There’s always been something about burlesque dancing that appealed to me. Those sexy stockings, taking glove off with your teeth. Sexy as I thought burlesque dancing was, I thought it looked a bit seedy. Weren’t they just glorified strippers? For that reason, I never took my curiosity any further.
Until now. I was recently on one of those voucher websites, and I saw discounted burlesque lessons. They promised a good time, a good work out and, most importantly, no nudity. At £35 for 6 lessons, I had no excuse. I called a friend to talk me into it. When she pointed out that no one could make me do a striptease, I booked the lessons, and then fretted over what exactly I’d gotten into. I should have been fretting over how to explain to my mum what I was doing of a Tuesday evening.
“Err mum, I’m going out on Tuesday.”
“Okay, where are you going?”
“Dance lessons…”
“Oh? What kind?”
“Err, Burlesque.”
The look on her face was priceless. She looked like a woman whose daughter had just explained that she wanted to be a stripper. Which I suppose was appropriate.
When my first lesson finally came around, I was a little nervous. I thought I would either be surrounded by supermodels who wanted a new way to make people swoon, or old women who wanted to recapture the glory days. Or lord was I joining a troupe of granny strippers?
Apparently not. Most women there, like me, where just curious. Or they were looking for a work out. None of us it seems, where there to get naked. After thinking up of our stage names, (I’m now Mimi Messalina), we got started.
When I started, my arms where folded, and my eyes were glued to the floor. Within 20 min I had my head held high and I was strutting my stuff with the best of them. I got most of the moves wrong at least once, but hey, at least I was doing it. It didn’t matter that I was in worn out Primark pumps, or that my socks had cupcakes on. I felt just as sexy as Rihanna but, you know, with clothes on.
There’s no need for Dita to quake in her boots yet, but I’ll let you know if I get there. I’m on the course for 6 weeks, and I intend to keep blogging about it. Wish me luck everyone!
I've always thought burlesque was very sexy - same with something like poledancing. It's skillful as much as it's sexy and I think it's unfair that a lot of people would look at you like your mother lol. It's a personal choice of how you use that skill, in the bedroom or in a strip club, that makes it sleazy or not. And even then I don't think it has to be considered sleazy, it's a well paid job (is this a controversial opinion? I don't know).It's whoever's on the receiving end that should be considered sleazy or not.
ReplyDeleteDiscuss? :) xx
I agree with you Veronica. Loads of dancers on T.V turn "street dancing" into something MUCH more sleazy than burlesque. As for it being a well paid job, I think that depends on just how good you are at it, which I suppose is why people don't like it. Being paid to look sexy has never had a good reputation. Everyone in the music industry does it though, and its positively encouraged by the viewer...
ReplyDeleteNice point about the music industry, I never really thought about it; which just shows the extent of 'sex sells' really. You can call me not street, but I find burlesque much sexier than bump and grind lol.
DeleteBy the way, I found pole dancing classes in Uxbridge. No joke. I'm getting toned next year!