Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

As if body language wasn't enough, Gypsy Rose Lee and Sally Rand were both delightful speakers, clever and quick and shameless. It's sometimes hard to explain why a particular stripteaser or fan dancer is so enchanting when what they actually do is not unique. For me, a huge part of the beauty and importance of a number is not a skill set--perfect dance timing is more important for the chorus than the lead, and virtuousity can become monotonous to watch. But personality is the singular force that drives a great entertainer, and it's vividly portrayed in both of these clips. Enjoy! Gypsy Rose Lee Sally Rand

Just go for it. The feathers are tougher than you think! Assemble it without the glue, though, because you never know when you'll want to change or add feathers. Take your time to make sure all the feathers curve in the same direction--lay it out without attaching the feathers before you begin. And I usually leave the lengths of string knotted between the staves to be about 2.5-3 inches. Check my facebook page, under the name Jo Weldon, to see if other folks have added other helpful tips to this post. I love the collapsible fans! The fans I'm using in this photo are ostrich.com Junior Sally Rand fans: / Ask me anything about Burlesque!

We now have over 1000 members in the Flickr group I moderate with Dale Harris.I'm looking at fan dance photos while preparing to wrap up my chapter on fandancing for my book project . Miss Indigo Blue, photographed in Seattle by Chris Blakely. Gal Friday, photographed in Washington DC by Mowabby. Kira Hula-la, photographed in Sydney by Kristin Elsby. Michelle L'Amour, photographed by Phantom Kitty. Fan Dance in China, submitted by Koolpix. Thank you to all the amazing photographers and performers who make this group so beautiful. Check out the group! Posted by Jo Weldon, Headmistress of The New York School of Burlesque , for burlesquedaily.blogspot.com .

In fan workshops, once we master some of the hand positions, we talk about the conceal/reveal opportunities afforded by fans. Although of course we play with the bigger ostrich feather fans, we also play with several different sizes and types of fans. Above: Dirty Martini's fans backstage at Pinchbottom Burlesque. Photo by me. Fan dancing has a history outside of burlesque fan-dancing , as well, and a search for "fan dance" on youtube locates videos featuring Asian and Spanish dances having nothing to do with burlesque, as well as bellydance videos. I've seen all these translated for a burlesque audience, as well as fire fans and fighting fans ! Fans also have a history having nothing to do with dance, and I've long been fascinated by The Language of the Fan , though I've never played with it onstage. Pinchbottom once produced a show in which all the performers did a fan dance--and none of them did remotely the same thing. Little Brooklyn used big...

Michelle L'Amour performed a landmark tribute to Sally Rand at The Burlesque Hall of Fame Striptease Reunion in Las Vegas in 2007. Who wouldn't want to learn fan dance techniques from Michelle? She begins with a recommendation of types of fans to use, then clearly explains the theatrical definition of a reveal, and demonstrates how to hold the fans and how to think of them as an extension of yourself and as a costume. She breaks down a graceful walk and sprinkles the video with dos and don'ts that apply to any kind of dance performance. She talks about staging and what the audience can see as well as showing fan movement techniques. Michelle's onstage charm translates beautifully into teaching. She has confidence and warmth as a teacher, and her voice is as easy on the ear as her body is on the eye (her posterior is known as "The Ass that Goes Pow!" for good reason). Technically, the video is well-staged, with gorgeous red and black tones, and ...

I don't post video clips often because they seem to get deleted from youtube soon afterward, but I can't resist this one! I use this in my "Exotic Dance in Contemporary Film" presentation, and this is the first time I've found it online. As you can see if you look at the video's youtube page, none of the tags are "burlesque;" sometimes I have to be very specific to find the video I'm hoping to see. In my presentation about strip tease on film, I show a lot of clips and talk about how striptease is used to establish characters, develop plots, set the tone for environments, build up or drop viewer expectations, and so on, and what it reflects about our culture that such scenes can have those effects. For performers, I discuss how, in burlesque loops of actual performers from the mid-twentieth century, it can be difficult to tell how the performers were utilising the music; due to music rights concerns, the music on the clips is often dubbed ove...