Generation Burlesque

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gossip girls ads
When I see the ads above, I'm proud to have worked on the show, I can't deny it.

It was interesting, though, because even though the actress I was coaching was over 20, her character is a high school student. Of course, when I was in high school, I was doing burlesquey numbers at Rocky Horror and dancing in drag bars, so it didn't strain my credulity at all.

Not too long ago a reality show asked me to coach a teenager for an episode, as well. I wasn't able to do it even though I think it's a good show, first of all because it meant leaving town for five weeks and I couldn't leave the project I'm working on or the school, and secondly because the pay was...let's just say mindblowingly inappropriate. But I would have done it under other conditions, and I'm happy to say one of the teachers from the NY School of Burlesque picked it up. More details to come!

And now this:
'Sherman's single mother had him when she was 16, much to the disapproval of her doctor father - and shades of television's Gilmore Girls. She now works nights as a bartender, though her true passion is burlesque dancing. That's right, burlesque, an art form that one of Sherman's friends helpfully - if implausibly, since he's supposed to be a contemporary teenager - explains is "extremely sexy" and "descended from vaudeville." '
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN: FICTION: Sherman and the defiled girls

I can only say that if I'd had access to burlesque the way it is now when I was in high school, holy moly...there is a whole rough patch of my life I think I could have skipped! Thank God for Rocky Horror and Rock N Roll High School.



I suppose this looks pretty incriminating in light of the recent cougar campaign, but sadly, I have no teen scandal to report. It's just a coincidence that those ads, the reality show offer, and this article all happened in the past month. I swear on a stack of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."

Posted by Jo Weldon, Headmistress of The New York School of Burlesque, for burlesquedaily.blogspot.com.

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