Tease of burlesque coyly walks stripping's fine line
Before her burlesque set in Philadelphia last month, Claymont, Del., native Lucy Smith sat at the bar next to a tightly wound couple that reminded her of Brad and Janet from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The affable, curvaceous blonde persuaded them to stay for her set. After Harley Aphrodite was through, the woman took her aside and confided: "I didn't know someone who looked like me could be sexy."
Encouraging self-love among women of every shape is one of Smith's main reasons for stripping for money.
At 25, she isn't hesitant to call herself a stripper, but adds that burlesque takes it several steps further. Performers are more teasing and theatrical and spend more time bedazzling clothes that wind up in a pile at the end of a routine. Instead of dollar bills, they are rewarded with hoots.
Ever since the neo-burlesque movement took hold in New York and Los Angeles in the 1990s, dancers with names like Dirty Martini and Frida Fondle have promoted the sisterhood of the traveling boa.
Burlesque became even more mainstream with the 2010 movie Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, and famous dancers like Dita Von Teese bringing 1940s sexy back.
The dance form has its roots in the 19th century, when voluptuous women twirled tassels and deftly flicked off their costumes as a form of bawdy humor.
On the continuum of striptease and lap dance-style stripping, burlesque could be viewed as "classier," according to Catherine Roach, professor of gender and culture studies at New College University of Alabama.
In burlesque, physical contact with the voyeur is frowned upon. Because of strict zoning codes, dancers typically strip down to pasties and G-strings. Many performers are motivated by artistic sensibility and toy with beauty norms.
"Exotic dancers strip for money," says Roach, author of the book Stripping, Sex and Popular Culture. "Burlesque dancers, for the most part, make very little money at what they do."
The city of Wilmington and the state of Delaware exclude burlesque from "adult entertainment" zoning restrictions, allowing performers to dance at bars and live entertainment venues as long as they wear pasties and thongs. The pubic region and nipples must be "opaquely covered," according to city and state codes.
Now a student at Moore College of Art & Design, Smith discovered burlesque less than two years ago when she began doing makeup for a Philadelphia-based troupe. Her first big break was pretending to die during another dancer's act. The first time she performed solo, her stomach was a bundle of knots and her anxiety shot up.
But she still got out there and wiggled to Mandy Moore's Candy in a bikini top and cupcake-patterned circle skirt.
This month, she will perform a Barbie skit at an '80s-themed show with The Whiskey Kittens, a Philadelphia-based group that performs several times a month.
The Peek-a-Boo Revue will also perform in downtown Wilmington this month. As the oldest-running burlesque group in Philadelphia with a live band, the troupe of 20 performs in the tri-state area and teaches private lessons.
"A lot of times in burlesque, we're trying to tell a story, make a political statement or portray a certain character," says Peek-a-Boo dancer Kaley Fail, who goes by the stage name Ginger Leigh. At age 34, she is the second-oldest member of the group. Her boyfriend of 14 years beams when she's on stage, she says, boasting "yeah, that's my woman."
Seriously shy and teased relentlessly as a teenager, Smith says she learned to exaggerate movements by watching cartoons. She comes from an artistic family. Her father is a former radio DJ and her mother teaches piano.
Both were livid when they found out about her extracurricular activity.
"My dad used to call it the hoochie-coochie dances," she says.
Last year, Smith founded a Sexuality Club to focus on self-acceptance among women. The group organizes lectures with sexologists and transgender theorists. But the most popular activities, by far, are the burlesque shows, which also have provoked backlash. Smith has had flyers torn down by students who find her moves objectionable.
Still, a beginner burlesque workshop last month, taught by Smith's friend Tesla Tease, had a waiting list. Students practiced giving coy looks and bouncing like a bunny.
Occasionally, members of the audience will laugh or make cruel jokes like "What's the difference between a stripper and a burlesque dancer? Thirty pounds."
Plus-size burlesque performer Ruby Rage claimed earlier this year that she was fired from her job on New Orleans' Bourbon Street because of her size.
Smith has learned to disassociate on stage, engaged in a conversation with herself. She admits it's slightly narcissistic, but "what I'm trying to communicate is paramount."
In one "Mom-lesque" act, she wore chest-high sweatpants and pearls and stripped to Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne.
"I had granny panties underneath, but I rocked it," she recalls.
What she's learned from Greek mythology, she says, is that Aphrodite attitude is not reserved for pretty girls.
"Nobody is ever 100 percent a wallflower. Nobody is 100 percent an extravert," she says. "You can be the Victorian Gibson girl or be Cyndi Lauper."
Asked if she's concerned that some of her former bullies at Concord High School might show up to her show Saturday, she laughs it off.
"I'm getting paid to do what I love, be what I want to be and wear pretty things," she says.
"I think that's a pretty good revenge."