Dancing Queen
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine convinced me to join a burlesque Go-Go dancing class with her, leading up to a performance at the historic Rio Theatre in Vancouver.
I had never done anything like that before, at least not since my very brief forays into ballet, jazz and gymnastics classes when I was very young.
I was terrible at ballet, okay at gymnastics and I can't even remember how I did with the jazz dance because I think I saw them as an opportunity to just freeform rock out, no choreography required.
Fast forward 40 years and I found the burlesque experience incredibly fun, although challenging to remember the choreography and sync up with the other dancers. But the community is absolutely wonderful.
It's all ages, all body types, all races and, in fact, all genders on the spectrum. Truly inclusive and empowering.
As a woman in a room full of other women, there's always this dumb thing in the back of our heads making us ask, who's the fairest… the youngest, thinnest, fittest, strongest, most graceful?
Of course it's gross. Comparing yourself can be poisonous and damaging, but it's also the most natural thing in the world. Totally unavoidable. At its best, though, burlesque can be a kind of antidote to that.
In a group performance setting, comparing yourself can take the form of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. If you admire the way someone moves, you can watch and try to imitate them. Make it your own.
That first “vintage go-go” performance I did came at the end of a six-week class. There were 12 of us up on stage, shaking our fringe to the song "Shake," by the Supremes, a mere two minutes long. Of all the different styles of burlesque, go-go is one of the fastest, so it was all over in two shakes of a lamb's tail, as they say.
My mother and partner, Rodger, who had never seen me on stage, held hands and may have shed a tear if they are to be believed, watching me perform. I was hooked.
Totally Mangled
Over the next couple of years, I ended up performing in four different shows, choreographed by the inimitable force of nature that is Melody Mangler. Her choreography focuses more on character and artistry than, um, stripping, which aligns very well with my selective modesty.
To be fair, the big reveal is almost always optional, but some choreographers rely more heavily on this staple of burlesque than others. You might say, what’s the difference? You’re already dancing on stage in what amounts to a bikini or lingerie, but it’s a personal preference… no shade on stripping!
This month I'm finding myself in another class with Melody after a year hiatus, doing a vintage go-go tribute with three other dancers. The choreography is fast and infuriatingly intricate, but also fun as hell, and a hell of a workout.
Strong and Wrong
In burlesque, there's this concept called "strong and wrong," which is applicable in many areas of life, although certainly not all.
In politics, for example, it's a terrible motto. Physics, medicine, engineering, the list goes on. But for the arts, they're words to live by.
If you forget the moves or you're slightly out of sync from the other dancers, if you fuck up in any way, do it with gusto and the audience will never be the wiser.
If you accidentally do something awesome that none of the other dancers are doing, call it an unplanned solo.
Exception to the rule
Last December, I was in a "level one chair dance" performance. Everything was going perfectly until the last 30 seconds of the song, when I tried to step off my chair and tripped on my skirt, falling to the floor like an ungraceful beetle with its legs in the air.
One still photo taken by the automatic camera at the back of the stage captured the startled reactions of the dancers to my left and right as I slid to the ground, but apparently, I recovered so quickly that I was back on my feet before they could react.
Luckily, I was in the back row at the time, and my timing couldn’t have been better because, just as I was falling off my chair, the entire front row was taking their tops off and flashing the audience. My little spill may have felt extremely noticeable to me, but it was no match for a stage full of naked breasts!
Keep on Dancing
The whole point is that burlesque isn't about perfection, it's about fun. Yes, there are choreographed moves and precision matters, but if your face is set in grim determination as you struggle to execute every step, the audience will feel your discomfort.
If you fuck up, make it seem like you meant to do that. As long as you look like you're having a good time, the audience will be with you. What a great life lesson!
Family Legacy
You could say that dance runs in my family. My mother studied ballet as a teenager in San Fransisco and Toronto, which set her on a lifelong path to incorporate dance and movement into her daily life. Years later, she started her own ballet school and taught classes for all ages, choreographing seasonal performances and becoming a mentor to her teenage students.
My grandmother studied and taught ballroom dancing in the post-war 1940s, and was briefly a burlesque performer in Honolulu in the 1950s, in the heyday of Hawaii’s underground dance scene.
She performed at some of the city’s historic nightclubs, at one time sharing the same stage as comedy legend Lenny Bruce and the iconic dancer, musician and actor Geoffrey Holder.
Dance Movies!
For some reason, there were a lot of movies about dance when I was growing up in the 1980s. From serious, critically acclaimed films like “White Knights” and “A Chorus Line” to the supremely cheesy trio of break dance movies (Breakin', Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, and Beat Street), a time capsule of 80s fashion excess.
My first memory of seeing a movie in the theater is the animated classic “Sleeping Beauty.” I vividly remember dancing all the way home, the songs from the soundtrack playing in my head. I would later wear out the record and my parents’ patience, playing it incessantly and singing along as I danced around the living room.
In my early teens, I loved making up dance routines with my friends. The 80s were the perfect era for it, too, when icons like Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Blondie and the sisters from Heart were staples on MTV. We would come home from school and dance around for hours before our parents came home, lip synching into the mirror and rolling around on the floor.
My Top Five Dance ‘80s Dance Movies
Flashdance
Dirty Dancing
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Staying Alive
Fame
My Mother’s Favorite Dance Movies
An American in Paris
The Lovers of Teruel
Dirty Dancing
White Knights
Strictly Ballroom
Tap
Top Five Movies About Burlesque
Cabaret
Moulin Rouge
Victor/Victoria
Gypsy
Burlesque
Thanks for reading, everyone! Now get out there and make some room in your life, or your living room, and dance like nobody’s watching… or, if you prefer, to a sold-out theater full of people cheering you on.
Art & Astrology
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