Loving Your Body

As a burlesque performer and producer, I have always geared my shows toward our predominantly female audience.  Please don't misunderstand me here - I enjoy having male audience members just as much as my female ones, but their presence is an afterthought when I'm putting together a production.  Enabling and encouraging women to love their bodies has always been my main focus.  My passion is being able to take any woman of any age, shape or size and make her realize her own beauty. Sometimes it happens when they see a show.  They see women of all shapes and sizes onstage, and recognize that they are all equally lovely.  Sometimes it happens when they take a class.  They learn how to work and highlight every bit and bauble from the top of their heads to the tip of their polished toes.  Some women never learn that burlesque is about empowerment and sisterhood and being able to laugh at yourself and your hangups. They instead assume that it's about sex and competition and men, and it makes them uncomfortable and insecure.  To those women, I have just one thing to say...I am so sorry.  I'm sorry that you don't have other women in your life that build you up instead of tearing you down. I'm sorry that someone along the way has made you believe that your body is something to be ashamed of or embarrassed by.  I wish with every ounce of my being that I could reverse that damage, if even only a little bit.  But that change in your thinking and our body-shaming culture can only begin when you open yourself up.  We only perpetuate this Size 2 climate when we shut ourselves off to new experiences.  "Oh I couldn't possibly take a burlesque class! I'm too fat/old/self conscious." "I would NEVER go to a burlesque show! Why would I want to see a bunch of naked women dancing around? Gross!" It's these kind of statements that break my heart. We've created a society of women who are ashamed, insecure, and afraid.  And why on earth wouldn't we be?  Every photo is altered, and the only standard acceptable is complete and utter perfection.  And who's to say what is perfect?  Perfection is subjective.  The wearer can be the only decider of that.  I'm a strong believer in a woman's right to do with her body as she pleases.  Tattoos, piercings, weight lifting, plastic surgery...whatever floats your boat.  As long as it's medically sound, who's to say you shouldn't do it? But make absolutely sure you're doing it for you, and no one else but you.

There's been a recent outrage in the burlesque community about a New Orleans performer being let go from a standing night club gig of over a year because management thought her body type didn't fit the "expected image" of burlesque.  On social media he cited both Bettie Page (not a burlesque performer), and the movie "Burlesque" (which is so far from actual burlesque it makes me cringe) as being "standards" of expected burlesque performance.   When things such as this happen it makes me furious.  Here is yet another person feeding the insecurities of women.  So I say to all of you lovely women out there that hate your love handles, and despise your flat rear, and moan over your sagging breasts, and complain about your tummy...stop it.  Embrace and love the body that is uniquely yours. Celebrate it. Flaunt it. Let it see the sunlight. Your body is capable of generating not just all sorts of incredibly complex and beautiful movements, but also of creating and sustaining life.  What on earth is there NOT to love?  Go get some beautiful boudoir shots taken. Register for a burlesque workshop. Take a pole class. Encourage it to move, and learn to love the way it can. That is after all what it is meant for.   

G

 

Burlesque dangers...Seriously.

It sounds ridiculous, but here's what happens over the years:

1) You feel naked without lashes on.  It seems impossible that your mug is finished without them.

2) You find crystals, sequins and glitter everywhere.  In your bed, in your lint trap, on your pets...everywhere.

3)  Your lips consistently feel like the Sahara.  Longwear lipstick is great for the stage, but not so good on your skin.

4)  There's a real fear of leaving the house without pants on.  You get so comfortable in your nudity that you get phobic that you'll leave the house half dressed.

5)  Your personal space boundaries become minuscule.  Seriously.  The tiny dressing rooms and nakedness makes for a handsy bunch of folks.

6)  Your pink bits are always tender and sore and covered in adhesive residue.  Sometimes you're pulling that stuff off for days.

7)  You shimmy in inappropriate places.  Grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants...if the music is calling for it, it's hard to stop yourself.

8)  You cannot shop for anything without thinking about turning it into a routine.  Like, ANYTHING.  "Hm...this vase could possibly fit on my head, no?"

9)  Most of your shoes and clothes are miserably uncomfortable.  I'd like to say you acclimate to it, but no.

10)  Your house (and life) becomes held together entirely by E6000.  We should buy stock in it.

11)  You are constantly covered in mystery bruises.  From props, other girls, and God knows what else.

 Although all of these things are legitimate issues we as burleskers face, it's all worth it in the end.  We think.

G

Dancer breakthroughs...I weep with happiness.

I teach a cardio latin fusion class 3 days a week.  I have for 6 years now.  So I have this woman in my class that's been with me at least 4 of those.  She's a good dancer.  She has great timing and picks up quickly.  She's always asking how she can get more out of our hour together.  I have been telling her over the years that she's too "high off the floor"...that she needs to dance "down into the ground" more.  The other day in class the light bulb finally went on.  She was doing what I had wanted from her for years.  I approached her after class and told her how great of a class she had had.  She responded, "You know, I realized I wanted to dance STRONG and I was dancing...".  In my head the first word that came to my mind was "light".  She fished for the word she wanted for maybe 3 seconds before she finished her sentence with "light".  She had that epiphany that we dance teachers are always searching to draw out of our students.  Just two days after my cardio student had her "Aha" moment, I was working with my burlesque workshop ladies.  We'd been working on the same routine for the previous three weeks.  It was looking fine, but not QUITE right.  About 3/4 of the way through our hour together I said to them, "Dance the entire routine staccato...like a Tango." There was a universal "Ahhhhhh!" from the ladies.  I'd found the right phrase.  The next time through the routine was totally different, and exactly what I'd been looking for. We live for those moments that the light goes on, for those seconds of realization, of comprehension.  We get off on it.  Sometimes as teachers we struggle to find the key that fits that lock.  It's not that we're bad teachers or that they're bad students, it's just that everyone has a slightly different key.  But when we're able to turn that key magic can happen.

G