Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Burlesque Industry Magazines, Websites, Blogs, Press, etc. Compiled By Lula Houp-Garou in The Fringe Forum   Pin Curl Magazine:   http://pincurlmag.com/ 21st Century Burlesque:   http://21stcenturyburlesque.com/ Bachelor Pad:   http://www.bachelorpadmagazineonline.com/ The Burlesker - Arts by, for, about the Burlesque Community: http://berlesker.com/ Burlesque Beat www.burlesquebeat.com Burlesque Bitch: www.burlesquebitch.com The Burlesque Bible:   http://www.burlesquebiblemag.com/ Coochie Crunch:   http://coochiecrunch.com/ Burlesque Magazine:   http://www.burlesquemag.com/ This is Cabaret:   http://www.thisiscabaret.com/ Burlesque Stars http://www.burlesquestars.net/ Blogs: Burlesque Daily: http://burlesquedaily.blogspot.com/ The Shimmy Up - Tools, resources and advice for the classy, savvy and ethical performer:   http://www.theshimmyup.com/ Burlesque Seattle Press:   http://burlesqueseat...

Showgirls, Showboys, and Vegas-style Burlesque With Grant Philipo Saturday, June 1, 2015 3:30pm - 4:30pm $5 at the door, advance tickets here Drawing from his extensive experience as a producer, writer, choreographer and designer in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Grant Philipo shares historical and anecdotal information about the trajectory of showgirls, showboys, and burlesque dancers in the Vegas area. To attend this presentation, visit: http://bhofweekend.com/schedule-of-events/bhof-finishing-school/ Born and raised in Iowa, Grant Philipo is the youngest person to ever produce a full-scale, 35 plus cast member, multi-million dollar spectacular for a major Las Vegas Strip property.  His "90 Degrees & Rising" premiered at the Dunes Hotel & Casino to rave reviews.  Most impressive is the fact that "90 Degrees & Rising" was produced for a fraction of the amount spent on similar Strip extravaganzas.  www.RisingIncSpectaculars.com Grant...

Andrew Davis teaches at Otis College of Art and Design and is one of the few people for whom the label “straight man” is a job description. He is the taller, more sophisticated half of the comedy team of Doc and Stumpy, and has performed classic burlesque comedy in Los Angeles and at burlesque and vaudeville festivals around the U.S. He holds a M.A. in Folklore from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU. He is the author of America’s Longest Run: A History of the Walnut Street Theatre (Penn State Press) and he operates the website BaggyPantsComedy.com. I interviewed Doc about his spectacularly detailed, informative, and entertaining book,  Baggy Pants Comedy Burlesque and the Oral Tradition. When did you publish this book? How long did it take? The book was published in 2011.  It was actually my doctoral dissertation, which I completed in 2000.  I’d gotten another book contract in the meantime, so I delayed a few years in revising the dissert...

Miss Nude Universe 1975, Tiffany Carter began her burlesque career at the infamous Pink Pussycat in Hollywood, California. An active, in-demand entertainer with Sparky Blaine’s American Showgirl agency, Tiffany toured the U.S., Canada, and Japan from the late 1960s through the 1980s. Tiffany has came out of burlesque retirement and become one of the most beloved and booked burlesque Legends within the international neo-burlesque community! Are you performing at BHOF this year? Yes, I am performing on Friday night! I am doing a great old classic song to begin with and I am just saying how much I love everyone! What are some of your favorite things about the BHOF Weekender? I love getting to meet all the new people in this show biz group!   Have you taught a class before? I taught a class 2 years ago "Panels and Negligee’s and it was my favorite thing that year. I want to give back to all the new people coming into this business. One of the best things about teaching is to b...

Ms Toni Elling got her name from Duke Ellington, a close friend, when she began performing in the 1960s. She became known for her originality and her skillful strut. She worked throughout the US Northeast and in Japan. She created a huge stir with the way she walked across the stage upon her return at BHoF in 2006, and has brought her signature style to stages from Detroit to New York. Today she is known for teaching the Three P’s: Parade, Pose, and Peel. Are you performing at BHOF this year? I will not be performing at BHOF this year; however, I will do the Walk Of Fame What are some of your favorite things about the BHOF Weekender? I love being able to see old friends and making new ones!  Have you taught a class before? Yes, I have done classes before. It makes me happy to share my knowledge.   What do you hope students will get out of your class?   I hope to show students how panels can be used in an act! See Toni perform! http://youtu.be/vX8h...

Delilah Jones was born in Berlin, Germany at the stroke of midnight on a full moon in 1941. She began performing in 1959 and worked with Lili St Cyr at the El Rancho in L.A, Sally Rand in 1965 in Hollywood, Tura Satana, and many other luminaries. She toured North America for two dazzling decades and retired from burlesque in 1980. Her knowledge of the different eras is extensive and her perspective is wry and insightful, with a clear understanding of context, time, and place. She is part of a lovely crew of Las Vegas local legends who make sure to spend time together in the spirit of striptease sisterhood. She will be taking the stage at the Burlesque Hall of Fame for the first time this year. Are you performing at BHOF this year? I’ll be performing on Friday! What are some of your favorite things about the BHOF Weekender? I love being with friends, all long time legends, under one roof. Have you taught a class before? If so, what do you like about te...

Camille 2000 was the first burlesque queen to introduce Aggressive Art to burlesque with her tribute to Marquis De Sade. With the tagline “The Girl for Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow,” she’s a performer no one can forget. She posed for elite photographers, travelled with trunks of costumes and props, and once had a Japanese television crew follow her, reality TV-style, long before that genre ever became popular. Her 20-year career includes acting roles in movies and television shows — alongside Burt Reynolds in B.L. Stryker, 13 episodes of Miami Vice, appeared in Porky’s II and Alan Carr’s remake of Where the Boys Are. Her emotionally powerful fan dance marked her return to the stage in 2011, and her S&M themed act with Tigger! made the audience roar at the BHoF Weekender in 2012.   Are you performing at BHOF this year? Which night? Do you want to give us a hint about what you'll be doing? I am performing on Sunday night and will be doing a number with...

Before there was The Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender in Las Vegas, there was Exotic World on a goat farm in the desert in Helendale, California. There, performers such as Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, Tigger, Miss Indigo Blue, and Kitten Deville, who at that time had been doing burlesque professionally for just a few short years, performed alongside Living Legends of burlesque whose careers spanned the 1940s-1970s. The living legends inspired new performers with their fierceness, their skills, and their story-telling. The performers who learned from them show a special fire and a rare sense of accessible humor mixed with high expectations of entertainment ability that created the new era of burlesque, in which these performers travel the world headlining festivals, media gatherings, and art events. Whether you are new to burlesque or an instructor, the Burlesque Hall of Fame Finishing School offers you the opportunity to add ...

I haven't had time to post much lately, but I just have to talk ever so briefly about a concept that comes up every time I teach. "Musicality in dance then might be considered a measure or degree to which a dancer is receptive and creative in his translation or rendering of music through movement." --From Dance Advantage: Musicality in Dance . In The Burlesque Handbook , I talk about the importance of musicality and timing. It's the art of making it look as if your movements and actions influenced the music, rather than the other way around. One of my favorite film clips for performers to study musicality is The Skeleton Dance , a Silly Symphonies cartoon. In it the skeletons are timed so that not just their dancing but their actions take place according to the music. It appears as if the music is caused by their movements rather than the other way around. When Billie Madley did a workshop at The New York School of Burlesque, she described "horns c...

Above: Photo of Jo Weldon by Dallas Pinup. When I first started working in strip joints in 1980, there were still what we now call “Legends of Burlesque” working in the clubs, usually as costumers or house mothers. And they HATED us. They had worked in the 40s-70s and they’d had minks and limousines and choreographers and champagne and feather boas and had all been engaged to Frank Sinatra. We were whores in spandex who were destroying the art form with our full nudity and jukeboxes and lack of artistry. I certainly wasn’t inclined to think of them as mentors. Realistically, they didn’t have much to offer in terms of helping me make more money–their era, which in some cases was only ten years past, had a different format. If I had done what they did I wouldn’t have gotten the results they got. Also, I didn’t care to be trained to end up stuck in a strip club I detested. I did, however, adore them for their stories. And their incredible hair and nails. And I really wanted to get...

If you'd like to see what some of the most recognized performers in our community do, check out the Top 50 Burlesque online poll on 21st Century Burlesque. There are lots of links to articles and videos for inspiration and research! http://21stcenturyburlesque.com/

It's time to play the music It's time to light the lights It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight. It's time to put on makeup It's time to dress up right It's time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight. source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/themuppetshowlyrics.html When I saw The Muppet Show as a kid, all I wanted to do was be a part of the backstage life. My understanding of showbiz personalitty archetypes and the community they could create came from watching the interactions between creatures made of felt, ping pong ball eyes, and ostrich trim. http://www.youtube.com/embed/-dDljd_7Yq0 " frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDljd_7Yq0 http://www.youtube.com/embed/tgbNymZ7vqY " frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY Also, I love skits and parodies, and when the Muppets do it, it's almost too good to ...

From Indigo's Facebook: Just found my 2007 intention statement: My intention is to: fulfill my divine purpose to exemplify embodied femininity; empower and support people to transform themselves and live their own passions; positively impact peoples' feelings about their bodies and their sexuality; experience satisfaction, pleasure and amusement while living tri-continentally; produce funny, meaningful, political, and entertaining art. I just stole this without her permission because if I ask her, it'll take forever. You know how you can get things done in two seconds with strangers, but it takes forever to do it with a friend? So you know. Indigo was the Headmistress and Founder of the Seattle Academy of Burlesque shortly before I opened the School of Burlesque, and no one has been a bigger influence on my approach to and mission for NYSB. While working on the development of a program of education for The Burlesque Hall of Fame , she suggested we develop an ed...

World Famous Bob , a photo by Jo Weldon on Flickr. World Famous *BOB* teaches Ultimate Self Confidence at The New York School of Burlesque, as well as Loving The Body You're In with Legs Malone. She's full of pith and vinegar, and recently she posted this awesome message on Facebook, and I'm pleased to share it here as well. Enjoy! New to Burlesque? Wanna be? My advice follows: Right away my advice for anyone starting in Burlesque is: 1. Know the history- research Burlesque and the women that came before you. The only way we can create the future of anything in a responsible way is by honoring its past. 2. Don't be jealous or competitive- if you are truly original then there is no competition! (sigh* what a relief!) 3. Lead by example- be the person you would want to share a backstage with- be the performer you would want to see- and always respect that others may have a different approach to it all. 4. Take lessons- whether it's acting, dance, butoh,...

When I think about some of my inspirations, I often think that they're not very visible in my work. Sometimes what informs a given number remains in it as an energy rather than an emulation of a style or technique. However, it's also true that a great deal of my work has actually been seen by very few people or by nonburlesque audiences. I have a history of numbers I no longer do, or I perform one-offs in shows that aren't photographed or filmed. While my more traditional numbers--which represent some of my most passionate expression of my belief in striptease as a standalone art form--are the ones I perform most frequently and are the most documented, I've done tons of performances and readings that look nothing like that. Yoko Ono, artist, activist, icon, and iconoclast, is probably one of the least visible influences in my  burlesque work, though she's always there in my idea of the radical female who doesn't hesitate to make a statement in the nude. ht...

" In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few."   ~ Shunryu Suzuki Roshi Above: Former students performing at a Coney Island USA benefit. http://www.youtube.com/embed/gsJ3vZ_uJfM " frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> Direct YouTube Link Above: Students kicking ass on an MTV news piece with Angel Pai The truth is, sometimes I get very burned out on some aspects of burlesque. When people argue about who should be allowed on which stage, and who is bringing down burlesque, and who does and doesn't deserve credit for what, the discussions can really take the wind out of my sails. I prize audacity, enthusiasm, and sincerity above Big Art, or anything that starts to become capitalized in the many ways that things can be capitalized for possession of some real or imaginary field: financial, cultural, artistic, academic, etc. Who did what first? Who does what the best? What's real burlesque? Who ...

I'm going to devote January to inspiration. My first post is about my long-time friend Lily Burana, author of Strip City , a book that said everything I ever wanted said about working in strip joints--the good, the bad, the nights of shame, the the shameless pleasures, the money, the sexy, the everything it takes to understand what it's really like. Although I had heard about Lily and was fascinated by her portrait in Annie Sprinkle's Post-Modern Pin-up Pleasure Activist Play Cards, I didn't meet her until we were on the set of Debra Devi's video "Take It Off," the opening for Jill Morley's incredible documentary, Stripped. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyoYL6uJD8 Everyone I've mentioned in this post is a huge inspiration, so be sure to click on all the links, but I thought of Lily in particular today because of this post today on Salon.com , in which Lily says: "Here’s what I know, this New Year, for sure: Darlings, it’s later...