Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Take your time, and don't worry about working your way up to the very highest heel. Dita Von Teese has her Louboutins, strip joint strippers their lucite Pleasers, but for most of us in burlesque, anything over four inches is a bit much. True, I have my eight-inch lucite tip jar shoes, but I wear them only when I'm hosting, and not when I'm dancing. You can start in character shoes. Take a look at some here: http://www.dancewearsolutions.com / Then try these sparklers once you get comfortable in character shoes, available from New York School of Burlesque friend PinupGirl Clothing: http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/turquoise-pink-rhinestone-shoes.html Many New York burlesquers are addicted to Pollys, available in various versions from Pinup Girl, Betsey Johnson, Patricia Field, Bordello Shoes, and on Ebay. I love them so much I wrote an article about them: http://burlesquedaily.blogspot.com/search/label/pollys Personally, I can be in a terrible mood, but the minute I step ...

The longer I've performed, the more serious I've gotten about dedicating a pair of shoes to a costume and not wearing them with anything else, no matter how strong the temptation. Once you cannibalize a costume for another costume, you begin the descent into costume hell--"Is the whole costume in the bag?" is not a question you want to be asking in a dressing room right before a show, or even on the subway on the way to the venue. I dedicated a pair of very special shoes to my Sherry Britton tribute, even though they wrong for the era--I knew Sherry would approve. Above: A costume fitting at Garo's . When I very first started dancing in strip joints (1981? it's all so fuzzy) I saw some of the dancers wearing amazing wood and metal heeled mules. I loved them but the heels weren't high enough for me. I was, in my late teens, excruciatingly self-conscious about being only five feet tall; plus, I drank a lot, which meant I could wear excruciatingly high heel...