Burlesque
Weekends of Swing are quite fantastic. This time I went in feeling fairly tired and wanting more solo Jo-time, but as soon as I was around the energy and excitement I was happy to be there. Our instructors, Sharon & Juan, were fabulous. Full of charisma, dancing skill, and entertaining anecdotes.
On the Sunday Sharon taught an hour long Burlesque class for us ladies. She runs one of the most professional Burlesque troops, Sugar Blue, in Australia, and it was neat to hear her talk passionately about this dance revival. She considers Burlesque to be an important part of the feminist movement, as the act of dressing up, dancing, and teasing, is done for yourself or for other women. Often men do not attend her performances unless they were dragged along by significant others. She began by teaching us to walk in a way most flattering and seductively, and then taught us the three fundamental movements of Burlesque; the bump, grind and shimmy. She also explained that there are three rules to getting attention to the spot you want it. Move only the body part you want to draw attention to, use your hands to accentuate that area, and look at it. Sounds simple enough, but in her demonstration it was obvious how much of a difference those three points made. She also mentioned our need for Burlesque stage names, giving examples such as hers, “Bonnie Fox”. I’ve been playing with a few ideas for my own potential stage name, but haven’t decided on one yet. She concluded by teaching us a few floor movements. During our lunch break a few of us jokingly tried out our Burlesque floor poses on the grass outside. This was my attempt.
