It’s an amazing thing to see so many people have the same idea all at once.  Its exciting to watch those people put that plan into action.  The Burlesque scene that sprang up in New York City almost twenty years ago, and has since spread all around the globe, was a beautifully timed convergence.  So many talented people all dedicating themselves to the craft, mutually supporting each other. The new Burlesque is built on a solid foundation of contradictions.  Satirical yet brutally honest.  Comedic yet deadly serious.  Intensely sexy yet brutally raw.  Lude yet glamorous.  Intellectually challenging yet wildly entertaining.  It is the perfect art form for our time.

The scene has grown. I’m amazed at the number of people, mostly women, who have caught on to what its all about and have been able to exploit the form to express their own genius, and you won’t meet a nicer, more laid-back, well-mannered, fun to hang with, bunch of people anywhere in this world.

The biggest challenge to the new Burlesque scene is to maintain the integrity of the word.  When we first started presenting Slipper Room shows it was an up-hill battle to make people see that a House of Burlesque was different from a strip club.  The City had just shut down all of the topless bars and made a concerted effort to censor our shows.  Sure people get naked.  Most, though by no means all, of the Burlesque performers I know have been naked on stage at one time or another.  When you have an ethos of complete freedom of expression its bound to happen, but those who understand Burlesque know that its so much more than that.  I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the likes of Billy’s Topless, but there’s a certain poetic justice to the fact that the scene sprang up just as the Giuliani Administration shuttered all the go-go bars.  after all it was the pole joints that put the last nail in the coffin of the old Burlesque. 

I have an apathetic relationship with the school’s of Burlesque that have sprung up as the scene has flourished.  Its a perfectly fine idea for women to take classes to learn to be more free and comfortable in their bodies.  Most of them won’t be competing for gigs on a Saturday night, and that’s probably a good thing.  And it has increased the talent pool, there are several very competent dancers I know who have taken classess and who are very dedicated and worthwhile performers.  I also know several actors who have studied Burlesque as well, and I’m sure that it has been very helpful with what they do.  Still, the news media, when they talk about the schools tend to equate burlesque with some sort of kinder, gentler Girls Gone Wild, practiced privately for one’s boyfriend, or husband who’s just back from Iraq.  I don’t enjoy that what I do is somehow all muddled up with that.

There have been several shows of late that have attempted to raise the bar for what it is to be a Burlesque show and I applaud that.  Bastard Keith’s show at the Oak Room is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.  The more people realize that three drunk girls in a bar in Brooklyn who are uninhibited enough to take their clothes off in front of a room full of people is not what Burlesque is all about, the better off we’ll all be.  I for one believe that the more we play up the glamorous side of the art-form the stronger reception it will receive.  I’m not saying that a Burlesque show shouldn’t be crude, or shocking, or even vulgar, but isn’t that so much more effective set off against a backdrop of pure glamour? 

I’m convinced that this scene will continue to flourish and grow.  for my part I see the Ridiculous play as a natural next step.  More on that later, suffice to say, I look forward to seeing what everyone else will bring to the boards.

James Habacker
Artistic Director
The Slipper Room