PHOTOPHILE- Bottoms up! Ix building hosts a carnival

Through August 6 in the Frank Ix building audiences can experience a taste of days gone by: the "Wunderkammer," a mammoth performance featuring actors, performers, fire dancers, jugglers, art installations, a beer garden, musicians, and pretty girls prancing in their underwear.  

Wunderkammer was inspired by early 20th century carnivals, but there's more to the current production than that. Baroness Wunderkammer (Martha Mendenhall), the producer, got the idea after seeing a a traveling sideshow in Scotland.

"I wanted to create a performance environment here that offered audiences a world of performance combining aspects of theater, dance, burlesque, and music," she says. 

That she did. The performances are well thought out, sometimes intricate, never fussy. In other words, the best that Charlottesville artists have to offer. [For more about the show, see Art feature, page XX and cvillewunderkammer.org 

Marie Jaquiline Wunderkammer (Emily Oleson) gets ready to perform.

The Baroness Wunderkammer (Martha Mendenhall)

The Moonshiners Street Choir

Tiere Wunderkammer (Kelly East)

The Silky Bottoms Burlesque Show

A strongman hangs from a chair.

Wild Fires, A fire dancing spectacular

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