I have several friends who are burlesque performers. I have never been into burlesque myself, and have, in fact, had quite an aversion to it. I chalked that aversion up to being expected to pay to watch unseasoned performers clumsily prance around, a problem rife in the burlesque world as well as the bellydance world, with which I am more familiar (too many performers in the wrong venues--that is, billing themselves as professional before achieving the talent to merit that claim). In the spirit of open-mindedness and challenging myself, I'm diving into the deep end by taking a Burlesque 101 class, trying to learn more about the genre and why I have such strong opinions about it.
I've only had one class so far, but have already learned a couple things.
1. This genre is accessible. You don't have to have much talent to bump, grind, or shimmy, and really you can be successful with a simple walk. Which explains why so many people seem to love it, from the performers' perspective. I'm glad they're having fun. (Please don't make me watch you until you have built up some talent in your presentation, however simple it may be.)
2. This point is more of an exploration of a thought I had after watching a Classic Strip Tease by a woman considered to be one of the best, as one of our homework videos. Watching it alone, I was bored bored bored. She bored me with 8 minutes worth of the same, overdone, unimaginative, stock movements (knees cocking, hair flipping, shoulder shimmy, arm up overhead in Ta-Da presentation) as she undressed. She infused zero character into the act. She gave me no reason to care about her act, so I didn't. I was shocked that I was the only one in my class of 10 people who felt this way. The only point one woman raised that I could agree with, is that (at least) she had musicality. (Please don't make me watch you do something to music if you haven't yet mastered musicality. This should be a baseline, not something to be lauded in a performing art). Upon further reflection, this is what I have determined:
I find the ‘classic strip tease' to be
desperate. I can’t imagine another reason that someone would perform one
(desperate for attention, desperate for validation, etc) and I can’t imagine
another reason that someone would truly enjoy it (so desperate for intimacy
that watching a stranger on stage undress somehow makes sense to the audience
member, or so desperate to be validated in their own sexiness that somehow they
can project what they perceive as confidence onto someone that they wish they
could be like). Two people having sex has the potential to be most
intimate experience possible—and it’s the hint of this intimacy which makes
things genuinely sexy. The ‘classic strip tease’ in the setting of
a burlesque performance lacks intimacy, though. It’s a feigned pre-sexual
staged experience which is ultimately the exact opposite of intimate: the
‘classic strip tease’ is shallow, empty, unfulfilling. It’s gauche,
no matter how dressed up in elegant clothing, jewels, lingerie, coiffed hair it
may be, and offers nothing of substance. (Which, perhaps, is why they
call it a tease.) And if that’s the case (that it’s a shallow, empty,
unfulfilling display), I don’t understand the whoops and hollers, the cheering
and whistling from the audience. The entire scene including performer and
audience members seems so sad to me. It seems like the appropriate
response would not be cheers, but crestfallenness, beaten-down-edness, pity,
sadness. To realize how desperate all these people are is so sad.
I’m saddened by the desperation of humanity. I’m disgusted by
humanity’s impatience to cave to that desperation (performing a classic strip
when there are other burlesque options, cheering at a classic strip) instead of working
toward something meaningful, deep, rich, truly intimate, and therefore truly
sexy (if that's what you're after).
That’s why I prefer the other type of burlesque (what’s it
called, again?), where the point is to challenge/spoof/mock/make-a-joke. Whether or not the performer actually delivers, at least
there’s a platform for true, authentic content.
Even within this sort of burlesque, though, I still think
too many people end up relying on the (false) crutch of blatant sexual appeal.
It’s a ruse, and I’m sad that people have the wool pulled so far over
their eyes not to recognize it when it stares them in the face. It’s such
a cowardly, lazy crutch to use; it takes advantage (in the worst sense of the
word) of the desperation of your audience, knowing that you can hook them
simply by feigning sexiness, and also indicates that you don’t believe you have
enough substance in your act to let it carry itself. What an
embarrassment to find oneself won over as an audience member by that cheap
trick, confusing visible flesh and codified flirtation with intimacy and
authentic sexiness.
I'm not condemning the strip tease entirely--I think if you have enough self awareness as a performer to realize you're playing on your audience's weaknesses, then the honest, mature place for you to strip is in a stripper bar. If you're clear that you're a desperate person who wants to see some flesh, then have at it at a stripper bar! What I have a problem with is the self-delusion and denial of the desperation. If you're not self-deluded, then you will embrace the moniker "Stripper" instead of "Burlesque Artist" when you do a 'classic strip tease'. If you are not desperate, and you tell stories while taking off your clothes, okay, then maybe you're a "Burlesque Artist".
I am taking this class and writing this post as an effort in self-discovery. Therefore, I welcome any comments or challenges you may have to share.
I ride the bikeshare bikes to work, no matter the weather. Dressing appropriately (down jacket, fuzzy hat instead of the ubiquitous black trenchcoat and measly earmuffs of DC) means it's truly no big deal, but you'd think I was trekking through Antarctica or something the way people exclaim incredulously that they can't believe I ride a bike in this weather. I mean...it's a dusting of snow, people. It's barely below freezing. 
