A Lady's Craft

On Saturday night Mike and I are going to see the Boston Babydolls, a 40's-style burlesque performance. The local troupe has been in changing locations over the last six months and this is their last scheduled performance in Boston.

Burlesque is, simply stated, a striptease. We are paying our $12 to see a stripshow. But there is something... maybe not classier, but definitely more high-brow about a burlesque dancer than there is about a pole dancer.

Burlesque performances aren't about coming onstage naked and putting every crevice of your body five inches away from the faces of strangers at the rail. A burlesque dancer has a clever costume and a gimick. She undresses sensually or comically.

This past fall I went to Ladies Night, a small Boston craft fair that takes place once in the spring and once in the fall. Local crafters set up tables with their handmade jewlery, clothes, purses, pillows, and artwork. The Ladies Night I attended had a fashion show by an aspiring designer. Then there was a burlesque performance. The women weren't hot in the sense that most women who take off their clothes are, but they are fascinating nonetheless.

One performer came out wearing a goofy costume that made her entire torso into a birdcage. She wore the big birdcage (with bird inside) and kicked her stockinged legs and her high-heeled tap shoes. She held large feathered fans in her hands and twirled them around in front of her as she danced to a campy song. As the performance when on, she slowly pealed off the bird and birdcage costume, and, at the end, she was left wearing a tight, sexy cat suit with tail and ears.

Her performance had been a sexy simulation of a cat getting the canary. It was charming and hilarious. It reminded me of the showgirls show we saw in Las Vegas. The women there did end up in little more than thongs, but it wasn't cheap and seedy. Some of the Vegas performers dance behind a screen, so you saw only their silhouettes. Others used the huge feather fans that are a burlesque classic, swinging the fans in front of their bodies so you never see anything, even though you know they are naked behind the pink feathers.

Somehow, the tease has been removed from striptease.


I'm hoping this performance is as fun as those I've seen in the past. If only because it starts at midnight and I'm staying up for it even though I'm not feeling well.