B is for Boylesque

Men can do it too!! 

Although burlesque is traditionally considered a female art form, boylesque is a genre within the genre. Boylesque generally refers to male presenting theatrical striptease! Boy oh boy, do we love our boys!! This art form displays extreme amounts of versatility by allowing performers to display exaggerations of femininity, masculinity or sometimes both at the same time! Just like burlesque, there are no boundaries and acts can range from dramatic to acrobatic! The introduction and popularity of boylesque can be seen as one of the key differences between the revival and the golden era of burlesque. Today hundreds of male presenting performers proudly strip and strut alongside their burlesque sisters. Several boylesque festivals have appeared across the globe in locations including Seattle, Vienna, and New York.  

 Exerpt from the book The ABC Double D's of Burlesque
 

Composition

In Burlesque performance, composition is one of most important elements of the stage performance and the basis to any art!  

The artist or performer uses colours, lights, props and gimmicks to guide the viewer eye through exploring the piece. Extreme high and low contrast mix will always make things pop forward and tend to attract the eyes first. Different stage formations of either props or performers that are closer amplify the effect in either stage or page.

Actions and follow trough

Actions, lines of motion and gestures inspire eye flow, Dancers will throw moves, props and their sassy garments towards the crowd using body parts and facial expressions creating solid defined lines of action harmony.

 Follow through is about the physics or the world around us, the speed or impression of speed in the extreme pose given by the model or drawing. It can also give illusion of weight in different kinds of fabrics.

You must master these elements to create lasting effect on viewer, a solid combo of formation and lines of actions will captivate the audience to flow the story or sequence that you have defined

A hypnotizing effect the composition creates using colours, gesture and line of action!

 Start From The Beginning!

You might also want to read

Foreword by Dustin M. Wax

Things to Consider Before You Apply to That Next Burlesque Festival

A is for Audience!

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Foreword by Dustin M. Wax

Excerpt from The ABC Double D's of Burlesque

Excerpt from The ABC Double D's of Burlesque

About Dustin M. Wax

Photo by Dani Blanchette

Dustin M. Wax is a cultural anthropologist and the Executive Director at the Burlesque Hall of Fame. An anthropologist by training, he has taught anthropology and women’s studies at both the community college and university levels. He has worked extensively in the museum and nonprofit worlds, with stints at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Barrick Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Jewizsh Museum, as well as the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. His research interests include artistic production, the history of anthropology, gender roles and sexual identity,  and the representation of culture and identity in scientific literature, museums, and the mass media. He is the author of Don’t Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College and editor of Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Influence of Foundations, McCarthyism, and the CIA.

Dustin has also been active in attempts to use the Internet to improve and broaden research and education, and is a founding contributor to the anthropology site Savage Minds, selected as one of the 20 Best Science Blogs by Nature in 2006. From 2007-2010, he was the managing editor at the personal productivity site lifehack.org, a Technorati Top 100 blog, where he wrote about writing, learning, studying, project management, technology, and other topics in personal development.

For more information on his teaching, research, and writing, please check out his portfolio.

About The Burlesque Hall of Fame 

Photo by Dani Blanchette

The Burlesque Hall of Fame is the world’s premier organization dedicated to preserving the living legacy of burlesque as an art form and cultural phenomenon. With a collection of several thousand costumes, stage props, photographs, and personal effects documenting the careers and lives of burlesque dancers, comics, and producers over nearly a century, the museum is a growing testament to the power and social impact of the art of the tease.

From its humble beginnings as the personal collection of Jennie Lee, the legendary tassel-twirler who first dreamed of a “Burlesque Hall of Fame” in the early 1950s, to its present-day incarnation as the world’s largest and most important archive of vintage burlesque ephemera, The Burlesque Hall of Fame has been one of the world’s only institutions dedicated to preserving the art, artifacts and traditions of this uniquely modern art form.

It was Jennie’s wish that this institution not only honour burlesque’s memory, but also its future. A founding member of the Exotic Dancers League, she was devoted to keeping “the girls” together. As such, in addition to her dream of a world class museum, Jennie’s plans for the Hall of Fame included affordable housing for retired dancers, as well as a school for aspiring stripteasers, who could train there alongside Burlesque’s remaining greats.

Unfortunately, Jennie passed away before she was able to see her dream realized. However, thanks to her dear friend and fellow entertainer, Dixie Evans, it was far from lost. For 15 years after Jennie’s death in 1990, Dixie took up Jennie’s mantle, creating a museum in Helendale, CA, that became a pilgrimage site for not only previous generations of performers but the new generation of “neo-burlesque” performers looking to the past as a model for their own futures.

In 2006, the Burlesque Hall of Fame relocated from Helendale to Las Vegas, NV, in hopes of establishing a permanent, first-rate tourist attraction and research/exhibition space for their one-of-a-kind collection. Today, the museum occupies a space in the Emergency Arts building in the heart of a revitalized Vegas Downtown, where a small part of their several-thousand-piece collection is on display to the public.

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Whats going on around here!?!?!

 

It’s here! At last! The ABC Double D’s of Burlesque Blog!!! Dance it out and celebrate your body with the interactive guide to the art of striptease! We love the stage and its colourful creations, the intricate costume designs and props, but most of all, the effect burlesque performance has on its devotees!

Embark on a magical journey of the ABCs and discover secrets of performance and fun untold stories from legends and titans of tease. Learn about the history, costuming techniques and classic burlesque movement from April O’Peel and special guests. Witness the progression and process of the illustration for the book behind the blog and much more.   

Don' miss out on any of the fun and make sure to subscribe to our blog and follow our weekly glorious and glittery updates. Share our guide and your experience with your friends.

@ABCDoubleDs 

#ABCDoubleDs 

 Start from the beginning!

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