Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

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...

I get offers to perform at benefits all the time, and I am usually happy to do it. In fact, one of the reasons I was inspired to create Pink Light Burlesque was because I was getting requested to perform at breast cancer benefits so frequently, and although I am always thrilled and honored to do it, I also feel survivors can represent even more powerfully. Some benefit events have budgets for entertainment, and on a weekend night when I normally could not afford to cancel other gigs that make up a quarter of my monthly income to perform for free, this makes it possible. If I am not already booked, I am almost always willing to donate my time and name and services for free, if I feel that the benefit is intended to do a real service. A misunderstanding that comes up with surprising frequency is when event organizers tell me I can deduct my donation of a performance, when in fact I cannot. Above: Julie Atlas Muz with money raised at a Starshine Benefit for Exotic World. From Miss I...

About ten years ago I began a website called G-Strings Forever!, a tribute website to both strip joint strippers and burlesque. I was posting fuzzy digital photos of the scene I knew and setting up links and writing articles without the benefit of much site programming ability, and without blogging technology, flickr, or youtube. Inspired by the original Velvet Hammer website, I interviewed curfnt performers and burlesque legends. I wanted desperately to convey what was amazing and inspiring about these art forms and the people in them. Fortunately, as the School of Burlesque and The Burlesque Handbook have begun to keep me busier and busier, other, more able people have picked up that job, and one of the most inspiring is Holli-Mae Johnson, Editor-In-Chief of 21st Century Burlesque. Above: Holli-Mae, The Editor-In-Chief. How did you become interested in burlesque? Well, I suppose it was likely that, as a performer and with the friends and interests that I had, I would come across ...

Interview with Deirdre Timmons Director, A Wink and a Smile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjDNZJYuQAY "An intoxicating mix of private thoughts and public behavior, A Wink and a Smile exposes more than the human body by putting gender, power, sexuality and social identity under the glittery spotlight, as it follows the lives of ten "ordinary" women who do something extraordinary – learn the art burlesque dancing and striptease. Through their adventures, we see how a homemaker, a reporter, a doctor, an opera singer, a taxidermist and a college student, join the American cultural revival of burlesque, as it moves from fringe fascination to mainstream obsession, engaging a world where performance art and showgirl spectacle, music, theater and sensuality crash into over-the-top glamour - a world where many want to go, but very few dare." On Saturday, May 2, I'll be performing with some of the subjects of this film at Quad Cinema in New York, so I took it up...