The Return of Burlesk
Burlesk is back. After a series of runs at Jongleurs and a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, Oxford’s raunchiest dance troupe hosts an all-new show at the Zodiac. Fluttering somewhere between the loungy cabarets of Weimar Germany and the grandstand spectacle of a travelling circus, Burlesk has something for everyone, juiced up with a healthy dose of the erotic. Not one for when your gran comes up to visit, then.
There’s cross-dressing presenters, horny nuns, naughty boyscouts and an erotic game of “pass the pastle“ that’s more disturbing than Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. Unintended nipple-fl ashing aside, Burlesk is one of Oxford’s most reliably entertaining performance troupes. We caught up with producer and co-director Kerry Norman to fi nd out what makes his spectacle of titilation tick.
What’s new with Burlesk this term? Instead of the pantomimey style we’ve used in the past, we’re going back to the roots of burlesque, putting our own twist on classics like the balloon popping act and traditional stripteases. The burlesque tradition grew out of the risqué, satirical sketches of the end of Vaudeville. It’s a celebration of sex in a more classy way than you might expect.
Dita von Teese was at the Union last week • is burlesque becoming more respectable? Defi nitely.
You hear the word ‘stripping’ and expect it to be seedy • but when you get into the world of burlesque you realise it isn’t. As people become more aware of what burlseque is, the more they respect it.
How does Burlesk draw from other dance traditions? As I said, we’re relying more and more on traditional burlesque, but a lot of the performers have experience in other forms, so they obviously bring that to the stage.
For example, we have ballet in the latest incarnation; doing something that’s very beautiful but you can see a bit more…
How would you defend burlesque against accusations that it exploits the performers? I’d just urge them to go and see a show, then have a chat with the performers after. They’re really articulate and intelligent; one of them, ‘Charms’, is doing a PhD in the psychology of stripping. It’s not about showing parts of the body but a celebration of our own sexuality.
Before I started Burlesk I was really insecure, but it’s so exhilarating onstage that you forget all that. Burlesque isn’t a big money-maker so you’re not going to go into it unless it’s something you love.
What are your plans for Burlesk in the future? The show at the Zodiac went exactly to plan, so that’s great. In Oxford, we plan to carry it on as a twice-termly event, using the show that we have at the moment as the foundations on which to build.
We also intend to tour, both as a complete show and as agents for our individual performers; for example, two of our performers this week are performing in Middlesborough and we have had offers to do some London shows later on this year.
2nd Mar 2006