I'm gonna try to stay off my soapbox today - I'll have a stage to occupy soon enough! Yesterday, I had my very first burlesque coaching session. My teacher is a lovely, wonderful woman who is, unsurprisingly, very incredibly female-positive! We had a load of interesting, amazing conversation in between getting progress made. I need to look up her blog, come to think of it! Once I do that, if it's okay with her, I'll link on here!
I did have to get it off my chest that I grew up in not only a female-negative environment but also an "attention-negative" environment. My mom is a very strong, intelligent woman in her own right and I love her to death, but she is painfully shy. She would rather give blood WHILE having a root canal than have anyone look at her for any reason, and she will admit this. I know she didn't mean to, but she sort of tried to transfer that onto me - that is just not my personality. However, when you hear things like "You're doing this for ATTENTION" and "That little *insert insult here* just wants ATTENTION" and the people who are saying it sound like they're spitting it? Yeah, you get the feeling that attention is a dirty word and you feel bad for wanting to perform.
Okay, kind of enough about that - I'm sure it'll pop up later. Logically, I know that performance, known in the animal kingdom as displaying, is a perfectly natural desire. If no one ever wanted anyone else to look at them, I doubt we would be very successful as a species. Plus, we have this gigantic thing called the entertainment issue. Those people had to want attention, want people to look at them, for them to be able to have a career being in front of and entertaining other people. I had never thought about that in depth until just recently. Also, if you paid attention in bio class (which, admittedly, I only kinda did) you know that we are not the only performing species. You get five points if you can name to me another species that does it!
Anyway, my teacher and I went through preliminary, sort of experimental choreography for my first number. I'm really excited about it! I've always loved Frank Sinatra's music and "Nice 'n Easy" is a song of his that I've done many times on the karaoke stage. From my research, burlesque performers who do their own singing are somewhat unique in the field. Yes, I do plan on doing my own singing in my burlesque performance... but at a later date. First things first - get the techniques down, practice stage movement, nail a routine down, all that kind of thing.
With the techniques, I only really had two issues: glove and stocking peels. The glove peel is something I just need to practice and I need to keep my teacher's words in mind. It's not about the glove, it's about the hand underneath. I had never really thought of my hands as sexy before, and certainly not something that could be the subject of a striptease. A little practice with my teacher and she said I was definitely on the right track! I need to pick up a pair of gloves to practice on my own with, and I'm really looking forward to that - especially once my nails grow back. (Side note: I grow my nails out to about half an inch because it's fun to paint them and file them.)
On the flip side, the stocking peel seemed to be a physical issue rather than a performance technique issue. You know that thing burlesque performers do where they pull their stockings off by the toes? Yeah, I've seen a zillion videos of that, seen performers do it in the shows I've seen live, and I just couldn't figure out how they did that without tearing up their stockings. We tried talcum powder because (sorry, TMI!) of my heel calluses - I have a walking-heavy lifestyle. It turned out to be a structure issue - once I changed stockings, it worked just fine. The only two technique issues were, 1. scrunching the stocking down instead of rolling it, and 2. sheer pantyhose underneath. So, at some point, I'll need to pop by the dance shop and get some sheer, low rise dance tights. Apparently, the newer styles of "regular" pantyhose come with a reinforced crotch. That would make panties look lumpy in places they really don't need to, so it's the Hooters route for me!
Stage movement is something that I'm shaky on simply because I don't have a lot of formal training on the subject. BEING on-stage is certainly nothing new to me. I've been singing karaoke in my home town and all over the place for many years now. People who have known me for all or most of that time have told me that my presence has changed for the better. Now, this is just me - and not that I don't trust my friends - but I would like to get a professional's opinion. If I can, I'd like to pick up a basic dance class of some kind, maybe ballet or tap. I don't know if there's specifically a stage movement class at my college that is open to people who are not theater majors. Maybe I can ask some actor/theater friends of mine... My teacher said she was impressed with my preparedness, and I want to continue that for sure!
A routine... Oh my goodness! I haven't done a stage routine in quite a long time. Well, okay, we kinda-sorta had some choreography for a scene of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe for opera. That's been almost a year ago now, though, and our director was not a dance person. (Not to say there's no love there - she was totally a sweetheart, terrific singing voice!) Before that, I think the last time I actually did a routine on-stage was for my fourth-grade talent show... My friend Laurel's mom had the idea to dress us all up as birds and have us dance to "Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day. Again, Ms. Suzan and all of us just sort of put the routine together with this and that. From what I remember, it turned out very cute! Anyhow, I have no reasonable idea how to properly choreograph a routine. I've danced in front of my mirror, of course, and I do have some go-to moves. Mostly, though, it's just turns on heels with some hand movements thrown in. I wish I could remember what I did for my lesson so I would know what to practice!
So that was my first burlesque lesson! I won't give out spoilers for the routine itself, just in case anyone out there in blog-land ever sees it. It was a lot of fun and it occurs to me that I need to set up a space where I can practice without knocking things over... My outfit needs a little work, a little decoration, but my teacher says that I'll be ready to perform in probably two or three more sessions!
Marigold/Hyper-chan, signing off!
I did have to get it off my chest that I grew up in not only a female-negative environment but also an "attention-negative" environment. My mom is a very strong, intelligent woman in her own right and I love her to death, but she is painfully shy. She would rather give blood WHILE having a root canal than have anyone look at her for any reason, and she will admit this. I know she didn't mean to, but she sort of tried to transfer that onto me - that is just not my personality. However, when you hear things like "You're doing this for ATTENTION" and "That little *insert insult here* just wants ATTENTION" and the people who are saying it sound like they're spitting it? Yeah, you get the feeling that attention is a dirty word and you feel bad for wanting to perform.
Okay, kind of enough about that - I'm sure it'll pop up later. Logically, I know that performance, known in the animal kingdom as displaying, is a perfectly natural desire. If no one ever wanted anyone else to look at them, I doubt we would be very successful as a species. Plus, we have this gigantic thing called the entertainment issue. Those people had to want attention, want people to look at them, for them to be able to have a career being in front of and entertaining other people. I had never thought about that in depth until just recently. Also, if you paid attention in bio class (which, admittedly, I only kinda did) you know that we are not the only performing species. You get five points if you can name to me another species that does it!
Anyway, my teacher and I went through preliminary, sort of experimental choreography for my first number. I'm really excited about it! I've always loved Frank Sinatra's music and "Nice 'n Easy" is a song of his that I've done many times on the karaoke stage. From my research, burlesque performers who do their own singing are somewhat unique in the field. Yes, I do plan on doing my own singing in my burlesque performance... but at a later date. First things first - get the techniques down, practice stage movement, nail a routine down, all that kind of thing.
With the techniques, I only really had two issues: glove and stocking peels. The glove peel is something I just need to practice and I need to keep my teacher's words in mind. It's not about the glove, it's about the hand underneath. I had never really thought of my hands as sexy before, and certainly not something that could be the subject of a striptease. A little practice with my teacher and she said I was definitely on the right track! I need to pick up a pair of gloves to practice on my own with, and I'm really looking forward to that - especially once my nails grow back. (Side note: I grow my nails out to about half an inch because it's fun to paint them and file them.)
On the flip side, the stocking peel seemed to be a physical issue rather than a performance technique issue. You know that thing burlesque performers do where they pull their stockings off by the toes? Yeah, I've seen a zillion videos of that, seen performers do it in the shows I've seen live, and I just couldn't figure out how they did that without tearing up their stockings. We tried talcum powder because (sorry, TMI!) of my heel calluses - I have a walking-heavy lifestyle. It turned out to be a structure issue - once I changed stockings, it worked just fine. The only two technique issues were, 1. scrunching the stocking down instead of rolling it, and 2. sheer pantyhose underneath. So, at some point, I'll need to pop by the dance shop and get some sheer, low rise dance tights. Apparently, the newer styles of "regular" pantyhose come with a reinforced crotch. That would make panties look lumpy in places they really don't need to, so it's the Hooters route for me!
Stage movement is something that I'm shaky on simply because I don't have a lot of formal training on the subject. BEING on-stage is certainly nothing new to me. I've been singing karaoke in my home town and all over the place for many years now. People who have known me for all or most of that time have told me that my presence has changed for the better. Now, this is just me - and not that I don't trust my friends - but I would like to get a professional's opinion. If I can, I'd like to pick up a basic dance class of some kind, maybe ballet or tap. I don't know if there's specifically a stage movement class at my college that is open to people who are not theater majors. Maybe I can ask some actor/theater friends of mine... My teacher said she was impressed with my preparedness, and I want to continue that for sure!
A routine... Oh my goodness! I haven't done a stage routine in quite a long time. Well, okay, we kinda-sorta had some choreography for a scene of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe for opera. That's been almost a year ago now, though, and our director was not a dance person. (Not to say there's no love there - she was totally a sweetheart, terrific singing voice!) Before that, I think the last time I actually did a routine on-stage was for my fourth-grade talent show... My friend Laurel's mom had the idea to dress us all up as birds and have us dance to "Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day. Again, Ms. Suzan and all of us just sort of put the routine together with this and that. From what I remember, it turned out very cute! Anyhow, I have no reasonable idea how to properly choreograph a routine. I've danced in front of my mirror, of course, and I do have some go-to moves. Mostly, though, it's just turns on heels with some hand movements thrown in. I wish I could remember what I did for my lesson so I would know what to practice!
So that was my first burlesque lesson! I won't give out spoilers for the routine itself, just in case anyone out there in blog-land ever sees it. It was a lot of fun and it occurs to me that I need to set up a space where I can practice without knocking things over... My outfit needs a little work, a little decoration, but my teacher says that I'll be ready to perform in probably two or three more sessions!
Marigold/Hyper-chan, signing off!
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