Burlesque Rocks

In my classes, I share my favourite burlesque moves and music. In my blog ‘How I fell in love with Burlesque’, I talked about how burlesque made me feel and how after my first performance I wanted to do it all over again. But why is it that I love burlesque? There are, of course, many, many reasons. To avoid turning this month’s blog into a massive list, I decided to concentrate on just five of those things.

1) How It Makes Me Feel

Burlesque makes me feel good. Like most women, I have struggled with my appearance and body image. Thinking I was fat when I wasn’t. My hips and arse were much bigger compared to the girls in my ballet class and I constantly compared myself to them in the mirror. The hall where I went to burlesque classes didn’t have mirrors, and I found it liberating being able to learn a dance style without having to dissect my appearance and compare myself to the other women in the class. I was able to express myself freely and have fun. I learned to embrace my big hips and my fabulous arse through burlesque.

I spent years hiding my figure, at first because I was ashamed of it, but then it became a defence mechanism. Being the only female on the tech crew when I was working in stage management made me defensive; there would be lewd comments or lingering looks. The baggy t-shirts would come out but I realised fairly quickly that they didn’t work; it wasn’t the outfit that was the problem, it was the man making the comments. Still, this experience had planted the seed: “Whatever you do, don’t stand out.”

Burlesque gave me permission to stand out, to show off the parts of myself that I hid, and express my thoughts and feelings through dance.

2) The Storytelling

There are not many performance styles where you have three to seven minutes to tell a story. Burlesque acts are mini stories with a climactic finish. When I perform, I’m able to tell or dance out the silly stories I have in my head. Like Darth Vader, who is old and tired, all he really wanted to be was a dancer (see pic below). I made up a routine with a disco and ballet dancing Darth; it was bonkers but a lot of fun to make. I do this for my classes too; when I’m choreographing the routine that I will be teaching in the drop-in class, I listen to the lyrics and take inspiration from the words, and we’ll tell the story of the song through our movements.

As an audience member, I love to watch burlesque stories unfold. There are so many creative ways to put across the message of your story: music choice, voiceovers, sound bites, and projection. I still find it exciting to watch how the tease will tie into the story the performer is telling. I’m a big sucker for a costume reveal, a slogan splashed across a skirt or a pair of pasties shaped like ducks (burlesque really does go anywhere). I love a routine with a message and a surprise reveal.

3) The Attitude

Burlesque promotes body confidence, and performing helps you regain control and fall in love with your body.  The act of showing off your body to a crowd, teacher or your fellow classmates cheering you on can only boost that confidence.  One of the things to help get you up on stage or into a class is attitude. But also finding the attitude that suits you.  I’ve always seen the following as the main burlesque attitudes:

Comedic
Sensual/Sexy
Cheesecake/Cute
Powerful

You can commit to one attitude or incorporate all four into an act.  When you move using these attitudes, you move with purpose, and I love seeing these attitudes expressed on stage and in class.  A cute wink, sensual stroke of the thigh, an “oops I tripped”, and powerful poses that make you want to shout out “Raaah!” fill me with a lot of joy. I guess that’s why I add all of these into class; when I do them, I feel awesome.

4) Love and Friendship

I wrote about the friendship and the fun I had putting together a routine with my friends in New Zealand but I continued to make friends through burlesque, from the courses I did when I first moved back to London to meeting lovely performers backstage who became lifelong friends .

I had the privilege of helping cultivate many friendships through the classes I ran. People have become friends for life, or they lead to friends producing shows together. I went to a wedding last year where two former students tied the knot. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside that I was part of their story.

The love and respect within the burlesque community is amazing. Modern burlesque focuses on building each other up, encouraging each other to embrace our bodies, fall in love with them and show them off. Venues that put on burlesque nights are safe spaces for everyone to enjoy themselves and express themselves freely. It is the same with burlesque classes; they are safe spaces for you to explore, play and leave the world outside.

So if you’re moving to a new city and looking for a way to make new friends, take up a course in burlesque.  You won’t regret it!

5) The Community, Inclusivity & Family

Burlesque is for everyone, it is one of the most inclusive and welcoming art forms. A great show includes varying body types, POC, and LGBTQ+ artists. Frequent messages of acceptance and love are told. Even hard-hitting topics like bigotry, discrimination and racism are presented in an entertaining way that makes you think and present a new understanding of the subject.  You are guaranteed to leave a burlesque show not just thinking about how amazing the performers are, but you also leave with questions and thoughts on various political and social themes.

Cabaret, burlesque and drag are all very family-oriented.  We have burlesque mammas, burly godmothers, and burlesque siblings; those who strip together stay together!  It is one of the most beautiful and joyful communities around.  If there is a burlesque night near you, join in, and you will find a welcoming and loving bunch of people who want you to have a positive and fun experience with them.  This is not an exclusive business; it’s an inclusive, loving, friendly and beautiful community.

I built a lovely community full of lovely people in London with Luscious Cabaret. It absolutely warms my heart that many of the people who met through Luscious are still friends and regularly get together to see cabaret shows. Not only that, the luscious community continues in the form of Glitter and Titter Cabaret. Many of the cast, crew and audience used to come to be part of Luscious Cabaret.

I’m at it again with Burlesque Rocks. Although the classes are online, there’s always time for a little chat after class; we’ve become a little community. We organise real-life meet-ups and three students even got together and performed in London. They rehearsed their routine together via Zoom, and I organised a slot for them at Glitter and Titter. The first time they met in real life was a few hours before the show and they totally smashed it!

As a teacher, it’s wonderful to share this love of burlesque with the people I teach. To watch them embrace and fall in love with burlesque is an absolute privilege. I never tire of seeing people let go and grow in confidence. It’s awesome!

If you want to become part of the Burlesque Rocks community, join a class! We have a beginner’s basics course coming up and of course, there are the weekly drop-in sessions every Thursday!

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