progress on the prairie

As some of you know, I have decided to dress up burlesque for Halloween. But don’t worry, Mom, I assure you that burlesque is not stripping. Well, some of it is. But, it wasn’t always this way. Historically, burlesque began as performance satire, to make fun of elitist art such as Opera and to challenge bourgeois restrictions on female sexuality. The word burlesque comes from the Latin word burra meaning nonsense and the Italian word burla meaning mockery.

However, during the 1920s, burlesque halls began to lose money and struggled to stay open. Then, individual theater owners introduced “the strip tease…as a desperate bid to offer something that vaudeville, film and radio could not.” Surprise (!), it worked, and burlesque has since been increasingly identified with stripping, albeit somewhat cheeky, witty, or creative stripping.

So, I don’t know exactly what my burlesque outfit/persona will look like, but it will be more in the vein of this:

and not so much this:

Dita Von Teese

I am a fairly confident female, but I’ve sense enough to know that I’m no Dita Von Teese!

I leave you with this charming yet kinda crazy little French burlesque film called Le Cochon Danseur (The Dancing Pig) from 1907. Oh, gotta love the French!

Happy Halloween to all,

Spring