Of all things...Why burlesque?

I say why not burlesque! :) I love to dance, love love love it! When I was a wee lass I was a ballerina and danced for many years, practicing until I got blisters and the big pay off of dancing on stage. As years went by and as I grew up I didn't have the natural ballerina body, so no more ballet for me.

What's a girl to do? I wanted to get out of the house, movin to the groove, but nothing sounded right. Modern dance? No. Hip Hop? Not for me. Belly Dancing.... maybe, but the classes were a bit pricey. Then I found burlesque. Hummm.....really? I thought well, why not give it a go. It was a series of 12 classes and if I didn't like it I was done.

And now I say, why not burlesque!!! All shapes, sizes and forms are whole heartily welcome. Not once since this adventure began have I ever felt not good enough or not pretty enough. Once you learn the basic shimmy, shake, the bump and grind, the rest is up to your imagination. As a beginner, I like that if I'm on stage and don't remember every little step no one knows except me! I feel that as long as I'm hitting my ques and I'm getting cheers then, that's good for now.

For me it's easy to learn steps and stay in time to the music, doing a dance that someone else is teaching me. The challenge comes when I'm the one that has to come up with the choreography. When the kicks, turns and shimmys are all reliant on when I want them to happen, that's tough.
And that's the fun challenge burlesques lets me enjoy.


And the costumes! Oh My! How I love the glamor. Some costumes I've seen on stage, YouTube and in photographs are amazing. The sparkle and dazzle of a show stopping costume just really make all eyes turn. I love the corsets, garters and stockings that get to be worn. As a modern woman I never got to feel how feminine it feels to wear these things until now. Also, where can you get to wear such creative, colorful and sexy things?



For me, burlesques is like skydiving. I'm terrified to do it, but once I take that leap...it's exhilarating!



xoxo

Dangerous Delilah

First Show Ever

My dance group and I had been working hard on a group dance to the song 'Sway' and I was eager to dance the dance at a very small recital Bombshell Betty was putting on in her studio. I had invited two friends. It was fun, we all got sparkle-ized and bedazzled, some did solos and we all did the group dance. As I said it was fun, and we'd do it all again later in the month at the Elbo Room. YIKES! Dance for real in front of strangers! What?!


Well..... over the weekend two very lovely friends talked me into more than the group dance. They said "Why not? You're already getting up there. We don't want to go and watch other people, we wanna see you" My reply "I can't, I don't have anything to wear. I don't have a dance or a song." With the speed of lighting my friends rush into my closet and found several pretty dresses, and some new lingerie. And said "What about these?" After a flurry of dresses and lace we pick out a beautiful silky black dress and a lacy bra and pantie/ skirt set. I felt oh so pretty.......pretty silly.


Next came the song. I just so happened to have one that I had picked out at the start of class for one of the assignments. 'Why don't ya do right?' the Jessica Rabbit version, from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She is oh so sexy and I didn't want people thinking I was trying to be this smokin hot cartoon character. Again my friends chimed in "Your dress is black, you look way better than that" Filling my head with nonsense we moved on to the dance. The friends sat on the couch and said "Go." Wait......what do you mean "go?" I don't know what the hell I'm doing!! Several hours later, I had my first act. Boy, looking back my friends had to push me a lot!


The night at the Elbo Room. I had invited all of my friends and they invited there friends, in all I had about 15 or so people come to see me. Wow, now that is a very strange feeling and I love them for showing up to support me. To top it off, they all got there early and were in the first front two rows. Great friends. Back stage was all fun and games, putting on make-up, bedazzling and glitterizing. I loved watching everyone, seeing their costumes and feeling the excitement in the air. Then it started to get closer and closer to my turn. I tried to block my nerves, push the nauseous feeling away, just smile, talk, walk around, anything. I told myself; "Remember your dance", "Just remember the order you have to take everything off in and you'll do fine","Don't throw up", "You've been on stage before, you know what you're doing", "Pleeease, don't throw up!" All rushing through my head, as the dance numbers were checked off the list.


As I waited on the wings I heard my named announced, my music cue, and I was on!! It was all a blur. I remember the insane bright light in my eyes and the room (thank God) was pitch black, except the front row of shining faces of my sweet friends. I couldn't have been luckier.


Before I knew it I was done! Back stage it was all cheers and congratulations and great jobs, but I was in shock and still sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe I had done it. I, this average, kinda conservative, odd, girl and gone on stage and fooled them all. I had fooled them into thinking I was glamerous, sexy, like I knew what I was doing. I couldn't believe that was me.


I went out to meet my friends and they said, like the good friends they are, that I was great.


My first show ever. It was something else. I never thought I would get up there and I never thought I'd be any good at it. And I never thought I'd do it again. My oh my.





xoxo
Dangerous Delilah

Amazon.com

Aaack! What did I just do!!?!? I bought a ton of burlesque books, videos and a cd. Well, I AM quite happy that I ordered so so many interesting things all for under $100! Not too bad, I just hope they really are a good as they promise! As soon as they come in and I get to looking at them I'll let you know what I think. They should be slowly rolling in over the month.



xoxox

Dangerous Delilah

The Start

I started my journey in August 2009. Just wanting to take a fun dance class that got me out of the house and meeting new people. As I searched the web I found Boumbshell Betty (find her here at http://www.bombshellbetty.net/) and really wanted to sign up, but... it took me a whole year to get the courage to do it! Finally, the second day of class arrived (I missed the first) and I didn't know what to expect.





Betty was beautiful. She showed the class how to walk, how to bump, how to grind, shimmy and shake it. All the while teaching us how to come up with who we want to 'be' and how to be it. Can I tell you how much fun this class was ? It was like eating a sexy hot chocolate sunday with all your best friends covered in sparkles and the teacher was telling you not to miss a bit. Sometimes I would be tired after a long day and not want to make the effort to get on the Muni to go to class, but I'd drag my butt to class and the next thing I knew I was having a blast.





When I was in class I'd try to copy every move Betty would maake, even when she wasn't teaching a dance move. Yes, she IS that sexy, that she can just stand there and women want to copy her. But then I'd look in the mirror and just see me, looking silly. By the end of the classes I do feel like I learned to be a little bit like Betty, sexy in my own skin.





She taught the class all kinds of fun things, dancing, coustume making, courage, confidence. In the end we learned a group number to perform live! I didn't think I had it in me, but how could I miss out? Well, I couldn't. And here I am now on this new adventure.





xoxo


Dangerous Delilah

Hello

Hello there world!


I'm new to the world of burlesque and so far....I love it. The glitter, the sparkle, the shine and the glamor! As I search the web and find old and new shakers, hear music that inspires, and look at these beautiful performers, I get excited to learn more and to improve. I'm excited and have all kinds of thought and ideas that have lead me to want to blog about it all.
Let's see where it takes us.

xoxox
Dangerous Delilah