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Commander Dazzle in the News
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“Commander Dazzle”: A Downtown Renaissance Woman
by Juliet Annerino
The fragile-framed, porcelain–skinned beauty known as, “Commander Dazzle” considers herself a modern day professional super hero. People might want to know her real name. But if you were to ask her, she would say something like "Would Superman tell you he's Clark Kent? I doubt it!" Her name has come up in the past as the operations manager at the now famous/infamous artists’ salon/film set/ gallery/downtown Bohemian refuge known as Bedlam Warehouse. She has also been known as Bedlam's headliner act as the house jazz chanteuse on their funky converted loading dock stage. The warehouse and a collective of Burning Man artists hosted a benefit in her honor to raise money for rehabilitation from emergency surgery she underwent in June. Upon her return to L.A. the Commander has retired from events management for the time being to contemplate her brush with death. For her, it's all about the art. Though the Commander once back in college, chose a career in business administration (with tourism and resort management as her emphasis) she is now ready to delve completely into her life as an art form. And Ms. Dazzle is truly a Renaissance woman in the classic sense of the term. Her talents range from singing, to belly dance, from novel writing to performance art to business administration. She is a true multi-talented natural. She has also been an actor, model, martial artist, healer and teacher of children. But music, dance and writing are her real loves. She explains that during pregnancy, her mother played guitar and sang to her unborn daughter. Somehow, perhaps this love of music was passed on to her even before she was born. The first song she ever sang was “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, the quintessential ode to fantasy and hope. Her baby coos were in tune with the music her mom played, and her first steps were a dance. Living with a tomboy Irish folk musician/ rancher mother as a teenager in Colorado gave her a real rapport with nature. Commander rode horses bareback, climbed mountains and ran around in the woods at night. Her dance career began at the age of six, touring Southern California Irish faires with her mom's band and competing in Traditional Irish dance. Her father was an aero-space engineer who nurtured her childhood imagination by encouraging her world of fantasy and sci-fi. She says now that she never really sought to find a place in the world, preferring to find a way to make the world the way she wanted it to be. At fourteen she became obsessed with the idea of the lost continent of Atlantis and embarked upon a quest to learn everything she could about the legendary place. Surprisingly, years later she learned her father had also had an obsession with Atlantis. Foreshadowing the Commander’s tendency to write was her mother's career as an international journalist, and her father also wrote science fiction. In high school, she proved to be a natural singer in the choir, taking solos and competing with other school choirs. Through it all, she was always perceived as somehow not like the other girls and boys, set apart, even strange. She was an original, always singing in her own unique voice, and dancing with her own moves. During and after high school she sang in rock bands, sneaking into clubs to perform, hiding from the strict Colorado ID policy. She also grew up in a family trio with her mother and older brother, who is now ironically an events administrator at NYU in New York City while he works on a master's degree in music composition and technology. After a rocky marriage of four years, Dazzle met the woman she calls her “Creative Mother” who became her belly dance instructor. Together they traveled as performers in the "Society for Creative Anachronism," performing at Renaissance reenactment events all over the southwest. Here she became known as "The Faery Princess," and her reputation as a singer and dancer grew to legendary status over a period of 6 years. The Commander found a home traveling with them. She even created and developed a "household" of her own, a group of faeries posing as gypsies, a kind of version of herself, really. To this day, she is known as the only person in the Renaissance society officially registered and accepted with a faery persona. During this time, her dance style mutated through a study of Spanish Flamenco, East Indian Temple Dance, and Turkish Romani. She refers to her style as "dancing with the Duende", which is what the gypsies use to describe the spirit of the dance. It was Burning Man that took her from the Renaissance society. She cites Burning Man as a powerful influence on her spirituality and philosophy. She has attended the festival two years with a reverence and sense of the sacred for the burning of the effigy as a symbol of leaving behind the fears of the past and blazing the path to the future. Her first music project here in Los Angeles, is her band "Dazzle Jazz". This project, The Commander explains, is a fusion group that incorporates elements of rock n' roll with the great American song book. There is always a performance element to Commander Dazzle's stage performance. From guest appearances by the "Gallery Girls" art models, to her own sparkling attire and easy banter with the audience. One performance of Dazzle Jazz was the "Spy vs. Spy show" where they jazzed up old spy movie songs, and featured the black and white Mad Magazine comic spies interpreted as sexy ladies in lingerie, cat fighting on and off stage. She’s always keeping the audience guessing as to what she’ll dream up next. Commander Dazzle’s newest musical collaborative is a multi-media art project with local artist-of-distinction, emmeric james konrad. The group made their debut at the Cal Trans plaza on September 30th, and again at the L.A. Weekly Detour Festival on October 7. Dazzle and emmeric's work together has just begun. A dynamic duo of sorts, the two have plans of exploring new levels in the multi-media experience of performance art. Their next scheduled "gig" will take place at a gallery called Dezart-One in Palm Springs during their high season this year. Commander's most recent literary projects include the elaborate “supernatural fantasy” novel Shadow Riddle (see her site: www.ShadowRiddle.com to read the first four chapters). It’s a philosophical, romantic epic tale set in the mythical land of Atlantis. The word “Shadow” in the title refers to the dark aspect of humanity, and the novel addresses the dangers of such an aspect in society on a psychological as well as a spiritual level. Shadow Riddle, published under the name "Mara Shaye Corti" with illustrations by emmeric, is due for publication after the first of the year. Dazzle originally moved downtown to finish up her novel. As an "art renegade" of sorts, she and her then partner in crime, the superhero known as “Corndog” camped out around Traction Avenue for a good seven months, touring the Burning Man art festival circuit, and spending a lot of time at Groundworks coffee where Commander mostly finished the novel. To quote Ms. Dazzle: "The novel was basically finished, but there was something wrong with it. I go through periods of writer's block, where I'm too stressed about real life issues to get caught up with the stories in my head. I guess you can say it's why I like to unplug from the standard life, so I can break free enough to get caught up in the worlds I'm creating. So after I got sick, I was able to look at my work with new eyes and fix what was wrong with it. I'm very pleased with the finished product. At least for now until I look at it again!" At this she laughs, and her smile is contagious.
Why does this waifish warrior faery princess love downtown? She answers, "You have to be a pioneer to live here. I've never been conventional. I always look for the alternate realities, always searching for something you can't find normally. There's something wild and unconventional about the underground lifestyle of the warehouses, where the sidewalks are littered with mounds of trash, and lined with bum houses, and interesting babbling people who interrupt you all the time. You don't find that in suburbia, and I love that!"
As a community builder and networker, Dazzle offers us a spark. In her stint touring the art festival circuit with metal sculptor Corndog, Dazzle sank her teeth into the wonderful world of modern community building. As a networker, Dazzle is well known among alternative community instigators. In L.A. and up the west coast, she has worked her way from event production to the idea of building an arts center. The art center could be in her future still, as many new projects will be unveiled downtown who have sought out Commander's input since her return from surgery. But for now, the rally cry is the music. There will be a few spectacular surprises in the future from writing, to music, to art representation, to events. This is, afterall, a modern renaissance woman, fearlessly moving forward into the future. Commander Dazzle sums up her unique and refreshing world-view and mission, by summoning the zodiac: "My birthday is the first day of spring! In fact! if you look at my chart mathematically, my sun sign falls 14 seconds into Aries, which means I was born in the first minute of the zodiac! Some people say that makes me a young baby. I say I'm at the beginning and the end all at once. I'm at that point where the snake eats its own tail. I want to do my part to spread the word of community and local action. I'm not so much a political activist, as I am a person who loves to gather lots of friends in celebration. I believe in dispelling the fear base of society, and building a world where we can all have some fun together. Almost all of my art reflects this. I've always been this way."
Even as a child growing up in San Pedro, Commander Dazzle, who was basically an L.A. native until she moved away to Colorado as a teenager, was an outcast. “Downtown is a world of outcasts. I guess you can say I stay here because I am so pleased to finally fit in. emmeric and I walk around acting like rock stars. We’re both just charismatic geeks who love fantasy, sci-fi and Disney Land. Plus we both smile a lot and like to dress funky. It makes us stand out. When I’m chasing the muse, sometimes I just want to fall between the cracks and find that world I’ve always hoped exists alongside this one. I go to great lengths to keep from being bored with this society. I will always recommend the alternative lifestyle to artist types, but the road is wrought with peril. You have to be brave, and willing to change your lifestyle at the drop of a hat. I’ve traveled the world staying in five star hotels and lived in a van down by the river in Skid Row. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life, and I’m very grateful I’m still alive, so I can have more experiences. It’s time to have some real fun now!”
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