Hurly Burly Burlesque Review
By Mark
18th March 2008
Last weekend was a busy one for Connie and your webmaster.
Friday night was Jacky's hafla where we had loads of fun (and were treated to some excellent performances including some first timers and Sara's first choreography) but Saturday was our BIG date....
I was curious after seeing Anne Kingston perform a burlesque number at Jacky's last hafla and seeing that Anne was doing a burlesque class at JoY so I booked us to see a burlesque show in Derby. I wanted to see if this is something that can add to the scope of our hobby. The Shimmychicks have already performed a Can Can and another burlesque based routine and it seemed to bode well for another string to be added to our corporate bow. The cost wasn't too bad at £10 a ticket but that was increased by the need for a Travelodge room (I refused to drive 2 hours home at midnight) and the diesel … so all in all it was going to be an £80 event.
We arrived at the venue, Déda Derby Dance in central Derby, at 7.30pm. Finding it was easy thanks to TomTom and there was a multi-storey car park literally across the road. The front desk was good, they greeted us with a smile, our tickets were there waiting, they even provided cloakroom service at 50p each.
We moved through to the Café bar and found seats… if we'd been any later we'd have had to join the standing crowd. The crowd was interesting, very much a younger "set" than we're used to and the dress code (as I was warned) seemed to be primarily a mix of smart Neo-Goth and 50s revival … sometimes on the same person! Several girls were wearing corsets with chunky shoes and one or two actually looked quite good with little hats and vintage fur stoles. Being a picky kind of chap for authentic details I was disappointed to see that only one girl (other than Connie) was wearing genuine seamed stockings and heels. There were also several young men (under 25?) dressed very smartly in black with black trilby hats… posing to the limit! … And why not? … It was a pleasant change to see a few young males making an effort to look smart… even if they were wearing their hats indoors.
Anyway… 8 o'clock rolled around and it was show time! A gentleman came out with a microphone, welcomed us and announced that there would be a live band interspersed with burlesque acts in the café bar until 10pm when we would all be asked to move through into the theatre for the main show. Connie and I looked at each other; "show starts at 8pm" was what we understood. A jazz quartet appeared and proceeded to play loud enough to stifle conversation for the next hour. I'm sure they were very good but a jazz fan I am not; unless it's something recognisable like "King of the Swingers," or "Stranger on the Shore." This wasn't; I sometimes recognised the first few bars of a tune but then it vanished as the musicians jammed away and were blissfully groovy. It would have been good background music or possibly slow dance music but it was too loud to be a background to conversation and nobody was dancing. The chairs we'd got were hard wooden café chairs … probably a good thing because my sore bottom kept me awake while I waited for these acts to appear.
At 9pm a compère materialised and used a microphone to announce something I couldn't hear due to low volume and what seemed to be a fake German accent. A troupe of about 6 young ladies appeared and marched into the area in front of the band. They appeared to be wearing make-up, a large feather fan fore and aft and nothing else. These ladies then proceeded to do individual fan dances and revealed that they were actually wearing more than I feared, i.e., two pasties and a G string each; with a few tattoos thrown in for decency. These ladies danced quite nicely for a few minutes before trooping off and leaving us to the mercy of the jazz quartet for another 45 minutes.
To my relief the 45 minutes turned into 30 and then we were given a break find the facilities before moving through to the theatre.
The theatre was small but big enough for the numbers and quite nicely set up for the performing arts. We found seats on the end of the 2nd row. The seating had room for legs as long as mine and was reasonably comfortable. The compère came out dressed in a sparkly circus ringmaster type jacket, curly blonde wig, top hat, tight black shorts, red hosiery and high heeled boots. It was a bloke dressed as a lady (of course) although the tight black shorts were so tight that it sort of ….errrr…. spoiled the illusion a little. He … I mean she… started her patter and introduced herself as "Countess Ava Goodfiel" … (groan) … her German accent had improved and as anticipated the humour was adult oriented. The standard innuendos and risqué puns were the prime fare and he …I mean she …did a good job of responding to the hecklers from the balcony. Then she introduced the first act...
A tiny size zero young lady came on in a black basque with a pair of short Wings of Isis and proceeded to dance and twirl a bit before removing her basque to reveal pasties and G string and then dancing and twirling a bit more. She was quite good to be honest and used the wings quite effectively.
The Countess then regaled us with more of her patter before the 2nd act came on. This time it was a pretty size 18/20 young lady in a red corset, red frilly knickers and a black tu-tu. This young lady came up to the microphone and started to sing "Fever" (à la Elvis Presley, words & music by John Davenport & Eddie Coole). She was good. Good voice, good projection and she sang as if she meant it; her facial expressions added to the song. Half way through she removed her black tu-tu, threw it aside and then continued through the rest of the number. Why she had to dress in her unmentionables or why she threw off the tu-tu I have no idea unless it's part of the contract that they all have to strip. It added nothing to her act and was actually distracting. She had enough skill as a singer not to need to do that. I'd say that (personal opinion) her act would be better for wearing a long sparkly diva dress and keeping it on.
Thereafter the show continued to the conclusion with another 5 or 6 young ladies varying between size zero and size 10 all taking their clothes off down to pasties and G string in various themes. One office girl, one lobster (yes, that's right, a lobster) a butterfly girl, a fan dancer, one on 9" stilettos and one dressed entirely in balloons… with a pin (did I miss one??). All of their costumes were excellent and all of them performed with panache, skill and professionalism.
BUT…
Maybe being conned into sitting through 2 hours of jazz had made me grumpier than usual (I could have taken a nap instead). To me, being an untrendy old fart, it was a bit like being invited out for a six course meal and finding it consisted of: 1st course, steak and chips, 2nd course, soup, 3rd course, steak and mash, 4th course, steak and new potatoes, 5th course, steak and potato croquets…. You get the picture? It lacked variety. They were excellent individual acts (although not exactly what I anticipated) but put together they lost the wow factor. The belly dance equivalent would be like going to a hafla and finding that all the performers were doing their own variations of the Saiidi Stick dance!
Was this a typical burlesque show of 2008? I've no idea, this was my first ever. My internet research led me to believe that burlesque shows can include comedians, magicians, balloon twisters, Can Can dancers etc etc., much like the old style Music Hall shows or the Moulin Rouge. Was I shocked? No, I'd be naïve if I hadn't anticipated a certain amount flesh to be exposed. Was it erotic? Well, maybe I'm getting old and my hormones have gone to sleep but no, it was tastefully done and there were no overt pornographic overtones that I noticed. Would I go to another burlesque show? Probably maybe, if only so that I'd have something to compare this one to and for the sake of researching the genre fairly… but it would either have to be a lot closer to home or I'd have to have the word of someone I knew and trusted that it would be more varied.
Maybe it's hard in the burlesque circuit to find other types of acts because all the girls want to be Dita von Teese? The impression I got (I've no qualifications as a dance critic) was that all you need to do is learn a few poses, learn how to strut and run your hands down your sides and then work on your own style of removing evening gloves, various items of clothing and stockings in an alluring and interesting manner to bump and grind music. This impression was corroborated by tips for potential burlesque dancers I found on the internet: "Take a few lessons before you work on your act" ... "If you're stuck for novel ideas try attending a workshop or two..." Quite a contrast to the standards expected in amateur belly dance! To be fair I'll say that the young ladies who performed in this show had all obviously spent many hours practicing their routines until they were polished and flawless.
Do I still think there's a place for burlesque in our family oriented shows and haflas? Yes but obviously not this area of the genre! The Shimmychicks managed to entertain us with a burlesque number at their hafla in the Autumn and Anne Kingston did her number too and neither of their routines was anything that couldn't be shown on BBC1 before the 9 o'clock watershed. The potential is there but it's going to take some more searching before we find something that I'd be happy to see Connie perform!
In conclusion I'd say that from my biased point of view the amateur belly dancers of Lincolnshire put on a better, more skillful and more entertaining show than the one we saw in Derby. Belly dance may not be quite as trendy at the moment as burlesque but it's certainly a lot more fun!
You've spoiled me, ladies. Keep up the good work!
For further reading see http://www.musicals101.com/burlesque.htm
If anyone can recommend a more varied burlesque show please contact Mark by email.
Post script. I emailed some comments to Déda Derby Dance (the venue) and received a reply from the director already which reads (edited for brevity):
"My thoughts are that this is a new type of event for us and the balance is not right yet; my aim is to have an evening that is much more variety / cabaret led with a sprinkling of burlesque. We have started a new relationship with a producer who sources the acts and this relationship will clearly need to be developed and guided in the appropriate direction for future events."
So kudos to Derby Dance! They have an excellent venue and if they can take criticism on board and work on the problems then they might well be seeing Connie and me again.
LOL!! We could probably organise the belly dancing ladies of Lincolnshire to put on the entertainment and show them how to have a really fun evening!
By Mark
18th March 2008
Last weekend was a busy one for Connie and your webmaster.
Friday night was Jacky's hafla where we had loads of fun (and were treated to some excellent performances including some first timers and Sara's first choreography) but Saturday was our BIG date....
I was curious after seeing Anne Kingston perform a burlesque number at Jacky's last hafla and seeing that Anne was doing a burlesque class at JoY so I booked us to see a burlesque show in Derby. I wanted to see if this is something that can add to the scope of our hobby. The Shimmychicks have already performed a Can Can and another burlesque based routine and it seemed to bode well for another string to be added to our corporate bow. The cost wasn't too bad at £10 a ticket but that was increased by the need for a Travelodge room (I refused to drive 2 hours home at midnight) and the diesel … so all in all it was going to be an £80 event.
We arrived at the venue, Déda Derby Dance in central Derby, at 7.30pm. Finding it was easy thanks to TomTom and there was a multi-storey car park literally across the road. The front desk was good, they greeted us with a smile, our tickets were there waiting, they even provided cloakroom service at 50p each.
We moved through to the Café bar and found seats… if we'd been any later we'd have had to join the standing crowd. The crowd was interesting, very much a younger "set" than we're used to and the dress code (as I was warned) seemed to be primarily a mix of smart Neo-Goth and 50s revival … sometimes on the same person! Several girls were wearing corsets with chunky shoes and one or two actually looked quite good with little hats and vintage fur stoles. Being a picky kind of chap for authentic details I was disappointed to see that only one girl (other than Connie) was wearing genuine seamed stockings and heels. There were also several young men (under 25?) dressed very smartly in black with black trilby hats… posing to the limit! … And why not? … It was a pleasant change to see a few young males making an effort to look smart… even if they were wearing their hats indoors.
Anyway… 8 o'clock rolled around and it was show time! A gentleman came out with a microphone, welcomed us and announced that there would be a live band interspersed with burlesque acts in the café bar until 10pm when we would all be asked to move through into the theatre for the main show. Connie and I looked at each other; "show starts at 8pm" was what we understood. A jazz quartet appeared and proceeded to play loud enough to stifle conversation for the next hour. I'm sure they were very good but a jazz fan I am not; unless it's something recognisable like "King of the Swingers," or "Stranger on the Shore." This wasn't; I sometimes recognised the first few bars of a tune but then it vanished as the musicians jammed away and were blissfully groovy. It would have been good background music or possibly slow dance music but it was too loud to be a background to conversation and nobody was dancing. The chairs we'd got were hard wooden café chairs … probably a good thing because my sore bottom kept me awake while I waited for these acts to appear.
At 9pm a compère materialised and used a microphone to announce something I couldn't hear due to low volume and what seemed to be a fake German accent. A troupe of about 6 young ladies appeared and marched into the area in front of the band. They appeared to be wearing make-up, a large feather fan fore and aft and nothing else. These ladies then proceeded to do individual fan dances and revealed that they were actually wearing more than I feared, i.e., two pasties and a G string each; with a few tattoos thrown in for decency. These ladies danced quite nicely for a few minutes before trooping off and leaving us to the mercy of the jazz quartet for another 45 minutes.
To my relief the 45 minutes turned into 30 and then we were given a break find the facilities before moving through to the theatre.
The theatre was small but big enough for the numbers and quite nicely set up for the performing arts. We found seats on the end of the 2nd row. The seating had room for legs as long as mine and was reasonably comfortable. The compère came out dressed in a sparkly circus ringmaster type jacket, curly blonde wig, top hat, tight black shorts, red hosiery and high heeled boots. It was a bloke dressed as a lady (of course) although the tight black shorts were so tight that it sort of ….errrr…. spoiled the illusion a little. He … I mean she… started her patter and introduced herself as "Countess Ava Goodfiel" … (groan) … her German accent had improved and as anticipated the humour was adult oriented. The standard innuendos and risqué puns were the prime fare and he …I mean she …did a good job of responding to the hecklers from the balcony. Then she introduced the first act...
A tiny size zero young lady came on in a black basque with a pair of short Wings of Isis and proceeded to dance and twirl a bit before removing her basque to reveal pasties and G string and then dancing and twirling a bit more. She was quite good to be honest and used the wings quite effectively.
The Countess then regaled us with more of her patter before the 2nd act came on. This time it was a pretty size 18/20 young lady in a red corset, red frilly knickers and a black tu-tu. This young lady came up to the microphone and started to sing "Fever" (à la Elvis Presley, words & music by John Davenport & Eddie Coole). She was good. Good voice, good projection and she sang as if she meant it; her facial expressions added to the song. Half way through she removed her black tu-tu, threw it aside and then continued through the rest of the number. Why she had to dress in her unmentionables or why she threw off the tu-tu I have no idea unless it's part of the contract that they all have to strip. It added nothing to her act and was actually distracting. She had enough skill as a singer not to need to do that. I'd say that (personal opinion) her act would be better for wearing a long sparkly diva dress and keeping it on.
Thereafter the show continued to the conclusion with another 5 or 6 young ladies varying between size zero and size 10 all taking their clothes off down to pasties and G string in various themes. One office girl, one lobster (yes, that's right, a lobster) a butterfly girl, a fan dancer, one on 9" stilettos and one dressed entirely in balloons… with a pin (did I miss one??). All of their costumes were excellent and all of them performed with panache, skill and professionalism.
BUT…
Maybe being conned into sitting through 2 hours of jazz had made me grumpier than usual (I could have taken a nap instead). To me, being an untrendy old fart, it was a bit like being invited out for a six course meal and finding it consisted of: 1st course, steak and chips, 2nd course, soup, 3rd course, steak and mash, 4th course, steak and new potatoes, 5th course, steak and potato croquets…. You get the picture? It lacked variety. They were excellent individual acts (although not exactly what I anticipated) but put together they lost the wow factor. The belly dance equivalent would be like going to a hafla and finding that all the performers were doing their own variations of the Saiidi Stick dance!
Was this a typical burlesque show of 2008? I've no idea, this was my first ever. My internet research led me to believe that burlesque shows can include comedians, magicians, balloon twisters, Can Can dancers etc etc., much like the old style Music Hall shows or the Moulin Rouge. Was I shocked? No, I'd be naïve if I hadn't anticipated a certain amount flesh to be exposed. Was it erotic? Well, maybe I'm getting old and my hormones have gone to sleep but no, it was tastefully done and there were no overt pornographic overtones that I noticed. Would I go to another burlesque show? Probably maybe, if only so that I'd have something to compare this one to and for the sake of researching the genre fairly… but it would either have to be a lot closer to home or I'd have to have the word of someone I knew and trusted that it would be more varied.
Maybe it's hard in the burlesque circuit to find other types of acts because all the girls want to be Dita von Teese? The impression I got (I've no qualifications as a dance critic) was that all you need to do is learn a few poses, learn how to strut and run your hands down your sides and then work on your own style of removing evening gloves, various items of clothing and stockings in an alluring and interesting manner to bump and grind music. This impression was corroborated by tips for potential burlesque dancers I found on the internet: "Take a few lessons before you work on your act" ... "If you're stuck for novel ideas try attending a workshop or two..." Quite a contrast to the standards expected in amateur belly dance! To be fair I'll say that the young ladies who performed in this show had all obviously spent many hours practicing their routines until they were polished and flawless.
Do I still think there's a place for burlesque in our family oriented shows and haflas? Yes but obviously not this area of the genre! The Shimmychicks managed to entertain us with a burlesque number at their hafla in the Autumn and Anne Kingston did her number too and neither of their routines was anything that couldn't be shown on BBC1 before the 9 o'clock watershed. The potential is there but it's going to take some more searching before we find something that I'd be happy to see Connie perform!
In conclusion I'd say that from my biased point of view the amateur belly dancers of Lincolnshire put on a better, more skillful and more entertaining show than the one we saw in Derby. Belly dance may not be quite as trendy at the moment as burlesque but it's certainly a lot more fun!
You've spoiled me, ladies. Keep up the good work!
For further reading see http://www.musicals101.com/burlesque.htm
If anyone can recommend a more varied burlesque show please contact Mark by email.
Post script. I emailed some comments to Déda Derby Dance (the venue) and received a reply from the director already which reads (edited for brevity):
"My thoughts are that this is a new type of event for us and the balance is not right yet; my aim is to have an evening that is much more variety / cabaret led with a sprinkling of burlesque. We have started a new relationship with a producer who sources the acts and this relationship will clearly need to be developed and guided in the appropriate direction for future events."
So kudos to Derby Dance! They have an excellent venue and if they can take criticism on board and work on the problems then they might well be seeing Connie and me again.
LOL!! We could probably organise the belly dancing ladies of Lincolnshire to put on the entertainment and show them how to have a really fun evening!