Burlesque is Glamour. The word conjures
up images of extravagantly attired showgirls and beautiful women
disrobing in Martini glasses; fabulous singers with voices that soar
to the rafters; wonderful comedians reducing the audience to tears of
laughter; incredible circus acts dazzling open-mouthed spectators.
And that is the appeal.
However: Why Burlesque? Why this
particular form of entertainment? Probably somewhat ironically, I personally don't understand this
need for men and women to shed their clothes at any local pub or club
that decides to titillate their regulars with a supposedly risque
show.
If burlesque is about your desire to perform and the wish to be
on-stage, join an Amateur Dramatics association and display your
talents there (Amateur does not mean 'bad' it merely means you are
not being paid) Is it because in an Amateur company you would be
subject to the whims of the director and not able to direct yourself?
A company is just that, and if you go wrong, you will stand out for
the wrong reasons and lower the standard of the rest of the group –
when you are on your own on-stage, it is just you, and unless you
seriously get something wrong, you are the only one who is going to
know. Is it because you have to pay 'subs' to join an amateur
company? You will end up spending thousands more on costumes for
burlesque performance as you constantly try and up your game. Or is
it because you simply can't commit to a regular rehearsal night and a
week of performances? Burlesque is much less rigid, but, because of
this, massively unpredictable.
Or is it because Burlesque is 'easy'? All
you need is a pretty dress, some pants from Primark with sequins
stuck on them, and some big band music, then you just strut around
the stage don't you?
Is it because it is 'empowering'?
Reclaiming your femininity and sensuality in a creative fashion?
These terms have been thrown around a lot, hand in hand with
Burlesque: I understand that having the undivided attention of a room
of strangers, all of whom seem to be whipped into a frenzy by the
merest hint of flesh, is supremely attractive, especially if you are
feeling unappreciated in other areas of your life. However, surely
the expectation of the audience in this instance is terrifying –
they are waiting for you to remove your clothing until you are nearly
naked. How is being semi-nude in a room full of strangers empowering?
Isn't this scenario one of the classic 'nightmares', along with being
in an exam and realising you've not revised? If you are feeling
undervalued and unappreciated, maybe there are issues you need to
work out yourself, and not on stage in front of a group of strangers
who have all paid to be entertained, not made uncomfortable!
I often feel that audiences whoop and
cheer for a performer, simply because it is the accepted response in
a Burlesque show – indeed a compère may well incite the audiences
to whoop and shout as a reaction to a glove being removed, to the
point that the audiences may feel uncomfortable themselves if they do
not provide the required soundtrack
One thing I hear from women while I'm
sipping champagne after a show (there are some wonderful moments,
honest!) is 'You must be so confident.' Or a variation on this theme.
Well, no, not really. Anyone who's shared a backstage environment
with me before a show will know that I'm either semi-paralysed with
nerves or suffering with an acute case of verbal diarrhoea. I get
nervous because I'm a performer and I want to turn in the best damn
performance of my life each time I step on each stage.
Burlesque doesn't instil its devotees
with sudden sex-appeal and body-confidence. Sometimes it can be quite
the opposite: when you know every inch of your body is going to be
scrutinised by hundreds of eyes, you can become incredibly paranoid.
Yes, it can be lovely to feel appreciated by a wonderful audience but
please see my previous point!
So many seem to be drawn to Burlesque,
often coming from little or no performance background – why? Aside
from the inexperience, which may be obvious to an audience, are they
aware of the etiquette of a backstage environment? How to finish an
act? Stage directions and positioning? How to talk to stage, sound
and lighting crew (if you are lucky enough to perform in a venue that
has a tech team!) without coming across as a diva? How to conduct or
manage themselves or the sheer hard work involved. I'm making
sweeping generalisations here: there are definitely newer performers
out there who are talented or unique or simply very polite and
willing to work hard.
I have been working in Burlesque and
Cabaret for almost six years, and I love it. I'm not going to deny
that I have moments when I want to pull my hair out and scream, but
it's like family: you may have moments where it's horrible and you
want out, but overall the love brings you back. But I still wonder
why? Why this revealing (literally), difficult, often lonely (if you
are working on your own, you may not have others to support or direct
you), financially unrewarding art form? If you suggested that this
woman may want to become a stripper or a pole-dancer in her local
gentleman’s club, she would be offended, but the addition of a pair
of pasties and a rhinestoned g-string makes dancing on the floor of a
local pub okay?
Did you know, “a glamour” was a
spell that witches would cast on themselves to appear young and
beautiful in order to ensnare handsome men. It was a method of
changing their own appearance to fool people into thinking they were
something they were not. This is obviously folklore and
fairy-stories, but the use of the word itself is interesting: when
describing someone as 'glamorous' we literally mean they have altered
their looks beyond recognition.
But people buy into this: They see
performers who have perfected their glamorous image and believe that
it is as easy as donning a beautiful costume and setting their hair
and make-up just so, and that they too can be jet-setting,
international Burlesque performers, sleeping in late, wearing silks
and velvets, then being chauffeured to exclusive venues for
expensively produced shows in front of adoring crowds.
They do not see the years of training
and hard-work, the nights spent stitching hems or glueing crystals to
corsets, the missed birthday parties or family gatherings due to not
being able to cancel a show, the ridiculously early starts for
flights or trains to shows, and dragging giant suitcases through tube
stations, up broken escalators or through knee deep snow. They also
don't see the many bad gigs, the getting changed in toilets (yes it's
happened to us all!), the running across town for two or three shows
per night or the dilemma of choosing whether to eat tomorrow or buy
another packet of Swarovski...
Again, these are sweeping
generalisations but they are drawn from my own experience and I know
that I'm not unique in these
So yes – in this respect, Burlesque
is completely and utterly Glamour. I recently changed in a bar
storage room, perching on an empty beer keg while I applied glitter
to my lips using a pocket mirror to check my reflection underneath a
bare lightbulb. On-stage I was covered in thousands of sparkling
crystals, dancing with six-foot ostrich plumes in impossibly high
heels. Glamour.
There was a thread recently on Facebook
regarding 'newbies' quoting preposterous sums for shows, and I wonder
why this is? There are obviously a lot of things coming into play,
but many of the performers who started around the time I did, and
before and for a long time after, were aware that the standard route
was unpaid/expenses shows, until you reached a point where you felt
able to charge a fee. Glorian Gray offers fee-workshops, which are
very helpful, as I know many often query what to quote. I still do.
It seems to be a new thing; that relative newcomers are unwilling to work for stage time/publicity/experience/expenses. This is a topic of conversation for another blog but I believe it has to do with a few main points:
The rise of Facebook: more established performers rant about being asked to work for the aforementioned offerings, leading to newer performers feeling that it is also below them.
The recession: we have less to spend and people may be turning to Burlesque believing it will subsidise another income. (hint - it won't. It will suck up your life, your money and your mind.) leading them to be less than enthusiastic about accepting non-paying jobs.
But it looks bad. No one cares that you have performed in a show with 'X' dancer - this says nothing about you, just that you had the good fortune to be on the same bill as a highly regarded performer. Nor does it matter, really, in Cabaret, that you might have a degree or a qualification (I have a professional musical theatre degree), you still have to put in the slog and hard work.
It definitely won't happen overnight. It probably won't happen in a year. It *might* happen in two or three years if you're lucky and talented. But it will only work if you work at it.
Everyone needs to start somewhere. I
realise this. There are newcomer nights and events for newbies all
over the country which are dedicated to nurturing the best of the new
talent. I hate to make yet another generalisation but usually, the
best of the newcomers are those who have already had experience of
performing in another genre.
So maybe this is the key: try other
things first – dance classes, clowning workshops, singing lessons,
etc. Hone your talent base first, then, if you're sure you want to,
bring something new and creative to the burlesque stage. But please,
don't believe for one moment that it's easy, that it's simple, that
you will suddenly gain massive amounts of confidence or sex-appeal,
that you will become rich and famous overnight, or that we're all as
bitchy as this blog makes me sound!
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