Burlesque is it grotesque?

[claig]

Very sad state of affairs, burlesque becoming mainstream

Burlesque it's just grotesque

mjinsparklystockings wrote - "Strippers dressed up as Burlesque is not Burlesque though."

That may be the case, but non-stripping burlesque is being hijacked by the stripping variety. I'll be very surprised if, in 10 years from now, stripping burlesque hasn't completely taken over.

I'm thinking of all those men going into the office the next day after the office outing to a burlesque show, saying to the other attendees, "Seeing those male musicians was worth every penny of the ticket price."

That'll be right

mjinsparklystockings wrote - "there is much more to Burlesque than dancing with no/few clothes on, 3 hours of it would have been boring as hell."

Yes, boring for you. Are you their main target audience?

The Mail article does acknowledge that it is not just stripping. It says

"The entertainment varies from fire-eating to jugglers and contortionists, but where the genre parts company with the circus is that many acts involve striptease."

There are different types of burlesque, and it was originally a theatrical tradition. But US burlesque essentially came to mean striptease. Isn't it the US movie 'Burlesque' type of burlesque and the Dita Von Teese type of burlesque that is influencing the revival of burlesque here now? Or is it just variety acts with French style bar chanson singers? If they removed the dancers with tassles would they still call it burlesque? What is the essential aspect of burlesque? Isn't it the type of thing quoted in the article?

Cycling Christ- I have been to loads of burlesque shows, have friends who are burlesque dancers and I think it's the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen.

I have far more respect for the woman who goes around the pub at the end of the night with a pint glass- she is at least honest about what she does (taking off clothes), and is not pretending that she is empowering women.

Burlesque began life as a variety act I believe, but became more... voyeuristic as its popularity declined and customers were needed. I will check on this, does anyone else know?

Moondog has it spot on.

wikipedia

sorry, wikipedia link is
Burlesque

"Most people think that "burlesque" means female strippers walking a runway to a bump and grind beat. But that only fits the form in its declining years. At its best, burlesque was a rich source of music and comedy that kept America, audiences laughing from 1840 through the 1960s.

Some sources try to wrap burlesque in a mantle of pseudo-intellectual respectability. Yes, it involved transgressive comedy and songs, but the primary attraction of burlesque was sex . . in the form of ribald humor and immodestly dressed women. Although many dismissed burlesque as the tail-end of show business, its influence reaches through the development of popular entertainment into the present.
[....]
In the 19th Century, the term "burlesque" was applied to a wide range of comic plays, including non-musicals. Beginning in the 1840s, these works entertained the lower and middle classes in Great Britain and the United States by making fun of (or "burlesquing") the operas, plays and social habits of the upper classes. These shows used comedy and music to challenge the established way of looking at things. Everything from Shakespearean drama to the craze for Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind could inspire a full-length burlesque spoof. On Broadway, the burlesque productions of actor managers William Mitchell, John Brougham and Laura Keene were among Broadway's most popular hits of the mid-19th Century.

By the 1860s, British burlesque relied on the display of shapely, underdressed women to keep audiences interested. In the Victorian age, when proper women went to great lengths to hide their physical form beneath bustles, hoops and frills, the idea of young ladies appearing onstage in tights was a powerful challenge. "

From A History of The Musical, Burlesque by John Kenrick

It's stripping. It's like rebranding prostitiution being a 'call girl' or 'escort girl'. Trading sex for money is prostitution, no matter how you dress it up.

a stripper's a stripper. a hooker's a hooker.

its just stripping for posh girls innit?!

body glitter,minimal clothes,titillation for money.burlesque is stripping by any other name.and no attempts at sanitising or re-branding it make it any different.cant polish a turd

Can't polish a turd- but you can sprinkle glitter on it.

IME, some (very dull, it has to be said) women seem to think that it makes them more interesting. I'd be more impressed if you could fire ping pong balls across the working men's club, TBH.

i suppose farting scotland the brave thats burlesque too,bit of variety and all that

I would pay good money to see you do that, sm

Nipple tassles optional.

armadale working mans club deffo.hairy lassies too

There are many male burlesque performers.

Burlesque actually means parody, and is usually more comedy than anything else. Most burlesque shows are a combination of dancing, stripping, comedy, music and sometimes poetry. Sometimes these elements are combined, sometimes not.

The majority of the audience is female.
The majority of organisers are female.

There is a difference between American, British and European burlesque.
American is more bump and grind (more like what we know as traditional stripping)
British is more music hall (bawdy songs and comedy)
European tends to veer more towards dance.

The most well known act by the most well known Burlesque performer consisted of removing one glove. That is all.

Burlesque is a catch all term for many different styles of performance. Some of them are predominantly sexual titillation. Some of them aren't.

Burlesque can contain stripping, but isn't solely stripping. Stripping on it's own is just that, stripping.

My favourite Burlesque performance was by an amazingly talented opera singer, except she was singing bawdy songs in an opera style. Beautifully done.

The most well known Burlesque performer. Are you talking about Dita von Teese?

what Mr Ditta Von Teese?yes shes all man

I suppose she is outside the burlesque scene, but no, I was on about Gypsy Rose Lee

how is dita outside burlesque?she coins it because of burlesque

OK, so where are all these threads chriticising The Chippendales and the film The Full Monty, then?

And those firemen calendars they sell in mainstream card shops? where they are all sexy and muscly and stripped to the waist? BTW, are they real firemen?

Sorry, but if you thought The Full Monty was a funny, heart-warming film (which I did )then you are patronising women by saying that they are poor little down-trodden exploited girlies who need protection and who are disrespecting their sex, when you wouldn't bat an eyelid at the male equivalent.

These women make a hell of a lot more than I do, and burlesque is an art form. Some of the people who are watching them might not be doing it for the most tasteful of reasons, but I doubt the average Chippendales audience has a lot of integrity .

No, I meant, she is the most well known if you aren't usually interested in Burlesque. Whereas Gypsy eclipses her within the scene. She is definitely in the Burlesque scene though.

burlesque is cheesy sleeze

Ok, so to the mainstream, the most well known burlesque dancer probably isn't this gypsy rose lee but someone who does strip mostly, in the name of burlesque.

Was that post burlesque, Rebecca?

Because it made me piss myself.

Brilliant, cheers

I know who Gypsy Rose Lee is. I still think burlesque is shit.