Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Did you know that I coached Blair (Leighton Meester) for the Victor Victrola episode of the first season of Gossip Girl in 2007? while I was working with her and the director, we did lots of planning around the costume and the choreography. However, when her dress arrived for the shoot, it had an inset side zipper rather than the back zipper for which we had choreographed, and we had to figure out how to get it to drop to the floor as we wanted it to -- and get that shot! We decided to have her do the choreography without the zipper and break at the point where she would have unzipped, instead spending extra time focusing on the designers shoes that had been provided for the scene. Then, with cameras off, she removed the dress over her head, stepped back into it, and lifted it above her knees to let it drop in silky folds around her feet. The film was edited to make this look fluid. You can see the end result in the video above! Check out what Leightton Meester is up to now -

Did you know that you can rent or purchase the streaming version of my fan dance workshop video program at any time to study in the privacy of your own home? It's designed to get you started with marabou fans, silk veil fans, and ostrich fans (the big feathered ones all the headliners use)! It's available at https://worlddancenewyork.com/products/silk-and-feathers The world Dance website also hosts my video programs in striptease, burlesque dance, and chair dance, so take a look at all the offerings!

Above: The poster for my 2019 birthday party show at Coney Island USA. Poster design by David L Byrd. I always encourage my students to produce their own burlesque shows! They make new friends in class and build new audiences at student showcases -- their fresh energy is just what burlesque needs to stay exciting and relevant. Here are a few tips to get you started. There are many, many ways to produce burlesque shows, so if you read this and disagree with it, at least it will have given you an idea of what you don't want to do! If you have questions about a particular type of show, please ask in the comments. Also feel free to share your experiences as a producer, performer, or venue if you have different expectations or preferences than I'm describing here. Before you even start producing, visualize and manifest your show. Make a poster for it, even if it's just a sketch on a pad. Make a private online or print vision board with pictures of how you want it to

It's Black History Month, and I want to start by acknowledging that Black History is simply history; but we need to pay special attention because so much of mmainstream history has been erased, minimized, or reframed to suit white supremacy. I'll be providing some resources for students who are curious about burlesque history, but have been reading older texts (including mine, I regret to say) that omit significant contributions by Black artists and entertainment businesspeople. First up, I want to celebrate the phenomenal work of Leslie Cunningham, a documentarian and author who produced Brown Skin Showgirls and Jig Show, as well as documentaries on other dazzling topics. From her website: "BROWN SKIN SHOWGIRLS is a black and white photographic collection of the Black and Cuban women who performed burlesque, exotic, rhumba, salsa, calypso, striptease and female impersonation on Leon Claxton's Harlem in Havana Revue. This book is guaranteed to expand your knowl