Thread: In-Store Promotional Events

Hey everyone!

I just got kind of an odd (but fun!) gig request and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. My local LUSH store is doing a little in-store product launch party for Christmas and they want me to come out and dance among the bath bombs and Glitterbugs. It's a tiny little store and will probably be crowded with Holiday shoppers.

Before I e-mail them back, I wanted to send out my feelers and see if any of you have done anything similar before. What kind of show did you do? Ambience? One or two mini-sets? Some sort of instructional demo?

Performing in a retail environment obviously poses its own challenges, but I'm addicted to LUSH, so I'm game

don't do any crazy spins with the hair toss! i suspect many things would get knocked over ..l;,
sounds like a fun gig. since it's small, i bet you would just have to do a mini show and keep it toned down. zills would be fun.

Mini-sets. No veil unless they really want it. Endless spinning and stuff is not going to be much cop because, as shaabichic says, you'll risk knocking things over.

Hmm, I remember Lush stores putting out feelers for something like this a few years ago, round here. They wanted a LOT of dancers in black pants and tops to twirl about outside their place with veils. I wasn't available. Don't know if it ever eventuated.

I've done a similar gig for a Lululemon here.

Keep the sets short, light, upbeat, and toss in many an invitations to dance with you, quick lessons for anyone who looks like they are interested.

Zills may help you continue to dance when the sounds and crowds potentially obscure your music, as long as you go with a slightly quieter zills as to keep it a noise for you and those close to you instead of a audible invasion of people who aren't into you.

Also, ask about the product/product color story. MIght help you narrow down the perfect costume.

short sets, very short. and prepapre for people NOT to understand your dance space, they'll crowd around you. so "piss on your stage" like aziza calls it, when you enter make sure to define your space.

footwear!

light, upbeat; and yes, even me with my very limited zill capacities use them in these situations, again to draw attention in a possibly small and crowded space and define space, make sure people let me through when entering.

ALL good advice, thanks!

It's going to be a Holiday theme, so I'm going with festive green-and-gold. (Come to think of it, isn't LUSH's logo bright green?)

Right now, it sounds like the manager of the store is mostly looking for just one approximately 20-minute set, around the peak shopping time (2:00ish). This is what we tentatively agreed to last night, but maybe I'll offer up a few mini-sets as an alternative in case they want to draw in more foot traffic over a slightly more extended period of time.

I made sure to give the manager a quickie heads-up that I won't be able to perform with any sort of big, epic, flashy props and that I'll likely just stay in one spot and keep it very simple. It sounds like they're looking for something very low-key just to create some excitement and ambience.

Footwear and (toned down) zills - check!

As for dance space, I asked the manager if they might be able to move any of their displays to create a mini performance area for me, and they said this was no problem. Even with the space cleared, this is a TINY store. Should be interesting.

For music, I'm kind of leaning toward upbeat, happy, traditional-sounding instrumentals. Or Arabic pop, if I do go for something with vocals. Knowing my stupid luck, some anti-Islam group might hear music with Arabic lyrics and picket outside of my gig ,r:;

Should be interesting. I've never done a performance in this type of environment before. If anything, just the reactions of the crowd walking by the store will probably be priceless.

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

If anything, just the reactions of the crowd walking by the store will probably be priceless.

be sure to wear a suzy nipple tassel costume ..l;,

Originally Posted by artemisia_danst

short sets, very short. and prepapre for people NOT to understand your dance space, they'll crowd around you. so "piss on your stage" like aziza calls it, when you enter make sure to define your space.

footwear!

light, upbeat; and yes, even me with my very limited zill capacities use them in these situations, again to draw attention in a possibly small and crowded space and define space, make sure people let me through when entering.

haha i love that saying, "piss on the stage." my instructor told me to do that for a performance. i guess she heard it from aziza. hee hee

Originally Posted by shaabichic

be sure to wear a suzy nipple tassel costume ..l;,

and don't forget your crassle..l;,..l;,