So who and what is this Tafkav ??

The TafkaV line-up in Oktober 2003 -
left to right : Megan, Kiddy, Toffee, Moogie, Twanky and Elwood

This sci-fi/movie oriented fancy dress project/troupe which was founded in the mid-90's, when some good friends decided to get involved in fancy dress performances at science fiction conventions. The group that was originally called "Vedeks" went thru a couple personal changes and in 1999 was turned into a new formation called "TafkaV.

Most important for this group is that the outfits we wear on stage or at conventions are self-made! We try to sew and manufacture as many of our costumes and probs ourselves!!
Check out the Behind the Scenes pages to get an idea how much work it really is...

The name ??

Now what does "TafkaV" mean?? Well, the original group of people named themselves "Vedeks", but after abovementioned personal changes, there was only one original Vedek member left - Moogie. All other 4 members were either parttime - Vedeks or complete newbies ... then one lovely day, a good friend of us (who, a couple years later, ended up being "assimilated" by the group and temporarily became "Elwood" for two TafkaV projects) came up with the idea to call us ... "The artists formely known as Vedeks" .. We instantly loved the name and it's shortform "TafkaV" and decided to keep it...


The members ?

TafkaV has performed in various formations ever since the project started - after some recent personal changes, as of May 2004, TafkaV is:

Kiddy

Twanky

Moogie (in retirement at the moment)

Toffee

Projects -
Let's see - here's a bit of history for you....

1995 - Fed Con 3 : Moogie attended her very first FedCon

1996 - Fed Con 4 : the original "Vedeks" attended this con together (Ingo, Jenkman, Moogie)

1997- Fed Con 5 : First Fancy Dress Performance (Ghostbusters) by the original "Vedeks" (Ingo, Jenkman, Moogie)

1998 - Fed Con 6 : The "Vedeks" added two part-time members ( Twanky's first performance with the group) and brought the "Sister Act/MIB/Rocky Horror" performance on stage

1999 - Fed Con 7 : The end of the "Vedeks" (Addams Family Performance) and the beginning of "TafkaV" (Closing Ceremony performance: a complete cross over thru several movies and series)

The Vedeks & the future Tafkav at Fed Con 7

2000 - Fed Con 8 : first real "TafkaV" Fancy Dress Performance - Star Trek: Generations navy
uniforms (also shown at this con - Amazones & Dithe, Galaxy Quest)

2001 - Fed Con 9 :"The Muses" were planned, but we unfortunately couldn't finish that project in time for this convention cause our real lives were keeping us too busy ... (therefore shown at this con : Amazones, Navy Uniforms)

2002 - FedCon 10 : Cartoon Action Heroes (also shown at this con: Navy Uniforms)

2003 - Galileo 7-7 : Project 24 (also shown at this con: Navy Uniforms, Cartoon Action Heroes )

2004 - Fed Con 12: TafkaV performs Project 24 at the Opening Ceremony and The League of Extraordinary Vedeks during the Closing Ceremony of Fed Con XII. The last of the remaining original Vedeks - Moogie - retires from TafkaV and takes a maternity leave after these performances. Tafkav takes a creative break for an unknown period of time.

2005 - Who knows ... 2005 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the Vedeks, so .... time will tell!

There were and still are also other small projects aside from Sci-fi Cons ... medieval dresses for a renaissance fair, some grunge-looking stuff for the next halloween party ... you never know, the ideas are still there ;-) ... besides, there's always a new movie to watch which might inspire us...

Motivations, Inspirations -
And since we were just talking about inspirations ...

Purists may point out that our projects do not really have much to do with Star Trek anymore - and they're absolutely right!! We consider ourselves sci-fi/fantasy and in general - movie - fans and very much enjoy drawing ideas from all kinds of tv shows, movies and comics.
The sky is the limit!!

We do not take ourselves too serious - which doesn't mean though that we don't take our fancy dress projects serious - and we're all mainly involved in this, because it is a hell of a lot of fun! Despite all the hard work, the late night sewing sessions, the money, the pain and the panic that goes along with it <bg>

And even though some people believe that Sci-fi fans are all geeks who need to get a life -  some of those who dress up weird and simply go nuts for a weekend at a Sci-fi convention do indeed have very demanding fulltime jobs, an existing social life, a working brain and do this just for the fun of it! :-)

Besides, we don't only work on fancy dress projects, but also share other interests and meet on different occasions --- we are just having a great time hanging out together!!

TAFKAV after attending a performance of the musical "Jekyll & Hyde" in Bremen

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