Dancing in a burlesque show

[Shanazel]

"As long as you're not stripping, when you're 80."

Strip? Are you talking about MOI? It took me forty years to be able to walk across a women's locker room decoriously draped in a towel. Should I have another 40 years to play with, I suspect I will be back to the curtained dressing area!

[Brea]

Hi Salome,

Really? Why would they counsel me not to do it?

-Brea

[samsied]

I'm not sure... It sounds like it could be a good experience for you if it is what you want to do. A nondancer friend of mine recently saw a burlesque/vaudeville show that included a bellydancer that sounds much like what you describe. She was very impressed with the bellydancer and could see how it is different than burlesque (which she also enjoyed). I would prefer a real, quality bellydancer to a one-week wonder or worse posing as a bellydancer in such a show. A good dancer could do a lot to demonstrate that bellydance is a different artform than "exotic dance". If you were the only "non-stripper",then I would discourage you. In a modern burlesque variety show, I imagine you would have a great audience as it is a very trendy and creative entertainment scene that includes many female fans.

Do you live in a very conservative area? If so you may want to weigh the pros and cons. I can see that for many dancers this just would not be worth it, but it sounds like you really want to do it. Since I am not a pro, it is easy for me to tell you to do what you want as long as you do it with integrity.

[samsied]

Hi, for some reason I thought I had heard that Princess Farhana danced as a bellydancer in her earliest burlesque shows. I looked up an article she wrote for Gilded Serpent, you may find it interesting...

http://www.gildedserpent.com/art32/PFBurlesqueBD.htm

[Salome]

Hi Salome,

Really? Why would they counsel me not to do it?

-Brea

You teach, perform etc. it sounds as if you would like to be a career Oriental dancer and make a living at it. If that is true, and knowing that dancing in a burlesque show can equal scandal a Manager would most likely counsel you to protect the interests of your reputation. OR, LOL, if you had a sleazy Manager they'd tell you to do the burlesque show and strip so it would be a huge scandal and everyone would be talking about you - creating fame, going the any publicity is good publicity route.

[Kharmine]

Is this really burlesque, or vaudeville? I know burlesque is supposed to be trendy right now but with all the different acts it sounds more like an old-time variety show with the "burlesque" thrown in. If the stripping was truly minimal, it might not be much of a problem.

Otherwise, I'm afraid too many people regard belly dance as just another form of "exotic" dancing, classier than pole dancing, maybe, but with the same aim in mind -- male titillation.

If the show is going to focus on how much flesh it can reveal (here's a clue -- will the audience be restricted by age?), you'd have to consider whether it's going to bother you to be, at least locally, classed as someone who danced in that kind of show -- 'cause most people do tend to remember that which seems titilllating over anything else!

You'll never always please everybody in the dance community, anyway, but it could affect other aspects of your life, as well -- say, if you ever ran for office, offered to host a fund-raiser, had to apply for a job with an organization that was self-conscious about its employees' public image or if you were ever in a custody dispute.

If that does seem like a potential problem, I'd stay away from it -- there will always be other opportunities to show what belly dancing is really about.

If it doesn't bother you, if you can laugh off any inferences that you were on the same level as the strippers, then go for it.

[Brea]

There are many acts in it, very few of them stripping. Vaudeville might be the proper term but they call themselves a burlesque revue...probably because there is burlesque in it. There are circus acts and singers, etc. I think the idea is a show like the old Moulin Rouge would have had back in the day... a variety show that just happened to include burlesque?

Salome, I can see that if the show was a seedy type thing. The city I'll be doing it in is a big city that is very cosmopolitan and this show is pretty high class. I understand what you are saying, but I think it would be more problematic if the show were only about stripping. I have been an Oriental dancer as a career for a few years now and want to continue. I am just curious about whether being in any kind of act that might also involve stripping would make the bellydance community feel about me as a professional.

-Brea

[Kharmine]

It kind of sounds like you've made up your mind, Brea; but you're trying to pre-empt any disapproval on the part of other belly dancers.

Look, what can we tell ya -- a lot of us are actively trying to keep belly dancing out of the gutter that careless or malicious people have tried to keep it in. We have to fight stereotypes, slurs, misconceptions and false information and, yes, that often means keeping ourselves away from sharing the stage with strippers, pole dancers and "adults-only" entertainment.

Historically, burlesque has always been a combination of acts -- music, dancing, juggling, comedy, etc. -- but the feature that makes it distinct from vaudeville is pretty women in scanty costumes. How scanty they get, and how good the other acts are, are what determines the high-class show from the raunchy.

In a really high-class show, there are plenty of women in the audience and everyone enjoys it. There is no real need to limit the clientele to those over 18, and you could bring your own parents to it, so long as they were rather broad-minded.

If that's not the kind of show this is going to be, and you're determined to dance in it any way -- well, hey, there are people who are going to feel that you chose to not elevate the art. You're never going to have it both ways. That's life.

[Brea]

Hi Kharmine,

My mind isn't exactly made up on it...yet. These are just the reasons I had for thinking of auditioning. It is that fear of propagating the foolish things said about bellydancers that makes me cautious about it. You wouldn't believe some of the things a couple of guys were saying (while standing next to my parents) at one of my shows, the take it all off kind of thing, which I hate. My father, a former barfighter, was quite in the mood to punch them. The people I've danced for that were from the Middle East always compliment me that my dancing is very tasteful and fun...I just don't want to lose that. However, as a professional historian as well as bellydancer, there is something very appealing about being involved in an old-time burlesque show. I don't want to become a pariah for that, and I suppose that's the general worry I have about it.

-Brea

[Kharmine]

... However, as a professional historian as well as bellydancer, there is something very appealing about being involved in an old-time burlesque show. I don't want to become a pariah for that, and I suppose that's the general worry I have about it.

-Brea

I can understand that. The question should be is this an old-fashioned burlesque show with tasteful acts or something you'd expect to see at the Kit Kat Gentlemen's Club?