Why Do Burlesque Dancers Strip?
- Scarlett Whispers
- Jun 7
- 4 min read
Today I took a workshop with a legend in burlesque - Kitten Deville! You may know the song, Pink Pussycat (Kitten Deville's theme). It was written for her!
Listen here if you don't know it:
Burlesque workshops can take all shapes and forms. Sometimes you'll learn tight choreography or a skill with a prop, but many are actually about theatre techniques.
Kitten was teaching a class about stage presence followed by a class about bump and grind.
There were a few striking things she said which got to the heart of many questions people have about burlesque.
A big one is about nudity.
Why do burlesque performers strip?
How can someone strip on stage and show their body and call themselves a feminist?
One of our warm ups was shouting, almost organismically, "ohhhh yeaahhhh!!!", as we were doing different movements. We changed between characters, a cheesecakey version versus a raunchy version.
The point was to show how much our body reacted to what we vocalised.
The body wants to follow what the voice does and express what we feel.
Women, the queer community, people from marginalised groups are (still) constantly told to hold things within. While we're lucky that it's not the 50s anymore and gender roles are a bit looser, in the law, in medicine and in society, we are told to reign things in, behave and be self conscious. Then we spend loads of money in the beauty industry and we don't make a fuss or take a position of control. Dropping that pressure, vocalising and letting your body express itself is incredibly releasing.
The group got into a discussion when my dear friend Rangda Thee brought up an experience from classical dance training, where the crotch always had to be covered up to preserve modesty.
That was at complete odds with the bump and grind exercises we were doing. We were circling our hips, thrusting, shimmying, using power, strength and energy in this part of the body.
Medical, Political and Social Control
The important thing is - this is the part of the body that is restricted and controlled, again, politically, medically and socially. Womens' hips, crotch and womb are so daunting that they are all controlled, with everything from abortion or sterilisation laws (I know many people who have tried to get sterilised or have an operation to reduce a likely cancer but have been told to wait until after children) to societal rules where chastity is equated to morality.
These themes appear throughout multiple artforms. It gets me thinking of Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (the book that boiled my blood in literature class). In dance, it reminds me of female Surrealist dancers who made commentaries about the concept of 'hysteria' and the 'wandering womb'.
Side note: The Royal College of Nursing has a blog about this concept:
"hysteria is derived from 'hystera' meaning womb. This linguistic association between women’s health and hysteria is still in use today in the term hysterectomy."
I'm aware this is incredibly reductive, but a common message is those in power have a love-hate relationship with wombs. They want it so bad, and hate how much they desire it, so they control it, and take it as and when they want. There's a deep awareness of how powerful this part of the female body is. That's why the idea of a woman becoming aware of that power is so terrifying.
Except, centuries ago, women were respected for this power, not punished for having it.
The oldest known depictions of women celebrated for their womb are prehistoric Venus figurines. Carved by Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures, these ancient statues feature highly exaggerated abdomens, hips, and reproductive organs to symbolize human fertility, abundance, and the life-giving power of the Mother Goddess.
The past few paragraphs have focused on women's crotches, hips and wombs. Burlesque is also a space for transgender people, non-binary people, men, people of colour, people from marginalised backgrounds, the working class: these are all people whose bodies become intertwined with political, medical and social issues. I won't go as deeply into those as I don't have direct lived experience of it myself, so it doesn't feel right to write about it as though I do.
I've also started talking about the whole body and then focused on the lower body. Breasts and chests are just as controlled. Especially nipples, which we know so famously as men can show their nipples in public but nobody else can.
Thanks to the Victorians, forearms, wrists, hands, the neck, even hair had to be covered or tied back. These non-erotic zones were morally and socially reconstructed as if they were. That is actually why burlesque dancers use props like gloves and stockings, because exposing those parts of the body was seen as raunchy and morally corrupt.
This salon has a great historic blog about Victorian hair:
Did you know the word 'burlesque' means 'satire'? To make fun of something? So when a burlesque dancer is biting a glove off and making out like showing a wrist is the most scandalous thing ever, it's a mockery of that.
Burlesque performance is powerful for being a space where these parts of the body are exposed. Those rules about what is and isn't allowed is exaggerated for comedic effect. And personally, it feels liberating and like a weight off my shoulders to feel energy through my body instead of keeping it tightly held within.
Burlesque performers often take each others' classes, and will teach to a mixed group of professional performers, hobby performers and people who have never stepped foot on a stage in their life. Most classes aren't actually about something super technical but will approach a topic - such as exhaling, breathing, shouting, coming into your body - and I step away thinking that everybody needs to experience this and just shake off the negativity the world can give us.
Comments