Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Medianoche in a costume with matching mask. All photos courtesy Medianoche. Medianoche, Miss Exotic World 2017, is well known for her graceful and sensuous performances, as well as for making her own glamourous and unique costumes. During the pandemic she added new panache by making the essential fabulous. Jo: "When did you start making masks?" Medianoche: I started making cloth masks soon after the pandemic began. With mask shortages and seeing as I had free time and a big stash of fabric, it made sense! I took my time to develop a pattern that was flattering and fit my face correctly... It took a few tries but it was worth it! "Did you make them to match existing costumes?" I started off with just regular everyday masks, but eventually made one to match a costume for my first show back -- and have been making them to match all my costumes since! I now have about 8-10 costume masks. I have fabric and rhinestone remnants from most of my costumes that I hold on to fo...

Free Fan Dance mini-tutorial tonight! Tuesday, October 12, 9 pm Eastern Time Live on the New York School of Burlesque Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nyschoolofburlesque/ Why? Because we like you! (Also, to encourage students to follow our IG!) Image above from World Dance New York One of my goals ever since I began was to introduce newcomers not just to me, but to the entire fabulous world of burlesque, its community, its performers, and of course its many brilliant instructors. I hope you find a wide range of ways to enjoy burlesque in all its versions, and all its many fabulous people, here!  

  Above: Virago Nation See Virago Nation Perform Today is Indigenous People's Day, which is a great day to tell you about just a few of the Native American/First Nations performers using burlesque to express identity, history and purpose. Get to know a few in this post! Support them by watching their performances and following them on social media, liking, commenting on and sharing their work, and looking out for their suggestions for support. Virago Nation: "We are a collective of Indigenous artists creating performance through burlesque, theatre, song and spoken word as well as workshops, and community rematriating Indigenous sexuality." Learn More About Virago Nation Adele Wolf Productions: "Adele Wolf Production is an Indigenous LGBTQ+ owned, international, award-winning entertainment company established in 2011 and specializing in world-class burlesque and variety entertainment. Our World-renowned revuews include tlaent from Absinthe Las Vegas, Crazy Horse Paris...

Image: The New York School of Burlesque Mug, available now from Lola Star! Click here to purchase If you're just getting started in burlesque but you plan to become a part-time or fulltime performer, you can start branding yourself right away! Take these three steps to claim your social media and internet presence, and you'll look professional when you start to get bookings. All of the suggestions below assume that your stage name (or, show title, or any other thing you wish to brand) is unique.  If they are not unique enough to follow these suggestions, see my article on stage names. Get the simplest email with your stage name.  Yourstagename@gmail.com or you@yourstagename.com are both ideal.   Get your stage name on all the social media you wish to use, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc. For instance, Instagram.com/yourstagename. Create the hashtags #yourstagename and #yourstagenameburlesque . Purchase the domain yourstagename.com. You can forward it to yo...