Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

"BURLESQUE UNDRESSED is a lavish and dazzling journey right into the heart of the art-form, featuring a compelling mix of live performance, interviews from burlesque stars past and present, captivating music and all-round show-stopping entertainment.

British burlesque superstar Immodesty Blaize peels back the curtain to reveal her world of high-octane glamour, and gives an exclusive peep behind-the-scenes to expose the work involved in the art of the tease to produce a signature act of perfection." I first saw Immodesty when she performed at the New York Burlesque Festival in 2005 , and everybody stopped and said, "Who is THAT?" Kalani Kokonuts, me, Dixie Evans, Liz Goldwyn, and Immodesty Blaize at the reception for Dita Von Teese's opening night at Crazy Horse, Las Vegas. If you watch this film, you won't know much about Immodesty's personal history or how she came to be in burlesque, but you'll know a lot about being a showgirl. In my book I fo...

Click here to purchase. I love love the company I worked with, World Dance New York. I also love that they are primarily a bellydance company, because there's some historical synchronicity: the company that released Ann Corio's "How to Strip for Your Husband" was also produced bellydance music, and at one point released Ann's album as part of a set with a bellydance how-to album. The music on "How to Strip..." was mostly by Sonny Lester and is a large portion of the music on the ubiquitous "Striptease Classics." The music on my DVD is by Ronnie Magri . I'll be posting my interview with him shortly. Ronnie is AMAZING!

Well, if this isn't cute, I don't know what is. The DVD features a dozen burlesque performers (Angie Pontani, Anita Cookie, Bunny Love, Chicava Honeyscotch, Gal Friday, Harvest Moon, Julie Atlas Muz, Little Brooklyn, The Maine Attraction, Ms. Tickle, and Peekaboo Pointe, with Kit Cat as the card girl) dancing in front of a Yule Log to Christmas and Hanukka music played by Fisherman's Burlesque. It's pretty frickin cute. There is also a CD of the music without the dancers, which is a nice bonus for those who just want the music (weirdos). It's a fantastic DVD to play in the background at a holiday party, of course, but it's also a great way to steal a few moves for would-be holiday stripteasers. The performers are stellar, and they leave no feather unturned--there are glamourous numbers, sexy numbers, humourous numbers, and numbers that are all three. But of course my favorite part is the behind the scenes extra segment. Performers are asked where they go...