Fashion and Beauty: Dressed for burlesque
Aug 19 2010 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Fashion and Beauty: Dressed for burlesque
Katy uses music from movies such as Moulin Rouge, Chicago and Make It Happen as well as contemporary songs.
“Anything that makes me feel I want to bop along to it is good,” she says.
The introduction of burlesque to Huddersfield came about when Katy met Tristan Edgar (who runs the Tristan Dance Studios) at Buckinghamshire New University, where they were both studying - by distance learning and workshops - for a degree in dance development. It’s the only university in the country to offer the course to professional dance teachers.
“I was working in a Clark’s shoe shop to pay my way through university and Tristan offered me a job,” she says.
Traditionally trained in ballet, tap, jazz and Latin American, Katy says going to university encouraged her to look at other dance styles, including burlesque. She also teaches freestyle, street, rock and roll, swing and salsa.
But burlesque has become a firm favourite.
“It’s not what everyone thinks it is.
“In the past it might have been about entertaining men but now it’s women who are interested in it and going to watch it,” she explained.
Burlesque students will be performing at the Tristan Dance Studios 40th anniversary celebration on Saturday, September 11. For details of classes check out www.tristandance.com
BURLESQUE means ‘ridiculous’ in French and was a raunchy style of dance that took off in the late 19th century during the Belle Époque when Parisian showgirls consorted with royalty and the celebrities of the day.
The revealing dance style was popular in the music halls of Victorian Britain where its overt sexiness and bawdiness was in sharp contrast to the strict moral values of the time.
Burlesque found its way to America through a troupe called The British Blondes, headed by music hall star Lydia Thompson and despite public outrage, or perhaps because of it, became an overnight success.
Illusion was at the core of burlesque, with the first dancers wearing tights to give the impression that they were revealing naked flesh. The aim of the game was to appear to be revealing more than they actually were.
The growth of the American movie industry brought live burlesque to an end, although the style had a big impact on the film stars of the 1940s and 50s. Screen sirens such as Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable wore figure-enhancing clothes and structured underwear to give themselves a voluptuous appearance.
Variety acts and showgirls took up the style on big screen and television during the 1960s and into the 1970s.
The Black and White Minstrel Show, a favourite of many British viewers during these decades, featured scantily-clad dancers in lavish costumes performing song and dance numbers that owned much to burlesque.
