Burlesque has taken many forms through
the years, but one fact always stayed true:
The female form.
Last
week I talked about cartoon pinups
and added some videos for your viewing
pleasure. After a second watching, I
noticed something linking all these
unforgettable cinematic moments- A song
and a dance. These cartoon women didn't
only look good, they made for memorable
entertainment. They all reminded me of a
fabulous art form, enjoying an enticing
revival- burlesque.
The Golden Age of Burlesque - Gypsy Rose
Lee
Burlesque is not just about the female form.
In it's golden age, it was about
entertainment- comedians, singers, dancers.
In my opinion, this short video of Gypsy
Rose Lee is one of the best examples
of burlesque. Lee isn't just taking off
her clothes, she's mocking the
stereotypical view of what a “lady”
should be, while charmingly teasing her
male audience about what they really
want to see.
The Dirty Man's Burlesque – Betty
Page
Burlesque would slowly die out as an art-form
for the people, and leave behind it only the
fraction of strip. In the late 1940's there
were “camera clubs”, formed by men with an
interest in nude photography, that's how
Betty Page got
her start. She Quickly linked up with
Irving Klaw,
which pretty much cemented her as a BDSM
superstar. Page also made a few
soft-core fantasy videos, for Klaw,
among them striptease shots, that- due
to Pages playful nature- seem more like
a farce than the real dirty thing.
Burlesque Comeback- Liza
Minnelli
In 1972 we revisit the golden age of
burlesque, in Bob Fosse's
Cabaret. Liza
Minnelli makes an Academy Award
winning performance as Sally Bowles, an
American Burlesque dancer, in Germany,
at the time off the Nazi rise to power.
Though many social, political and
historical issues are addressed in the
film, it can't be denied that the
Cabaret scenes are it's main allure. My
favorite scene, of course, being,
Sally's introduction to the viewer-
Minnelli at her finest:
Neo Burlesque- Dita Von
Teese
Widely thought of as one of the instigators
of Neo Burlesque, Dita Von Teese puts on
a show of beauty like no other. Although
her shows lack the parody side of
classic burlesque, in many ways, Von
Teese is putting new issues up for
debate: Like female sexuality and
standardized fantasy and also artistic
aesthetic.
The Neo-Burlesque has brought back a lot of
the stripping and a little of the spoofing,
but it seems to be evolving as we speak.
