Thread: How good is Burley for Belly Dance?

It's all the rage isn't it?.w.:
And yes of course they are half sisters from one historical standpoint.
But I hear 2 distinct attitudes towards blending and blurring the two.
I'm coming around to one of these and I'm not saying what.
What's your stance?

You like the contravertial topics don't you ? !

I took a number of classes in this, as I felt there were things I could take for my b/d, little things such as leg flicks, a greater concern for moving in space in character, plus more 'acting', and playing with humour. On the down side, there was much, much less discipline in terms of who does what when. It was ok if a move was done 1 and 2 seconds later along a line of people. It also helped interms of any snobbery I had about this other artform.
I've also taken ballet classes and added things in from there too. I also like the Tango:-) Having said that, I saw a really good tasteful belly/burley mix performed the other day and really enjoyed it. I guess the line that I'd be sad to see crossed is the nudity element in any fusion piece.
I personally am unlikely to do a ballet-belly, Tango-belly, or burley-belly fusion. I have tried doing fusions before and it just confuses me, and I am trying to get better at one thing at the moment.

I agree with Caroline. I haven't taken any burlesque classes, but I would like to. I don't really see fusing bellydance and burlesque all that possible other than walking and stage presence. But, I'd also be interested in taking bollywood, classical indian dance, and ballet as well. I also don't see myself fusing those things in either, other than improving carriage and some arms from ballet perhaps.

Let me preface this by saying that I think burlesque is very fun when done correctly, I'd love to take some classes one day, but I don't believe it has a place alongside belly dance.

How can we convince people that belly dancers do not disrobe and are not burlesque dancers when the public sees both dance forms in a show together? They aren't going to take the time to learn the historical connection and make a distinction; all they're going to see is that a "belly dance show" has burlesque or a "burlesque show" has belly dance and they'll draw conclusions from there.

I have no intention of doing any burlesque-belly dance fusion. However, how would "the public" know what classes or workshops I've been taking. Over the years I've taken ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance & gymnastics, but my audiences have never seen me do tap-belly dance fusion. Personally, I think the whole burley/belly dance drama is just that, drama!

I don't like burlesque-belly fusion, but I think burlesque is really cool and its own artform. Granted, it's a lot closer to stripping in its history than middle eastern dance. But it is far more artful and entertaining than someone whipping their clothes off in a new york minute, like strippers do today.
I also think pole-dancing is a skill. But I wouldn't want to see it fused with bellydance. I don't like to see bellydance advertised as just another way to spice up your sex life (even if I do think belly dance is naturally pretty sexy.)

Originally Posted by miriamgamal

Let me preface this by saying that I think burlesque is very fun when done correctly, I'd love to take some classes one day, but I don't believe it has a place alongside belly dance.

How can we convince people that belly dancers do not disrobe and are not burlesque dancers when the public sees both dance forms in a show together? They aren't going to take the time to learn the historical connection and make a distinction; all they're going to see is that a "belly dance show" has burlesque or a "burlesque show" has belly dance and they'll draw conclusions from there.

Can I ask you when the public is likely to see this? I think we're assuming that a lot more of "the public" is exposed to either burlesque or belly dance than actually are.

Inappropriate performances can happen at belly dance shows that have nothing to do with burlesque - I know of at least one recently, where an adult theme was explored as "performance art" at a family oriented belly dance show. Had naught to do with burly.

Let's face it. Neither burlesque nor belly dance have a high enough public profile that anyone is likely to run into either one accidentally, much less a combination of the two, so honestly I do think that the anti-burly drama is an overreaction to a non-issue.

If someone has a SPECIFIC tale of how a burlesque dancer or performance ruined a belly dance career, I'd be happy to hear it with an open mind, otherwise I feel like this is much ado about nothing.

The studio where I teach belly dance also offers stripping classes, and burlesque. Do the students get the two confused? No. Do people the studio refer to me for gigs confuse the two? No.

Give the public a break, and some credit for common sense.

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

Can I ask you when the public is likely to see this? I think we're assuming that a lot more of "the public" is exposed to either burlesque or belly dance than actually are.


If someone has a SPECIFIC tale of how a burlesque dancer or performance ruined a belly dance career, I'd be happy to hear it with an open mind, otherwise I feel like this is much ado about nothing.


Give the public a break, and some credit for common sense.

Hi Nisima here to tell her story:

Well, in my experience, the "public" does not have common sense all to often; for example:

1. Imagine how it feels to be hired to dance a classy corporate retirement dinner party of 200 or so and it is mixed company and some jerk calls out "take it off, take it all off" repeatedly to the chuckles at his table. I ignored it, and so did my duet partner. Finally, he was shushed up. Our show was 30 minutes long and we were in basic bedlah - matching and there was nothing, and I mean nothing in our choreo that could be considered risque. We didn't even do floorwork, did not go out for tips! ,f::

2. Imagine how it feels to spend hours and hours and lots of dough on glamorous costuming that is family venue friendly, and then be asked by women in the audience, "isn't veil work like striptease". My face hurt from smiling and patiently explaining, "no, it is not like striptease at all; bellydancers do not remove their clothing".

3. Imagine being contacted by a group for a birthday party (mixed company, mind you) and the lady-in-charge looks me right in the eye and says, "we'd like you to make an entrance by jumping out of a fake cake like an exotic type dancer". .w.: .w.: My reply: "Belly dancers do not jump out of cakes; you have us confused with another dance art form".

I'm not making this stuff up; the above are examples of paid gigs in San Francisco, CA, not some small town where general public isn't aware of various dance art forms. The fact is, the general public has had a real hard time letting go of the belly dancer/exotic dancer/burlesque dancer/strippper image for decades. So, in a word, I'm not a fan of blending belly and burley, no matter how tasteful, or skill level - it's still to my mind risking an association that I personally have had to handle as a professional and paid belly dancer for a long, long time...cr.:

I dunno, maybe if belly dancers had agents who could handle and therefore quell some of the more idiotic client requests, but that's another can o'worms..........

I should preface this by saying that I understand that depending on where you live/work, some of these issues have a more direct impact on your employment as bellydancers, so I don't want posters to feel like I'm discounting your very real concerns. That being said...

Men will be sexist jerks with or without the benefit of being discerning fans of burlesque or bellydance. I get very uncomfortable with these casual, "slippery-slope" connections between bellydance and Frightening Dance Fusion Trend of the Day.

Like THTX says, I think we get a little too wound up about what connections the GP makes. Burlesque performers struggle against discrimination and casual stereotypes as well ( witness where almost any thread on this board inevitably goes).

I think we'd all do a lot better to make alliances with other performers as far as breaking down parochial ideas about womens bodies and how we use them in performance.

If anyone else was at Y'Halla Y'all this summer, the trend of that conversation irritated me profoundly as well.

I think that there are ways that the lines can be blurred between the two, and its up to you the viewer ( or creating artist) to decide if its a "good" blur or a cheesy one. There's a "burlesque"-y musical break in a remake of a Abdel Halim song I want to dance to, and I'm not going to pretend it's not there.

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

Can I ask you when the public is likely to see this? I think we're assuming that a lot more of "the public" is exposed to either burlesque or belly dance than actually are.

I mentioned the belly/burlesque performances at each other's shows because I have seen shows advertised to the public that are billed as "belly dance shows" but mention that they also include burlesque in a way that makes it seem as if the two are more related than they are.

I definately don't think EVERYONE in the GP is unable to see the difference because many do, it's just those that don't who usually make life a little harder for belly dancers. In Miami, this is not so much of a problem, where I live right now, I want to keep burlesque and belly dance from appearing together on a stage at the same time because the environment is a little "backwards" when it comes to all forms of dance besides the usual ballet/tap/jazz/hip hop for kids. Even a flamenco instructor at a studio I teach at has had people tell her that her dancing was too racey and they tried to draw a parallel between flamenco and stripping. I've seen her dance and she is a very well trained flamenco dancer with nothing questionable about her performances or costuming.

Then, another professional dancer in the area was hired for a birthday party by a friend of hers and had to cut her performance short because her friend was letting her guests carry on telling this dancer to "take it off" and one or two even tried to grope her and stuff dollar bills in inappropriate places. She evaded the touching, but this was supposedly an event where people knew they were watching a belly dancer and not a stripper (which I know isn't exactly burlesque...).

Oh, and my troupe has been banned from performing in certain public venues even though none of our dancing/costuming is inappropriate just because people assume our clothes come off.

My opinions are being influenced by my location because the GP here is definately not the GP everywhere and so I feel that if your area is cool with belly/burley being together on a stage or at an event and they have the common sense to know the difference, go for it. I just don't think that's the case outside of many larger cities.

I have the same issue though with inappropriate "belly dancers" who wear costumes that make most of Dina's look conservative and do really scandalous floorwork. We have those too and they're possibly even worse for the dance's image than any burlesque dancer would be.

Originally Posted by miriamgamal

I mentioned the belly/burlesque performances at each other's shows because I have seen shows advertised to the public that are billed as "belly dance shows" but mention that they also include burlesque in a way that makes it seem as if the two are more related than they are.

I definately don't think EVERYONE in the GP is unable to see the difference because many do, it's just those that don't who usually make life a little harder for belly dancers. In Miami, this is not so much of a problem, where I live right now, I want to keep burlesque and belly dance from appearing together on a stage at the same time because the environment is a little "backwards" when it comes to all forms of dance besides the usual ballet/tap/jazz/hip hop for kids. Even a flamenco instructor at a studio I teach at has had people tell her that her dancing was too racey and they tried to draw a parallel between flamenco and stripping. I've seen her dance and she is a very well trained flamenco dancer with nothing questionable about her performances or costuming.

Then another professional dancer in the area was hired for a birthday party by a friend of hers and had to cut her performance short because her friend was letting her guests carry on telling this dancer to "take it off" and one or two even tried to grope her and stuff dollar bills in inappropriate places. She evaded the touching, but this was supposedly an event where people knew they were watching a belly dancer and not a stripper (which I know isn't exactly burlesque...).

My opinions are being influenced by my location because the GP here is definately not the GP everywhere and so I feel that if your area is cool with belly/burley being together on a stage or at an event and they have the common sense to know the difference, go for it. I just don't think that's the case outside of many larger cities.

I understand that in some areas, the conservative mindset makes any kind of dancing a target, but it's not all the fault of burlesque, rather it's the fault of small minds and religious conservativism that's really gone too far.

BTW, I saw a news story on the way junior high and high school kids social dance, because a school district had an issue with dancing that closely imitates sexual activities on the dancefloor.

Shockingly, one of the high school girls interviewed asked "is there any other way to dance?"

It seems like people should be focusing on this kind of dancing done by teenagers as being dangerous to the moral fibre of society....AND maybe those cotillion classes our grandmothers had to go to should be reinstituted.

I totally agree

And actually, I have said nothing about burly/belly being performed at the same event.

My personal view is that I would have less of a problem with a belly dance act in a burlesque show than a burlesque act in a belly dance show, but it also depends on the individual act as to whether I really liked it or not.

A show in which many dance forms are being represented and both burly and belly were presented would be neutral for me.

For what it's worth, I did a search on burlesque and belly dance, and this is what I came up with:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=bur...p=mss&ei=UTF-8

So it seems that not all belly dancers have as big an issue with this. Are they ruining belly dance for everyone else?

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

A show in which many dance forms are being represented and both burly and belly were presented would be neutral for me.

I agree.

My own personal view is that never the twain should meet. And that holds for more than just burley, to be honest - although, yes I have problems with it. I know it's popular - perhaps it's bubble is now the size ours was at "our" peak. I know these dance/exersice fads are all swings and roundabouts - today we're cool, tomorrow it's the flamencoers, next week it's tango, etc etc.

I'm all for all of them, and would like to see lots of dance forms all over the place in appropriate context - an "International/World Dance Show" etc. But I like my bellydance to be just bellydance, thanks.

I know my opiion is frighteningly uncool among the new wave of liberal bellydancers and I've been told on more than one occasiona that apparently I'm up my own ar$e. As uncomfortable as it sounds, I think I shall stay there - I just don't like overt sexuality in "our" dance, and I hate seeing the lines get blurred.

Uncool, unfashionable and very opinionated me.

Originally Posted by wigglewhiz

My own personal view is that never the twain should meet. And that holds for more than just burley, to be honest - although, yes I have problems with it. I know it's popular - perhaps it's bubble is now the size ours was at "our" peak. I know these dance/exersice fads are all swings and roundabouts - today we're cool, tomorrow it's the flamencoers, next week it's tango, etc etc.

I'm all for all of them, and would like to see lots of dance forms all over the place in appropriate context - an "International/World Dance Show" etc. But I like my bellydance to be just bellydance, thanks.

I know my opiion is frighteningly uncool among the new wave of liberal bellydancers and I've been told on more than one occasiona that apparently I'm up my own ar. As uncomfortable as it sounds, I think I shall stay there - I just don't like overt sexuality in "our" dance, and I hate seeing the lines get blurred.

Uncool, unfashionable and very opinionated me.

I am a VERY traditional belly dancer. However, I happen to like burlesque, and would have no problem attending classes, workshops, or shows, or dancing in a show where there were burlesque acts so long as the venue and situation were appropriate, or teaching in a studio that offers burly classes.

As for burly/belly fusion, I really have no opinion on it, as long as it's not presented to an audience who doesn't know what they're looking at.

Actually, I'm teaching and performing in an event in a couple of weeks that features a burlesque workshop and performance. <shrugs>

I'm not 100% thrilled about the association, but I see it as we do different things and as long as we're clearly doing different things it's all good. It's just that personally, I'd really rather they were viewed as distinct and seperate by everyone, and that's not often the case - especially when we put them together in one show and most certainly when we start to borrow from each other's repertoire. What can I say - it bothers me.

As for the educated audience - chance would be a fine thing. I'd say that most of the audiences we have in this country don't know what they're looking at - so any belly/burley fusion is inherently going to be presented to an audience that can't discern where the fusion's happening. Perhaps therein lies my biggest problem.

Originally Posted by wigglewhiz

Actually, I'm teaching and performing in an event in a couple of weeks that features a burlesque workshop and performance. <shrugs>

I'm not 100% thrilled about the association, but I see it as we do different things and as long as we're clearly doing different things it's all good. It's just that personally, I'd really rather they were viewed as distinct and seperate by everyone, and that's not often the case - especially when we put them together in one show and most certainly when we start to borrow from each other's repertoire. What can I say - it bothers me.

As for the educated audience - chance would be a fine thing. I'd say that most of the audiences we have in this country don't know what they're looking at - so any belly/burley fusion is inherently going to be presented to an audience that can't discern where the fusion's happening. Perhaps therein lies my biggest problem.

I think the same arguement can be made for any kind of fusion.

I spend my time mostly on the hafla or student platform circuit and I see a lot of well intentioned but not always very tasteful belly dancing. Most of those committed get better and are a pleasure to watch. I am just not sure that a fusion with burley will help the process. Some belly dancers will fuse it well, others will give us a painful and not very funny experience watching it!
I went to a burley workshop, loved it..I love burley...but I agree with the teacher..keep the two separate despite their conjoined origin in the West. And lo, I saw a bunch of women who spend their time dancing with their eyes fixed on the floor covering...er...burlesque??????????
Of course good, professional dancers will do it well and a good burley turn will enhance any belly dance platform as much as an example of "urban fusion" or gothic bellydance but I fear we will have a plethora of embarassing acts down at my level.
God help my audience if I ever went Princess Farhana...and I don't look at the lino when I dance.

Belly/Burly nope, nope, nope! We in belly dance have been working too hard to too long to dispell the stripper image. To perform a fusion of the two, in my opinion, takes belly dance several steps back.

If you're going to do "Burly" then do it and say that that is what you're doing. If you are doing belly dance follow the same rule.

There is nothing wrong with either one nor is there anything better about either one. They are just, to me, appropriate in different settings.

The issue ( as always with fusion discussions) is what exactly are we talking about when we say blending/blurring the two. I think our minds all go to completely different places. Are people seeing the stripping off of bedleh to Om Khalthoum, or the use of a boa instead of a veil or a saucy bump n grind phrase in a drum solo? I just find it hard to draw conclusions and judgements about an entire trend based on a worst case scenario.

Fikkriyah and Wiggle - there is a BIG difference between burlesque as it's performed now, and stripping as it's performed now. I don't have a problem with either one in their own contexts, by the way, so my thong-wearing pals, don't think I'm slagging you. In the past, the burlesque dancer occupied a role more like today's stripper - by past, I mean very far in the past, relatively speaking. That hasn't been the case for many decades. Now, strippers is strippers and burlesque is something else entirely.

I love it. As it is performed now, it is often a museum piece, a fragmentary glimpse of a fantasy. It's a world ruled by artists, creating strange little acts that have no home elsewhere. I performed at a Hallowe'en party last night, alternating with a fantastic burlesque performer named Plum Manchego, who created the most beautiful, bewitching atmosphere with her extremely tasteful performance. She was more Cyd Charisse than Lil' Lori Lap Dance. Yes, there is more overt sexuality in burlesque, but it is so far from your local tittie bar as to be completely unrecognizable to the denizens of said bar. Burlesque ain't no pussy show.

I really don't see what the problem is with a tasteful, classy bellydancer sharing a bill with a tasteful, classy burlesque performer, in an East Village bar full of actors wearing costumes. In the beer-stinking back rooms of New York, we share a long history. I don't do fusion of any kind. But I have no problem being on the same bill as a good burlesque artist, comedian, rock band, or finger puppet player.

Nisima - the sleazebags you encountered were obviously nasty little cockroach-men. But I doubt that they behaved that way towards you because they'd seen Dirty Martini the night before. Burlesque is such a subculture, I doubt they were associating you with it. And I don't think it's fault of a bunch of art school girls in retro corsets and feather pasties. I think they were a bunch of uneducated dorks who were expecting to see an x-rated harem fantasy. Not the same world. The sexuality projected by burlesque is so mannered and fantastical, it's more like an art piece than anything else.

That said, there was one annoying guy in the audience last night. But he shut up once he saw me standing perfectly still but for my shimmy and the 12 burning candles on my head. 'Cause if he'd come any closer, I would have set his beer-soaked beard aflame and he would have been quite sad.

Edited to add that I've seen one "fusion" piece of bellydance and burlesque, and it was performed by someone who had extensive experience with both. Not all burlesque involves sexy stuff. She slithered out onto the stage in a mermaid's tail, fought her way out of it, and concluded with a beautiful, profound, and joyous sword dance (the ultimate in bellydance-burlesque fusion, no?). This was at Coney Island, where it belonged, and she brought the house down. I actually didn't really think this was fusion.

- Leela

Very well said FlimFlamGirl; thanks so much for posting that!

I'm not really keen on fusion I must admit.Seems to me belly fusion have become like buses-there'll be another one along in a minute. I think I'll start one- bellydance on bicycles lets call it bellycycle.
I like dance styles not mixed up with other dance styles. Do burlesque if you want to but at a burlesque or variety show not a belly dance show. Same with Bollywood, Flamenco etc. fraid I'm just plain old fashioned.
Excuse me I'm off to stick sequins on my bellycycle.

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

I think the same arguement can be made for any kind of fusion.

Absolutely. And as such, it's also my position when it comes to fusion in general.

Originally Posted by flimflamgirl

Fikkriyah and Wiggle - there is a BIG difference between burlesque as it's performed now, and stripping as it's performed now. ... Now, strippers is strippers and burlesque is something else entirely.

...Yes, there is more overt sexuality in burlesque, but it is so far from your local tittie bar as to be completely unrecognizable to the denizens of said bar. Burlesque ain't no pussy show.

...I really don't see what the problem is with a tasteful, classy bellydancer sharing a bill with a tasteful, classy burlesque performer, in an East Village bar full of actors wearing costumes. In the beer-stinking back rooms of New York, we share a long history. I don't do fusion of any kind. But I have no problem being on the same bill as a good burlesque artist, comedian, rock band, or finger puppet player.

- Leela

Don't worry, Leela - I've seen burlesque performances and I know they're very different from stripping. I've also known strippers who were really quite artistic in their presentation and would make a distinction between "their" stripping and their less "artistic" or "classy" counterparts in the industry. I STILL have a problem with all of it, because the point is to titillate the audience. Burlesque less blatantly, because it's often done with a lot of storytelling and a great deal of humour. But to my mind, the sexual element is VERY much more blatant than in our dance form or in many other forms of entertainment. I'm afraid I do not classify burlesque as family entertainment. However, I have my own reservations even calling bellydance family entertainment - though that may well be to do with my own impatience with children.

As I mentioned before, sharing the bill with a burlesque performer IN PARTICULAR in front of an educated audience is one proposition - and belly/burley fusion is entirely another. I'm against the latter. I'm uncomfortable with the former, because I don't believe in my locale we have educated enough audiences who can see the two in one show and NOT simply equate them with each other and assume it's all part of the same picture.

I agree, Wiggle, that Burlesque isn't family entertainment. It's about sexiness, much moreso than bellydance. But as bellydancers, we walk the line in ways that may sometimes be dishonest. My teacher once commented that though we aren't about sex, "Look what you're wearing!!".

I was trained to be nothing but classy and family-oriented in my dancing. My style is Egyptian, I keep my legs together and nearly always dance with women in the audience, I show very little skin, and still, I would be considered a whore in some parts of the world - depsite my degree, husband, day job, and upright morals. I dance in public, therefore I am not a Nice Girl (this would have been true in my immigrant Jewish family if my mother or I had become ballerinas - the dance form doesn't matter. It's Not Nice.). You can't win, and you have to pick your battles. I don't think everything has to be "family-friendly" - this is a point of view one often finds in America, and it threatens to turn the entire country into an infantilized theme park. Some entertainments are for grownups.

You're right about local audiences having different levels of experience with Burlesque. Here, it's old hat. Yeah, OK, here's a fan dancer. Woop, now it's time for the bellydancer. No one really confuses the two, as far as I can tell. At these shows, it quickly becomes clear that the bellydancer ain't taking off that fancy outfit.

But I'm confused about the fusion stuff. I've never seen a performance that was labeled as a fusion of the two art forms, though I have seen bellydancers work with fans. And I am pretty sure that some of the bump-and-grind has its origins in bowdlerized bellydance moves. I wonder what a fusion of the two would entail?

Here's something a teacher I really love told me: The vaudeville and burlesque dancers of the early/mid-20th century saw the early bellydancers who were brought here from the Middle East, and took some of their moves, altering them for their own purposes and according to their own interpretation. Fosse saw the burlesque dancers, and took some of their moves, altering them for his own purposes and according to his own training. Interesting. Is it true? Are we all sisters of the hips, beneath our different costumes?

OK, maybe this was fusion: a friend of mine is descended from a long line of vaudeville performers, and is also a great bellydancer. She used to perform regularly in a Burlesque show, using kitschier aspects of American bellydance in her act for that show. Is that fusion? Or is it homage to our shared past on the dime stages of America?

It's all fusion...ghawazee meets Russian ballet masters, Algerian Berbers wash up in Chicago, and so on. I feel a great sense of solidarity with Burly girls and drag queens; in the end, we're all misunderstood artists, toiling in small spaces, putting on our makeup in tiny dark bathrooms, trying not to soil our shiny gowns, and getting home late at night in runny makeup.

- Leela

Get out of my head, Flimflam girl. This is why I'll have nothing else to say on the subject when you already say it so well.

And that last line in particular is so gorgeous and true.

I'm with Shimarella and FlimFlamGirl! Well said!

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

My personal view is that I would have less of a problem with a belly dance act in a burlesque show than a burlesque act in a belly dance show, but it also depends on the individual act as to whether I really liked it or not.

I agree with this. Burlesque shows can be a lot like...well...old time burlesque shows--vaudeville. Meaning they have a variety of acts. Most I have been involved with had comic MC's, maybe magic, a variety of dance, etc. People expect to see other acts as well at a burlesque show. The bellydance shows tend to just have bellydance, as the name implies. To slip in burlesque acts then confuses the two.

I perform both, and I have found that my bellydance was far more helpful to my burlesque than burlesque ever did for my bellydance. They have different spirits, and you have to treat the same movements differently between the two for best effect. I came from a theater background, so this was no news to me, but I would think the theatrical element--building a character or story into your dance--could be valuable to those who have never explored that angle of performance before. Otherwise, negligible in my opinion.

I do NOT however endorse the fusion of the two. *sigh* At least when I get up in arms about it, no one can point a finger at me and call me a burlesque-hating prude! I just think that in most cases, the dances are created for very different audiences. And I don't like the public getting the idea that bellydance can't be performed at a family festival, nor do I want them to think that bellydancers believe that a burlesque fusion is appropriate for such an event. It sends a confusing message. I say if you want to do burlesque, you can pretty much do bellydance in a burlesque costume at a burlesque venue, and you will be lauded as a great burly dancer. You don't even have to take your clothes off in burlesque. But to go the other way...looks wrong and the GP gets confused.

It's super fun, if you're up for trying it! As a tribal gal, I was never really into doing bellydance in frou-frou costumes with lots of beads and sequins. But that dancer is in there--only her name is Miss Scarlet Rose! Burly is how I get my glam tendencies fed!
Miss Scarlet Rose

Originally Posted by flimflamgirl

I feel a great sense of solidarity with Burly girls and drag queens; in the end, we're all misunderstood artists, toiling in small spaces, putting on our makeup in tiny dark bathrooms, trying not to soil our shiny gowns, and getting home late at night in runny makeup.

Very well said indeed. <would insert a nodding-agreement-smilie here but there ain't one, darnit>

Just to be 100% crystal clear, I'm not hating on anyone. I just personally would like each to keep to their own shows and formatting, and I *am* concerned with the connotations that burlesque has and that I'd like to avoid. It's a personal issue, and I just thought maybe the dissenting voice should be heard as well as all the more liberal and popular agreements.