Year of Firsts: Burlesque

Many of you are aware that I dedicated this year as my Year of Firsts in which I try to do as many things for the first time as possible, push my own boundaries, try new foods and activities, and see what comes.  I am going to dedicate the next several entries to a few of these firsts, none of which really count as especially poor decisions, at least so far, but this blog needs some new stories.

We will begin with burlesque.

This, mainly is the Adventure Friend's fault. At least at first.  She and I decided it would be fun to do the LivingSocial Bourbon and Burlesque.  It was a fun time, the instructors were a little wacky, but they were friendly and they were covered in glitter so I liked them immensely. At the end of the 2 hours, they handed out cards and told everyone they came from a group called the DC Gurly Show and that new members were welcome. The usual promotional stuff.

"We should BECOME BURLESQUE DANCERS!!" said the Adventure Friend, still basking in the adrenaline glow from our end performance.

"Sure," I said dismissively, not imagining she was serious or intending to follow through.

I make this mistake periodically with her.

A few weeks later she was sending me emails filled with information about the group, and it turned out their new member meeting was only a few days away. We decided to go.

The world of burlesque is glitter and sequin filled, and the women who make up the world are glitter and sequin covered. This is because they are always gluing glitter and sequins to things--bras, underwear, shoes, corsets, headpieces, pasties. Everything sparkles, everything is colorful. Even they are colorful--bright clothing, brighter lipstick, wigs, tattooed skin.  All spoke loudly, with energy,

It was quite a scene. One girl with white blond hair pinned elaborately sat on a cushion painstakingly gluing ribbons and tassels to a purple bra. Another sat on a couch attaching clear glinting rhinestones to a black corset. Girls were piled on top of each other on the small couches, crouched in front of chairs, standing behind plush seats. It was a bit overwhelming.

We signed some contracts, received a copy of the manual, and learned a little about the process of becoming a burlesque dancer with the group.  Firstly, we learned that we had stumbled upon what was billed as DC's only "queer" burlesque troupe. This didn't mean we HAVE to be lesbians, but I would say a good 60-70% appear to be. Burlesque seems to be about acceptance, comfort, body positivity, friendship, and a LOT of glitter. Like, more glitter than you are thinking right now. Nope, more than that. Okay, you're getting close.

Also, creativity. Every show has a theme that has a fair amount of thought, discussion, and argument put into it, and each dancer choreographs her own, original performance and creates her own costume. They all sew, cut, glue, hem, everything. Most of them tell some kind of story through each number. Burlesque is a lot of clever puns, and plays on words, and 

Besides the glitter, one of the concepts I like best about the whole thing is that it is not ABOUT stripping. It is about confidence, and comfort, and you can perform a whole dance and take off nothing more than your gloves.

That said, nearly everyone gets nearly naked. Just a warning, in case you decide to come to a show. Consider yourself disclaimed.

The process we are going through has several stages. The first step requires a new member to "kitten" at least once.  A kitten is basically a stagehand. But dressed in sexy clothing and covered head to toe in glitter. Once you've done that, you can become an AprenTit, which is like a beginner, and can perform her own dances but doesn't necessarily get first pick and gets paid less. After two performances and some marketing work, you can move up to Gurlie, which is when you know you've arrived.

As much fun as I've had learning about this fascinating subculture, and as cool as I think the other girls are, and as awesome as shows are, I'm not sure burlesque is the lifestyle for me. And it IS a lifestyle.  I'm not creative (at least not with anything but writing), I'm incredibly un-crafty (my big boundary-pushing project this weekend is to glue some rainbow rhinestones to a black and white dress), and it's too time consuming to fit into all of the other things I want to be doing.  But I set the goal for myself to participate in one show, as a kitten, and prove to myself that I can be up on a stage and show the confidence I've learned from being around such strong willed sparkly women.

After, that, who knows what will come next! It's also been really great to spend time with a more diverse group.  My friends are nearly all white, straight, from a middle class background and holding/pursuing white color jobs. Which makes sense, but it's nice to get out of that bubble for a bit and meet some very different people for a change.