What about a belly dance and burlesque show?

Sapphira

New member
That's right! It's London's first belly dancing and burlesque show.

Did you know belly dancing and burlesque are linked together historically?

Well, now we are making history with London's first belly dancing and burlesque show at Madame Jojos!

Sapphira presents SHIMMY SHAKE - Sunday 16th of March

***Starring***
Princess Farhana of Hollywood - US Legend
Sapphira - UK based Australian Starlet
Ozgen - Male Turkish Dancer

And host of sizzling talent on the night!


Come along!! You won't be disappointed...

www.shimmyshakeshow.com

£10 early bird tickets online now..
 

Aniseteph

New member
Did you know belly dancing and burlesque are linked together historically?

Yup.

I think this is something the US dancers here can comment on better as they are the ones who are closest to that link and its legacy. My experience is that we didn't get too many people in the UK equating belly dance with stripping precisely because we didn't have that link. Heigh ho.... :rolleyes:

For me it's EXACTLY what A'isha says about essence. I have no problems with burlesque, in fact I'd love to have a go (be afraid...), but it is a completely different :think:, well, essence, to belly dance. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how the two fit together without either being as different as chalk and cheese, or merging and compromising each other. :confused:
 

cathy

New member
There was a thread relating to this here:

http://forum.orientaldancer.net/performance/4116-bellydance-burlesque.html

I am no expert but I think the relationship is that burlesque grew out of the fantasy misinterpretation of what Middle Eastern dance was, or what the promoters and public wanted it to be, based on what happened between its first appearances in Paris, then Philadelphia and Chicago (last in 1893 by Sol Bloom) and the sideshows that happened just a decade or two later in America.

Cathy
 
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Sapphira

New member
Yup.

I have no problems with burlesque, in fact I'd love to have a go (be afraid...), :confused:

You should definitely do it! Loads of belly dancers are learning burlesque here in the UK and Princess Farhana has sold out workshops teaching burlesque here, too!

You'll be really good at it because you know how to shimmy and use your hips!

Good luck!
 

Aniseteph

New member
Originally Posted by Aniseteph
Yup.

I have no problems with burlesque, in fact I'd love to have a go (be afraid...),

For the record everyone, sections have been cut from my original post.

I feel very slightly like a carefully misquoted theatre critic... (illegal from April 2008, waves copy of EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive) :lol:
 

Sapphira

New member
There is some great excitement about this show in the belly dance and burlesque communities alike.

I'm really looking forward to it. Come along, ladies, all are welcome. :)
 

Brea

New member
Hi,

I am interested in burlesque, because bellydance DID have a history in it. It wasn't a burlesque show without a bellydancer from what I understand. In fact, I have another burlesque audition coming up. I only bellydance for them, of course, but I don't see why not.
 

Sapphira

New member
Hi,

I am interested in burlesque, because bellydance DID have a history in it. It wasn't a burlesque show without a bellydancer from what I understand. In fact, I have another burlesque audition coming up. I only bellydance for them, of course, but I don't see why not.

That's great! Have you done any shows belly dancing for a burlesque night yet?

Lots of burlesque shows have belly dancing as part of the entertainment and it does suit!

I think what's fab about a burlesque show is the emphasis on variety so you get to see an array of different talent, magician, belly dancer, burlesque artist, comedian. It really does welcome anyone and everyone.

This article on the scene in New York is really interesting... Check it out....

Burlesque off Broadway | Travel | guardian.co.uk
 

Sapphira

New member
Hi,

I am interested in burlesque, because bellydance DID have a history in it. It wasn't a burlesque show without a bellydancer from what I understand. In fact, I have another burlesque audition coming up. I only bellydance for them, of course, but I don't see why not.

That's great! Have you done any shows belly dancing for a burlesque night yet?

Lots of burlesque shows have belly dancing as part of the entertainment and it does suit!

I think what's fab about a burlesque show is the emphasis on variety so you get to see an array of different talent, magician, belly dancer, burlesque artist, comedian. It really does welcome anyone and everyone.

This article on the scene in New York is really interesting... Check it out.... It's becoming totally cool and loads of celebs are in the audience at the shows! Could it be the next BIG thing??

Burlesque off Broadway | Travel | guardian.co.uk
 

Brea

New member
Well, I think that's where people get confused. Burlesque and vaudeville are pretty much the same thing; burlesque does have some nudity but that's not the entire point of the show. Many acts in it (like magic, etc) are not nude at all. It's a variety show.

Sadly, no, I have not been able to get into a burlesque show yet. However, I will be living in Scotland eventually, so perhaps we can get together on it over there someday.
 

Sapphira

New member
Oh right. Are you in the US? Yeah, you must come see us in London! It's nice and open minded down here so everyone is just up for a really good show and we are more than happy to oblige.

I'm so rapt with the line up that I have now, I've deliberately chosen some of best trained and most professional performers on the circuit because I just want it to be nothing short of a class act.
 

Brea

New member
Hi,

Yes I am currently in the US, but I am a Scottish history major, so I will be going to school at St Andrews in the fall of 2009. I would like to come and see it, as well as try out if possible someday!
 

Sapphira

New member
Cool! I love Scotland. There's a good scene for burlesque up there. I think it's Club Noir, have you heard of it?
 

Brea

New member
Hi,

No, I had not! Even so, when I move to the UK, I don't think I'm allowed to work as an entertainer (which is lame). So I might just have to stand and watch on the sidelines!
 

Sapphira

New member
Hm, that's a shame. Well, you can definitely find loads to do. Edinburgh and Glasgow have a great vibe, no matter what you're in to! Maybe see you one day!:dance:
 

Suheir

New member
Burlesque existed for half a century before Sol Bloom's presentations at the 1893 World's Fair.

Here's the definition of the word from an etymological dictionary:
'burlesque
1667, "derisive imitation, grotesque parody," from Fr. burlesque, from It. burlesco, from burla "joke, fun, mockery," possibly ult. from L.L. burra "trifle, nonsense," lit. "flock of wool." Modern sense of "variety show featuring striptease" is Amer.Eng., 1870. Originally (1857) "the sketches at the end of minstrel shows." '

Extracts from John Kenrick's A History Of The Musical Burlesque:

"Most people think that "burlesque" means female strippers walking a runway to a bump and grind beat. But that only fits the form in its declining years. At its best, burlesque was a rich source of music and comedy that kept America, audiences laughing from 1840 through the 1960s.

Some sources try to wrap burlesque in a mantle of pseudo-intellectual respectability. Yes, it involved transgressive comedy and songs, but the primary attraction of burlesque was sex . . in the form of ribald humor and immodestly dressed women"

"In the 19th Century, the term "burlesque" was applied to a wide range of comic plays, including non-musicals. Beginning in the 1840s, these works entertained the lower and middle classes in Great Britain and the United States by making fun of (or "burlesquing") the operas, plays and social habits of the upper classes. These shows used comedy and music to challenge the established way of looking at things. Everything from Shakespearean drama to the craze for Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind could inspire a full-length burlesque spoof. On Broadway, the burlesque productions of actor managers William Mitchell, John Brougham and Laura Keene were among Broadway's most popular hits of the mid-19th Century.

By the 1860s, British burlesque relied on the display of shapely, underdressed women to keep audiences interested. In the Victorian age, when proper women went to great lengths to hide their physical form beneath bustles, hoops and frills, the idea of young ladies appearing onstage in tights was a powerful challenge"

"In the late 1860s, Lydia Thompson's British burlesque troupe became New York's biggest theatrical sensation. Their first hit was Ixion (1868), a mythological spoof that had women in revealing tights playing men's roles. In the Victorian age, when proper women went to great lengths to hide their physical form beneath bustles, hoops and frills, the idea of young ladies appearing onstage in tights was a powerful challenge"

"At first, the American press praised burlesques, but turned vicious under pressure from influential do-gooders. But the cries of the self-righteous had an unintended effect. Editorials and sermons condemning burlesque as "indecent" only made the form more popular! Demand was such that copycat burlesque companies soon cropped up, many with female managers.

Mabel Saintley became America's first native-born burlesque star, leading "Mme. Rintz's Female Minstrels" from the 1880s onwards in a stylish burlesque of all-male troupes.

Burlesque left little to the imagination. The popular stage spectacle Ben Hur inspired "The High Rollers" troupe to produce Bend Her, with scantily clad chorines as Roman charioteers.

Any stage hit could become a target for humor. The popular melodrama Trilby was spoofed in 'Twill Be.

Americans began creating their own burlesques, and some proved extremely popular. Composer Edward E.Rice teamed with actor Henry Dixey to create Adonis (1874), the story of a statue that comes to life and is so disgusted by human folly that he finally chooses to turn back into stone. The show ran over 500 performances in New York and toured for years, making the handsome Dixey the top matinee idol of his time"


Most of what we are seeing presented as "burlesque" in the UK at the moment is faux 1940s/1950s striptease acts of the type that can be seen in the 1959 film "Expresso Bongo" and the 1960 film "Beat Girl". I see no connection with a social dance from the Middle East that everybody, man, woman and child does.

I find it curious that so many established UK belly dance teachers are now jumping on the burlesque band-wagon and teaching workshops in burlesque after taking a few, or one lesson themselves, or maybe having learnt from a video, when they would be the first people to complain about teachers of other dance forms (or even aerobics) teaching belly dance after only a couple of lessons.
 

Sapphira

New member
I find it curious that so many established UK belly dance teachers are now jumping on the burlesque band-wagon and teaching workshops in burlesque

Really, I didn't know there were many belly dancing instructors in the UK teaching burlesque yet but the students are definitely interested in both and perhaps it's arising out of demand.

Many of the moves used in burlesque come from belly dancing, the shimmy, hip circle, figure 8 so it's not difficult to learn the technique for teachers who want to add something extra for their students. And it's FUN!!

Ultimately I guess it attracts the same kinds of performers and students because both are very empowering forms embracing one's feminity, feeling confident about one's body and it means we get to wear lots of amazing costumes and show off!! Sparkles, sequins, crystals galore!:D

I definitely applaud anyone who wants to give either style a try. Why not? If it makes you feel good about yourself, then go for it!

Goodness knows, there are enough negative messages about the female body and the pressure to conform to diets and losing weight. It's great that belly dancing and burlesque not just embraces but celebrates all shapes and sizes.
 

Sapphira

New member
Also, I think you will find this article on the history of burlesque very interesting. It focuses and explains the theatrical and comedy aspect to the original art form.

History of Burlesque - Part II

This last paragraph is great, which you can read if click the link is really thought provoking...

Legacy: Burlesque Today?
While the "golden age of burlesque" is long gone, its legacy is very much alive. Every time a comedian does a "spit take" or tells a joke with a double-meaning, or whenever Saturday Night Live skewers politicians and movie stars, you are watching burlesque in action.

Big screen spoofs such as Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, and the Austin Powers films are clearly carrying on the tradition of early burlesque -- making fun of well-known entertainments, social mores, etc. Shrek 2 (2004) is a superb example of the kind of comedy that Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes offered in the 1860s, getting in good natured jabs at a wide variety of comic targets while challenging audiences to look beyond appearances -- finding true beauty and bravery in unlikely characters.

The tawdrier burlesque tradition lives on too. Every time The Jerry Springer Show airs a digitally obscured set of bared female breasts, it is a classic burlesque tease -- and Springer audiences are eerily reminiscent of those who sought tacky thrills at bump and grind houses a few decades ago. All of these entertainments have their righteous critics, and all appeal to a nation-wide audience.

In the early 2000s, a spate of "new burlesque" shows are cropping up on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring comics, strippers and specialty acts that offer a new spin on the old "burly-q" mix. Is it too early to fully assess this trend, but the fact that such shows have spontaneously sprung up in places as diverse as Manhattan, Montreal and Oslo suggests there is a widespread interest crossing all sorts of physical and generational barriers.

Why? I would suggest that there is a natural human need for the bold comic challenge that burlesque poses to the social, cultural and sexual status quo. The word "burlesque" was seriously tarnished by the mid-20th Century, when it was linked to witless soft porn strip revues in seedy venues. Now, a new generation is open to re-evaluating both the word and the format, recognizing the spirit of spoofery that made burlesque a potent form of entertainment back in the 1860s. At the dawn of a new millennium, burlesque is still alive and giggling.
 

lizaj

New member
I do not have a problem with Burlesque in the slightest. It's a clever and fun art when done well.
But it has no connection here in Europe or in the ME with with Belly dance except that belly dancers can be very sexy ( either in a positive or a negative way) and very entertaining as well for adults.
BUT Burlesque entertainers take their clothes off ( yes I know some don't) but the general public have those expectations.
Belly dancers do NOT!
When we learn to belly dance in the UK, we usually learn to do Egyptian or Turkish style dance with all the history and culture that contains. It is also social dancing and Burlesque is not..it is at its' best skilfull showgirl stuff. I have been to a Burley workshop and if I had been younger, I'd have loved to explore it further but for both myself (and I noted the instructor also agreed) it had nothing to do with my role as a belly dancer and dance teacher.
Belly dancing as a form of exercise as well as a performance art is accessable to women and men of all ages and body shapes, women and men who would never dream of doing burlesque. We are starting to muddy waters by blending the two.
If a belly dancer wants to go and learn burlesque, good for her but it is not even a half sister to belly dance.
If belly dance and burlesque were part of a whole show that included other genres of dance as well I would be confortable but I think the two together will do us no favours in the eyes of the homes of Bellydances: Egypt,Turkey and the Lebanon nor in the eys of the GP.

As for Princess Farhana I used to love her style but the last two films I have seem (Underbelly excerpts Osama etc) make me feel uneasy and queazy!:(

I have just been teaching an ATS workshops and I was discussing with Egyptian style dancers how I would ,along with fellow troupe members, be quite happy not to be counted as part of the belly dance stable because the origins are of course not Egyptian. I like to define the difference in beginnings and premises between the two styles of dance I love dancing.

And for Burley should we start going on about what good bedfellows they are I fear very much , it will do neither any good!
 
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