Dozens of women will take to the stage this weekend in 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 anumber 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 ran by Victoria Watson in Wishaw, who was left heartbroken by the news of her death.
Victoria told Lanarkshire Live: “We’ve dedicated the show to Aimee, we’re 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 will feature 72 women, including members from Aimee’s dance group.
Members of the group that Aimee attended will be joined by others from Bellshill and Rutherglen ran by Victoria. and from Airdrie, where Adelle teaches the art.
The woman of all shapes and sizes will shake off their inhibitions live on stage as they perform well-rehearsed routines in front of a big audience. But Aimee won’t be far from their minds.
Proceeds from the sales of programmes will go to Women’s Aid, and there will also be bucket collections in the foyer prior to and after the show.
The women will showcase the skills they’ve honed 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.
“This show is massive for us and we’ve sold all 545 tickets, it’s sold out," said Victoria. "We can’t believe that we’ve sold all those tickets.
“We sold all of them through our friends and family network as we felt we wanted to have an element of control over who is in the audience. It’s quite a daunting thing.
"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 know it’s people coming to support others so there will be no rowdiness or anything like that.”
While it’s hoped the show will go without any hitches the lead up to the night didn’t quite go as smoothly as planned, according to Victoria.
“It feels as if everything that could go wrong has gone wrong,” she said. “We’ve had someone break their arm and the halls we had for dress rehearsals we couldn’t get into when we needed in."
Aa total of 72 women will perform on the night, 20 from Adelle’s groups in Airdrie and the rest from the Victoria’s groups in Wishaw, Bellshill and Rutherglen.
“You wouldn’t believe it, it’s taken over my life and I’ve had no life for the last four months,” Victoria continued. “The last few weeks have been a nightmare but we’ve trained very hard for this. And it’s great that we will have a massive collection for Women’s Aid and do this in Aimee’s memory.”
Classes in Lanarkshire are currently full with the exception of a new one recently launched in Chapelhall. For more info visit: burlesquechairdance.co.uk/scotland/ or their Facebook page.
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