her performances, and her politics.
FANNY KELLY
Fanny Kelly was born in Brighton to Irish parents. She became one of the most popular actors and singers of her age. An article entitled ‘Actresses’ in the 3rd Edition of
Encyclopædia Britannica so enraged her with its derogatory comments about the female
performer, that she opened her own drama school, exclusively for women. It was at Fanny Kelly’s Royalty Theatre in Soho’s Dean Street that Marie Gilbert learned to dance and became Lola Montez. The theatre was the home to Miss Kelly’s Theatre and Dramatic School – the first drama school in London. Kelly herself was a virtuoso transgender per-
former, confusing audiences, admirers and even lovers as to her actual sex.
Leigh Hunt said of her: ‘If an actress succeeds in her study of male representation, she will never entirely get rid of her manhood with it attire.’
THE SPIDER DANCE
Lola Montez was famed for her Spider Dance, an extraordinary creation that was
part Tarantella, part crazed trance-dance, part erotic performance. It was uniquely the beginnings of both Burlesque and Contemporary dance pre-echoing artists as diverse as Isadora Duncan, Gipsy Rose Lee and Josephine Baker.
THIS PRODUCTION
This production brings to life Fanny Kelley’s Drag King performances and Lola Montez’s Spider Dances. Recreated with the original music composed for Lola’s performances, and interwoven with stories, advice and anecdotes from contemporary accounts. Three dancers are joined by one accordion player in an evening that promises to be as raucous, eye-popping and revolutionary as those given by Fanny Kelley and Lola Montez themselves.
THE TEAM
Director: Luke Dixon
Producer: Clare Lynch
Choreographer: Jane Turner
Musical Director: Tyrone Landau
Performers:
Fiona McKinnon, Penelope Dimond, Theresa Hoffmann
Accordion Player: Nia Davies with The Academy of Gesture
Sun 26th Jan 2020 CRAZY COQS tickets £15 (£10 concessions) & Fri 7th Feb 2020 NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (SOLD OUT)
Contact: Clare Lynch 07979 971 251 / clarelynchred@gmail.com
for press images & to arrange interviews with director/cast
Instagram: @fannykellyandlolamontez
http://www.facebook.com/fannykellyandlolamontez/
John Ingledew’s ‘Streets of Light’ exhibiting at The French House | My Soho Times
Street of Light: An exhibition of photographs of Soho from the 70s and 80s by John Ingledew
I happened to be at the right place at the right time when I ran into John Ingledew at Mark Powell’s Bespoke Tailoring shop on Marshall Street. John handed me a brochure of his latest exhibition ‘Streets of Light’ with photographs he’d taken while working in Soho in the 70s and 80s. On the front cover was a familiar face – Mark Powell, who’d also recently graced the front cover of My Soho Times magazine.
The very next day I met with John for coffee at Bar Italia to hear in his own words what Streets of Lights is about…
“It’s a side of my work that hasn’t been seen before – including people like the very young Mark Powell who’s on the flyer. I took it when I was working in the neighbourhood. My Studio was on Archer Street.” John recalls Archer street’s history of creativity, advertising, music and of course tailoring. “It was a very very run-down back ally of Soho. Mark opened up his amazing tailor shop and I thought – this is someone I’ve got to photograph.
There are other pictures of people that I met. There’s a picture that I’m very proud of, of a woman sitting in the back of a van of a woman called ‘Archer Street Vicky’ who minded the vegetables and the van for the market stall traders in Rupert Street and Berwick Street when the traffic wardens come in. Vicky’s job everyday was to sit talking to people. She’s really a fantastic Soho character.”
“It’s one of those things when years later you go, ‘I’m really glad I did that’. Photography is really good at keeping little slivers of time. If it’s something you see everyday you kind of think ‘why should I photograph it?’ And actually those are the things that you should photograph because those are the things you really miss when it’s gone.”
Inspiration for Streets of Light
I made a little film about Soho about 20 years ago and I loved it as a title. A lot of it was shot at night… So Streets of Lights still seems right.
The French House
“Leslie has a wall in The French for a monthly show. It’s lovely to be invited. I’ve had a long a connection to ‘The French’… I was at St Martins in the 70s when it was the coolest stone in Soho. When Soho was as much our educator as any of the lectures or workshops – we spent more time in Soho than we did in lectures… And we drank in The French! I had my stag night in the The French House – or that was staggering night into The French, My son had a Saturday job in the restaurant, I told my father he was going to be a grandfather for the first time (and that son now is 31 and has kids of his own)… So it’s been one of those places in your life you love and you’re very familiar with.
The French House is pretty unchanging, and to be amongst all those historical pictures – I want to add to it not take anything away. Everyone has their own Soho. There are many pubs where I feel at home, and I would never consider myself a regular… but the The French has been a regular stop off over the years.
“The test of a great invitation or poster is – will people keep it once the event has gone?” Yes John, I’m about to frame my ‘kissed‘ letter-pressed Streets of Light invite!
Check out Street of Light on until 1st February 2020 at The French House, 49 Dean Street Soho W1D 58G.
Follow John Indgledew on Instagram @johningledew
Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below!
Kai, aka The Soho Girl
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Trade x Anglo Soho | My Soho Times
TRADE, a members’ club for professionals in the hospitality industry (run by restaurateurs and sommeliers Xavier Rousset and Gearoid Devaney) has announced a new residency that will allow access for non-members. The club has partnered with Mark Jarvis of Anglo to launch Anglo @ Trade.Continue reading “Trade x Anglo Soho | My Soho Times”
After 40 Years in Soho, Sendean Cameras closes its shutters on St Anne’s Court
As 2019 draws to a close and a new decade looms ahead, it’s easy to dwell on all the changes happening in Soho. One place however which remained consistent over the decades on a little pedestrian walkway of St Anne’s Court is the camera repair shop, Sendean Cameras. Established in 1926, the camera repair shop has been in the same Soho premises for past 40 years… However things are about to change. It was during a chance meeting with Susie Sheehan, daughter of the late owner Demetrios Demetriou, that I learnt about Sendean Cameras closing the doors of its Soho shop on the 6th December to merge with their Clerkenwell branch.Continue reading “After 40 Years in Soho, Sendean Cameras closes its shutters on St Anne’s Court”
Hummingbird Bakery Thanksgiving treats & Reasons to be Thankful
Thanksgiving is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada which traditionally celebrates a plentiful harvest and other blessings of the past year. Like with any popular export from Northern America, Thanksgiving has found it’s way across the pond in a guise of food-inspired themes and discount days. I headed to the home of American cakes on our very own turf, Hummingbird Bakery, to try a selection of their Thanksgiving cakes… Giving me plenty of food for thought as I reflect on an abundance of reasons to be thankful this season.Continue reading “Hummingbird Bakery Thanksgiving treats & Reasons to be Thankful”
Dinner Date: Inko Nito with my vegan date Estelle
One of the perks that comes with my role as editor of a Soho magazine is the opportunity to feed my foodie persona! I’m a believer that food helps us create meaningful connections – especially when shared! For this date night, I invite Estelle, a model from Paris living in London, to join me at Soho’s INKO NITO. What I didn’t realise however is that she’s vegan. Tricky, I thought, for a restaurant specialising in grills. Luckily, INKO NITO had us sorted!Continue reading “Dinner Date: Inko Nito with my vegan date Estelle”
Afternoon Tea at Refuel, Soho Hotel | My Soho Times
Our guest blogger and Afternoon tea date, Gillian Smith, shares her experience having Afternoon G & Tea at Soho Hotel.
Continue reading “Afternoon Tea at Refuel, Soho Hotel | My Soho Times”
Fafa’s On a Friday Night | My Soho Times
Our guest date and blogger, Naciza Masikini shares her experience dining at Fafa’s on a Friday night…Continue reading “Fafa’s On a Friday Night | My Soho Times”
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