Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Burlesque Submitted by Tanya Cheex!

This article has some photos of Dita that allow you to get a real eyeful of just how detailed and fabulous her costumes really are! Dita Von Teese Promotes Book, Does Dance Below is a picture I took of her at Tease-O-Rama. You can't see as much detail, but her chair is covered with the same rhinestones that cover her gown, gloves, and shoes, as well as the spines of the feathers in her fans. Red is my favorite color and I was in heaven watching this! When I was backstage I exclaimed over the chair so much I think she thought I was kidding, but it's true...that kind of detail, even though it's not the focus of my own style, is something I really enjoy seeing when I watch Dita. It's museum-quality stuff. Just in case you don't know, most of Dita's costumes are created and designed by the fabulous two-time Miss Exotic World , Catherine D'Lish .

'One of the most influential critics of the 1920s and 1930s was H.L. Mencken. He created the expression Bible Belt to refer to the ultra conservative South and while bootleggers reached auspicious heights as booticians, the middle class was reduced to the booboisie. So in 1940 it was a Baltimore stripper that asked him to come up with a unique word to raise the tenor of her profession. Georgia Sothern wrote to Meneken, "I am a practitioner of the art of strip-teasing...there has been a great deal of...criticism leveled against my profession. Most of it...arises from the unfortunate word strip-teasing, which creates the wrong connotation...if you could coin a new and more palatable word to describe this art, I and my colleagues would have easier going. I hope...(you) can find time to help the...members of my profession." 'Ms Sothern was already a phenomenon all her own. Ann Corio describes her performances in the book This was Burlesque(1968): ...

Margaret plays so many roles in the Sensuous Woman it's hard to keep track! Here are just a few.

I love this article! It's not actually about Immodesty, but she plays a part in this woman's charming story. 'A 'PAINFULLY' shy postwoman dressed up as a burlesque artist to raise money for needy children....Through the intensive training of her two mentors, Immodesty and dancer Wayne Sleep, shy Sharon was steadily transformed into a burlesque dancer.' Postie's risque role for charity Immodesty Blaize. Photo by Mike Albov.

Diana Yanez Ryan Heffington Selene Luna Ian Harvie There are some more in Margaret's blog: http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/

Here's a youtube clip from the episode I worked on. The woman they flash on in the first few seconds at the club is me.

Kelly DiNardo just posted a link to Kara Mae's Lili Ct Cyr Gallery, which features pictures of the lingerie I mentioned in the comments in my November 5 post. The very first picture is the ad I was talking about! Click the images to see lots of great lingerie ads on Kara's site.

Peekaboo Pointe, Melody Sweets, and Angie Pontani looking over the Balcony at the Box. The dancers onstage during the shoot. Leighton and Ed on the set. Ed Westwick, very handsome and much sweeter than his character. The gorgeous, smart, and talented Miss Leighton Meester. What a doll!

This is one of those personal posts I was talking about. Every now and then I get to do things that aren't part of my usual circuit of gigs. Recently I worked as a consultant, dance designer, and movement coach on a television show. This came about when I was approached via email by a woman who'd found my site and was working on a television show whose writers had created a storyline with a little burlesque in it. I invited her and the director to meet me at one of my favorite teahouses, Podunk (I wish I had a pic of the proprietor, she's adorable), for tea and treats. They weren't particularly interested in who I knew in their industry and who I'd worked for that they might know. They were fascinated by my descriptions of Exotic World, Tease-O-Rama, and Burlesque at the Beach. They identified with my passion for the subject. They paid for my tea and scones. (My favorite food is free food.) I liked them. I actually developed a bit of an art crush on Tony Wharmb...

Kelly DiNardo lists some of the effects Lili has had on other pop culture icons in her article in USA Weekly. When she asked me about her, naturally I had to talk about Rocky Horror! ( Click here to find out why.) I often suspect that when people who are just beginning to examine burlesque talk about the influence of Gypsy Rose Lee, they're really thinking of a combination of Gypsy and Lili and they don't yet know the difference. Gypsy was certainly an all-out showgirl, and she had the saucy tongue and the entrepreneurial genius, but Lili's pictures have inspired a lot of fancy props and costumes too. Do a Google image search on each of them and you'll see what I mean. Image from the Staley Wise Gallery, which exhibits many amazing collections, including the photos of Bruno Bernard (Bernard of Hollywood). Click the image for more gorgeous shots. 'In the Broadway musical Pal Joey, reporter Melba Snyder sings about meeting a Gypsy Rose Lee-esque character who ske...

When I said I was going to post more personal posts, I didn't mean ones like what's about to follow. This post was going to come along in my blog in one form or another no matter what. The fabulous Lady Monster , who so generously shared her pastie-adhesive tips in one of this blog's first posts, just announced a few days ago that Leonard Nimoy's book, The Full Body Project , was to be released this weekend, and she gave a presentation about being a bigger bodied model and performer at the reception at R. Michelson Gallery . Lady Monster at The Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend in Las Vegas. Photo snagged from Neon Salt Mine. The blurb on amazon.com reads, 'In his provocative new book, photographer and actor Leonard Nimoy captures images of full-bodied women, some of whom are involved in what is known as the "fat acceptance" movement. "The average American woman," Nimoy writes, "weighs 25 percent more than the models selling the clothe...

I first found out about "Sparky Lobo's Burlesque Emporium" when the owner contacted me to find out if I do banner exchanges. Although I don't have a banner, I'm always happy to find out more about people who are interested in burlesque, whether they are motivated by art, commerce, or something entirely other. Sparky sells prints and merchandise featuring vintage burlesque performers, and some of the images were quite new to me. I could tell from the way she talked about the products that she's developed a certain fondness for the women in them and the world they represented. All the images in this article are courtesy of Sparky Lobo's Burlesque Emporium. How did you come across these pictures, and what did you think when you first saw them? I went to a friend's home, to buy some other antiques from an estate he was clearing out for his Uncle, and saw several big file boxes marked photos. Being addicted to "old paper" (postcards,...

Originally I was trying to make this blog not-too personal. Recently, however, I've had some experiences that I think might make interesting posts--for instance, serving as creative director and dance coach for an episode of the television series Gossip Girl, taking pictures backstage at Margaret Cho's Sensuous Woman show, moving the School of Burlesque into a new venue, etc. Would you be interested in reading those posts here, or would you rather it be kept as it has been for the past 70 or so posts? Do you want some of the backstage stories? There are times when I don't have time to produce the interviews and such because of projects I've been working on, but maybe those projects have some interest themselves. I have no plans to post ads for my events here, but some of these articles would indeed have the effect of making some of my projects more widely known. How do you feel about that? This isn't meant to be a question of journalism ethics--I'm too invol...