Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

I'm going to devote January to inspiration. My first post is about my long-time friend Lily Burana, author of Strip City , a book that said everything I ever wanted said about working in strip joints--the good, the bad, the nights of shame, the the shameless pleasures, the money, the sexy, the everything it takes to understand what it's really like. Although I had heard about Lily and was fascinated by her portrait in Annie Sprinkle's Post-Modern Pin-up Pleasure Activist Play Cards, I didn't meet her until we were on the set of Debra Devi's video "Take It Off," the opening for Jill Morley's incredible documentary, Stripped. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyoYL6uJD8 Everyone I've mentioned in this post is a huge inspiration, so be sure to click on all the links, but I thought of Lily in particular today because of this post today on Salon.com , in which Lily says: "Here’s what I know, this New Year, for sure: Darlings, it’s later...

Lily Burana is one of my personal heroes. When I read Strip City , I felt like I had finally read a memoir that addressed the ambivalence most strippers feel about the job in a nonjudgemental fashion. Not long after I read that book, I performed with Lily in the video for Debra's song Take It Off, a video recorded to accompany the release of Jill Morley's documentary Stripped. Working with these three women has created one of the strongest support systems of my life. Lily's book I Love a Man in a Uniform is not only a fascinating memoir of the life of an army wife, told with Lily's characteristic candor and charm, but a deeply inspiring account of her personal struggles with PTSD and identity. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to choreograph a routine for Lily's Operation Bombshell , her burlesque school for military wives, and to have had her blurb my book! It's a treat to finally be able to interview her. Lily and Me in Las Vegas for the Burle...

WHAT IS OPERATION BOMBSHELL? Operation Bombshell is the world's only burlesque school for military wives. Started by Lily Burana, herself an Army wife, Operation Bombshell aims to provide much needed entertainment and amusement for women whose husbands are deployed in the Global War on Terror. Ms. Burana came up with the idea for Operation Bombshell after enduring her own "deployment blues." Her husband, then an Army Intelligence officer, was fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Burana longed for something to lift her spirits. Later, during a little "retail therapy" lingerie shopping, she found that the salesgirl was herself a sad, lonely military wife, and Burana wished she could offer her some cheer and healing distraction. In that instant, Operation Bombshell was born. Operation Bombshell teaches classic burlesque moves in an easy, accessible way. This is NOT a striptease class and the class does not involve any nudity. Students are encouraged to ...