9 Ways to Connect with your Audience in Burlesque

I'm back again!

After the unprecedented interest in my last blog Ten Things I wish I'd known as a Beginner Burlesque Performer I firstly wanted to say thanks to everyone who read, re-posted, linked and commented. I had no idea so many people would find it interesting!
So, on the crest of that wave I'm back with the next blog in this series, written with my burlesque teaching hat on, in the weeks leading up to teaching my first burlesque class. Drama Queens Burlesque - plug, plug! In this blog I will be looking at nine tips to help newcomer burlesque performers form and develop a relationship with their audience.

Costumes, music, concepts, choreography, gags and reveals, promotion and connections can all amount to very little if your audience feel bored or disinterested when watching you, or if they find you dislikeable, annoying or aloof onstage. Some performers just have it. The big IT. There are certain performers whom audiences just adore. They've got the skills, the talent, the ideas, the costumes, but it's more than just that. The audience falls in love with them.

A lot of what relates a performer to an audience is elusive and unknowable; call it charisma, charm, stage presence, X-factor or vibe. For a lucky few performers this can be instinctive or innate, but there are also aspects of building a connection with audiences that can be learned and practised by the rest of us mere mortals. Relating to an audience is complex, in the sense that it is easy to learn but difficult to master. Some performers will take years honing the skills of reading, pleasing and reflecting on their audiences and will slowly cultivate skills in this area, others will step onto the stage the very first time and have the crowd eating out of their hands.

So, with this in mind, I share with you nine tipettes for how to cultivate a relationship with your audience. I can't guarantee they will make the audience fall in love with you, but they will certainly put you on the right track to getting on friendly terms with your viewing public.

1. Respect your audience on stage and off

A good performer always treats his or her audience with respect. You should arrive on stage well rehearsed, ready to perform and committed to the moment. Any fuss, negativity or issues from backstage or your real life should be left off stage, or if this is impossible, channelled into your performance. You should never take to the stage too drunk to perform well (many performers even choose not to drink at all until they have finished their turn) or with a half arsed or can't be bothered attitude. Remember, these people parted with good money to be entertained and you signed up to be the one to do it.

Off stage it's just good manners to be friendly. Some performers like to mingle after a show and others feel tired after performing and prefer to slip out discreetly but either way if an audience member compliments you on your performance, asks to take a picture with you or asks you a question about how you began performing, be gracious and indulge them. I'm sure that for most people reading this I am stating the obvious here, but I have witnessed the occasional performer acting like a diva in front of fans and it really spoils it for everyone.

2. Look up, look out, make eye contact

One thing that makes a world of difference in the 'eyes' (ouch!) of the audience is eye contact. It can be tricky when looking out into stage lighting to clearly see the faces of individual audience members, but you can still look up and out over the crowd. Where lighting permits, try to mix looking out into the audience with making brief eye contact with individual audience members. I have seen performers create very interesting and technically strong performances but they have performed with their faces turned down and their eyes lowered. This impedes your connection with the audience and can make them lose interest in what you are doing. Depending on the type of character you are performing as, you may want to tailor the type of looks you give out, but even if you are playing a very shy character you need to find a way to engage the audience with you eyes, perhaps by mixing looking away or down with looking up and out (think Princess Diana!).
[Picture of me making eye contact with the audience. Photographer Martyn Nomad Photography]

3. Work the room

Unlike many other theatrical forms, burlesque performances don't usually have a 'fourth wall'; the imaginary line that separates the world of the performance from the world of the audience. Instead burlesque performers react to and interact with their audience, performing for and to them, not just in front of them. Use this characteristic of burlesque to your advantage by working the whole room. Make everyone in the audience feel like you are performing to entertain them personally. Performers such as Missy Malone or Khandie Khisses are genius at this. They move seamlessly across the stage directing a shimmy to the people at the front left, then a bump to the folks at the middle back, followed by a cheeky wink to the lady in the specs on the fifth row. It takes practice, but communicating directly with different parts of the room (while never ignoring the rest of the audience) will make the audience feel connected to you and part of the show.
Be aware of how you use the stage and where possible do a walk through at new venues so you can see where your audience will be seated and plan how you will get the best out of your performance space, with no audience member feeling like they are in the 'cheap seats'.

4. Learn to read audience reactions

The audience as a group will constantly be giving you cues about what they enjoy and what makes them tick. The most skilled performers become adept at reading audience reactions but it is a skill that takes time to master. For newer performers you may find it easier to watch how audiences react to your peers than your own performances, what makes them laugh, when are they applauding the most, when they whoop or cheer and what are people's faces are saying when they are quiet. I remember the first time I performed a non-comedic fan dance to a burlesque audience. They were quiet all the way through and I thought that meant I had bored them, but the applause at the end suggested that they were just responding to the delicate mood of the piece.
In your own performances, you should listen out for the audience responses, as reading their faces may not always be possible under the stage lights. You may also find it useful to keep a reflective log of audience reactions to particular acts. I find I forget things if I leave it, but if I make a note of a joke, reveal, music selection or move that provokes a strong reaction from the crowd I can come back to it later and try to analyse why certain parts worked well and try to replicate successes, or figure out which points to emphasise and milk.

Also, as a burlesque performer you may find you receive a certain amount of post show compliments from audience members. These accolades are great and make us feel good but if someone says your act was 'really good' or 'really pretty' that doesn't tell you a huge amount. Be aware instead of audience members who tell you they specifically liked a certain aspect such as costuming, a particular gag, a physical or dance skill, that will help you to guage which parts of your performances are really flying.

5. Never break character to complain or explain

This one might sound ludicrous but I will never forget the day I saw a performer stop what she was doing mid-act and tell the audience she had made a mistake! She then continued the act in a fairly deflated manner and at the end of the act explained again that she had made a mistake and that it had not been her fault. If this had been a pre-planned joke as part of a comedy act it would have been fun, but as a spontaneous explanation and complaint it just felt awkward and I didn't know where to look.


If you make a mistake or a slip, try to recover gracefully if you can, keep smiling and make it into a joke if necessary but whatever you do don't break character and never explain why the mistake wasn't your fault. Even if it wasn't. In reality, if you make a mistake on the stage the odds are the audience will never even know; with even fairly large fluffs they won't realise. They have never seen your act in rehearsal, and as long as you keep up your character and performance you'll be able to smooth it over. If something more serious happens, like if you trip and fall (this happened to me and my wig went flying off. I always gripped my wigs more firmly after that day!) all you can do is keep smiling and laugh it off. If you handle your setback with good grace the audience willl respect you for it, if you try and explain what went wrong, complain or finish the rest of the act in a sulk they will just feel uncomfortable.
I would also take this point a little further and say that unless it was blindingly obvious (again, like falling over and losing your wig) don't tell audience members after the show that you bodged up, or ask them if they noticed. There's no need, the odds are they will never know you made a mistake.

6. Ensure the audience can see, hear and understand

It's worth bearing in mind that your audience are more likely to enjoy and relate to your performance if they know what's going on. If they are spending half the act going 'Eh? What was that?' they aren't going to be as invested in the moment as you might like. There are several factors that can add to audience confusion, and most of them can be easily avoided.

Firstly think about your music. Your music should tell the audience something about your character, the mood of the piece or the narrative. This mood should become clear to them quickly, unless you specifically want them to have some sort of gradual revelation about who your character or what your setting is. Choose music that sounds like the character or situation you wish to portray, rather than a song with lyrics that tell the audience the information. Think about it, unless the lyrics are very clear (or heavily repeated) or the song is universally well known, you may find the audience don't catch the words. Also, think about songs that have more than one recording, where the cover fundamentally changes the mood and character of the song. It's not the lyrics creating the mood, it's the arrangement, instrumentation, tempo, rhythm and vocal. If the song sounds right it doesn't matter so much about the words, although in many cases you may find a track where both words and music fit your ideas.

Think carefully about signs, posters, labels and pictures before you use them. In my early days of burlesque I made lots of acts that involved reading signs and labels and the technique does not always work (although I admit I do still have a couple of written elements in acts knocking around). Use signs, labels and posters only when strictly necessary. If there's a way to show something to your audience, rather than telling them using a sign I would advise using the other method. The reason for this is that not all audience members will see it, if they do see it they might not all be able to read it, and even if they can, it might distract them from the action of the performance. If you are going to use a sign, label or poster make sure you use a clear, large font so it is easily readable, ensure that you show it to all quarters of the audience for a sufficient amount of time and most importantly, don't fall out of character, or think that you don't need to keep performing while you are presenting the sign or label.

A lot of the same rules apply for showing a picture. If the picture is not easily recognisable at a quick glance your audience probably won't know who they are looking at, a picture of Homer Simpson is probably going to be more instantly identifiable than David Cameron. If you are going to use an image, like with the signs, make it large and present is as a performer. If possible and relevant for the act, perhaps consider having the image propped up on an easel so the audience have a little more time to take it in.


7. One on one contact - Come on strong

Some performers like to get a little more personal with their audience. This can be anything from gesturing directly to a particular individual during your act right up to getting out into the crowd or bringing someone up on stage to join in your performance in some capacity. This can really help to mix it up performance wise, and if it pays off, that individual will always remember their up-close and personal moment at a show, not to mention, it usually gets a smile (sometimes in relief that they aren't the ones being picked on) from the rest of the audience.
One on one contact can be risky though, the person might be embarassed and not want to participate for one thing. If your contact is small, like a wink, a point or a gesture in their direction, it doesn't really matter if your quarry blushes and looks away, in fact, it may add to the humour of the moment. For anything that involves your audience member joining in, however, you have to be aware of the difference between the shy, giggling 'oh no, I couldn't!' and the folded arms and grim determination of someone who is not going to budge under any circumstances. You need to be aware of when to push your audience member to join in and when to back off and try somebody else. Either way though, coming on strong is important. As I mentioned above, burlesque doesn't usually have a particularly rigid fourth wall, but if you are going to go ahead and break right through it you need to be confident and sure of your character or persona. If the audience member you choose to pick on does something unexpected you have to be sure you can handle it, and you  should present yourself confidently, because if you look unsure about drawing someone in to the game, they'll be unsure about it too.

8. Be yourself

One of the most important parts of burlesque performance is carving your own unique persona or creating personal characters. Audiences don't want to see a clone of something they have already seen before, they want to see your take on it. By all means, be inspired by other performers and how they relate to and interact with their audiences but there's no point trying to out and out copy their techniques for performance style.
You'll find, as you go along that there are things you can 'get away with' in terms of connecting with the audience that perhaps other performers can't. In one of my acts I make a one fingered gesture to the crowd. I considered this long and hard. Would it be a push too far? Would it seem too unfriendly? Would it violate the relationship I was trying to build with the crowd? This gesture was in the context of my 'Emotional Strip' act, in which I play through the different human emotions. This is the final gag in my 'angry' section, performed to a section of Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain. In the end I went with it because the act itself, and my persona in this character are both very, very silly. And I always feel I'm a fairly non-threatening figure; short, dumpy with big boobs and a rubbery expressive face. In my performance the gamble pays off because it's a short, sharp joke before the mood changes into something even sillier. Other performers, or even I myself might not be able to get away with this gesture in a different act. In the same way, I don't think I could ever pull off the staple of dragging a feather boa or fan over a bald man's head. It just wouldn't be sexy coming from me in my chosen stage persona.
By being yourself and playing to your strengths you can figure out the best ways to play with your audience and make them remember you. 


9. Express with your face

When I started out burlesque, as a member of a troupe, we would sometimes walk through an act in rehearsals with what we called 'bored stripper face'. I'm sure you've seen it, the dead eyes, distracted non-expression a performer wears when he or she is thinking of something else. In the 7th walk through of the day that face may well be expected, but I have seen more than a few performers on stage, in front of a paying audience performing a routine with a bored stripper face on. The body's there, the moves might even be graceful, but the performer might as well be asleep for all the expression you can read on the face.

When you're on stage you should look present and engaged. As I mentioned before,you should be looking up and out at your audience, at least for the majority of your time on stage. If you are performing a classic, cheesecake or showgirl style act you may want to make cute, pin-up style faces but you at least want to smile, smoulder or do something with your face. For character based or comedic performances facial expressions become even more important. Nobody wants to see a body performing hilarious physical comedy while the face look like it's contemplating the grocery list and how will you convince your audience you are evil, lonely, mischevious, letcherous or sneaky if your face looks like you're doing some particularly tricky mental arithemtic. Personally, I like to perform using exaggerated facial expressions. I like even the audience in the back row to know exactly what I'm emoting, but that isn't to everyone's taste. Either way though, if you look at any successful and popular burlesque performer out there they'll be doing something with their face, other than daydreaming about fluffy kittens. No bored stripper faces necessary. (NB. If you are playing a bored stripper in you act then, by all means, make a bored stripper face).
[Photo by James Thorpe]

For most of us (me especially) audience relationships are a tricky thing to create and maintain, while for some it just seems to come naturally. As a newer performer, by practicing these skills you can begin to really connect with your audience and make them enjoy and remember your performances.

Until next time,
x
Emerald

Ten Things I Wish I'd Known as a Beginner Burlesque Performer

Dear all,
I am now just over two weeks away from beginning the six week burlesque course I will be teaching, www.nottinghamburlesquelessons.weebly.com (plug, plug).  In the run up to the class I thought I'd write a couple of blog posts with my teacher hat on and share a few pearls of my (dubious) wisdom.

In my first blog in this series I thought I would look at ten things I wish I had known (or that some wise burlesque mama-bear had told me) when I started out as a shiny new performer. This list is a relatively personal one for me, and it is by no means exhaustive but I'd love it if experienced performers would use the comments to tell me about other things they wish they had know when they started out, and for newer performers to tell me about the things they wish they knew about now (assuming you know what they are!).

So, shimmying straight in with the list:

1. Watch Other Performers

This one might sound obvious but you'd be amazed at how little burlesque I had seen when I first started! Between coming up with concepts, choreographing routines, creating costumes and trying to get booked I didn't watch nearly as much burlesque as I probably should have in those early days. It's useful, though, to watch as much burlesque as you can (live for preference, but if time and budget don't permit, then Youtube is your friend). By watching other performers you become familiar with the tropes, clichés and standards of the genre, the different sub-styles (such as showgirl, comedic, gorelesque, etc), costuming tricks, how performers work an audience and all sorts of other vital nuggets. It stops your work becoming too generic because once you know the standards, you'll get a feel for where you can play with them, and it also gives you and insight into how many different way a basic idea can be interpreted. 
Watching other performers is invaluable, I didn't do it enough when I first started out and I feel it slowed my progress to becoming a more well-rounded performer.

2. Wear More Makeup 


When I first started out performing I would always look at photographs after a performance and think how plain I looked, especially alongside the other burlesquers. I came from a background of amateur dramatics so I knew that makeup was important for the stage, but it never really dawned on me how much slap you need to trowel on for your look to be striking in burlesque.

This picture is a shot of me performing at the Pitty Patt Club back when I was a newbie performer. As you can see, under the stage lights it looks like I am wearing makeup, but perhaps only about as much as someone might normally wear to a daytime engagement such as work or a lunch.  In the photo, it looks reasonable enough, but imagine what the people at the back of the room can see! Probably not much.

For the stage, especially for burlesque, as an exaggerated, over-the-top kind of art form you could probably benefit from wearing a little more so that the audience can read your facial cues clearly (and that you look good in photos!).

Now as a stage performer, I wear a LOT more makeup. In fact, I probably wear a lot more than many performers out there. Stage makeup has become something of a passion of mine! So I'm not suggesting you have to wear as much makeup as I do, and of course, you need to ensure that the makeup you wear is appropriate to your character, but the important thing is to highlight the areas that will help you express emotion and character.

Usually eyes and mouths are a no-brainer. If the audience can clearly see your eyes and mouth you can't go far wrong. As I got to know more about myself as a performer I came to realise that I express a lot with my eyebrows so I now always ensure that they are clearly visible when I am onstage.
You may also choose to contour or use other stage makeup tricks to help change your face to fit a certain character. In the picture to the right (me performing as young Baba Yaga at the Blue Room Burlesque, 2011) I chose to contour my cheeks as I have quite a flat face and I pictured this character having sharp cheekbones. Also, when wearing a wig I tend to shade a little at the temples to make the join between the head and the wig more natural looking. I have also found that when wearing wigs (especially ones in bright colours or big shapes), wearing a little more makeup can stop it looking like the wig is 'wearing you'.

3. End your act and edit your track.

This was something I learned very quickly but it is still a pet peeve for me now when I see it in new performers. If your music finishes when your act does, it looks complete and professional. If your performance finishes before the song does, it leaves the audience with questions such as, 'Did she get the timing wrong?' or  'Is there more to come?'. I have seen dozens upon dozens of newer performers conclude an act part way through a song, or sometimes even part way through a verse or chorus! It never looks great. This leaves you with two options, you either need to build an act that lasts the entire length of the song you are working to, or you need to edit it to fit your act
I am a big fan of using mixed tracks, so I pretty much always edit my music to fit what I'm doing. There are some very easy editing programmes out there, or you could pay someone to edit your music for you if you need something more complex. Even if you just want the music to fade out, it is much more professional to edit the fade into your track than to ask the DJ to do it blind on the night of the performance.

4. Always customise your costumes

In this picture of me, performing an early incarnation of my first ever solo act, Emerald's Cupcake (back in 2006) you can clearly see that customising my costume items had never occurred to me. Apart from my hat (it was meant to be a big cherry) and my pasties, both of which I made myself, everything was shop bought and not customised. It didn't even cross my mind that I needed to do it.

A large part of burlesque, however, is showmanship, and having an exciting costume is part of it. There's nothing worse that removing an outer costume layer only to hear a voice in the audience remark 'I've got that bra' (which happened to me, while performing this act!). Customising costume items need not be expensive and you don't have to be a whizz at sewing either, I know many performers who swear by a hot glue gun! And by using ribbon, sequins, beads, lace, crystals or even more unorthodox items (I have seen rubber gloves, cuddly toys and badges to name a few), or by dying items or cutting and re-making them you can make your costume items really express you character, and give the audience something exciting to look at. You can also think about changing clasps, closures and fastenings, as well as how garments come off, to help you create a smoother striptease.

Personally, I am pretty poor at dressmaking or creating an item from scratch but my customisation skills have come on in leaps and bounds since I started performing burlesque. For example, in this promo for my Jackalope act I started out with a plain bra, corset, bloomers and a plain white bridal underskirt and I customised them using tea dying, lace and ribbon, home made appliques, raw wool and tons and tons of strips of calico (on the skirt). I also changed the bra from a back to a front closure and changed the straps. It was time consuming, but the basic skills were easy enough to learn.



5. The audience want you to succeed.

I remember how nervous I was when I first started performing, especially when I first broke out from the troupe I started in and began working solo. I got really worried that people wouldn't like my performances and wouldn't like me. Then, a more experienced, wiser performer reminded me that burlesque audiences (in the main) come to have a great time, to be entertained and to have fun. They want your performance to be good and they're rooting for you. Burlesque audiences, for me, have been for the most part, the most generous, upbeat, welcoming audiences I have ever performed to, and any lone negative voices get lost in the crowd. Nerves are healthy but as long as you offer the audience your best, they will treat you kindly.


6. Choose your music carefully (or Everybody has a copy of Striptease Classics)

When I first started performing I felt that there were particular expectations about what sort of music I should be performing to. In my mind I thought Rockabilly, 50s rock n roll, Swing, Big Band and at a push a Charleston would be acceptable, with perhaps metal or rock music if you were creating acts for a neo-burlesque or alternative themed event. This can be rather limiting and it can lead to lots of performers doing routines to the same few songs. The 'Take it off - Striptease Classics' album is one that most burlesquers have in their collection and I would say that a large amount of us have used a track from it at one point or another.
While there's nothing wrong with using a standard, especially if you really make it your own, you shouldn't feel restricted to only use this sort of music. You can use music from any genre you like, from any era and from any source; just pick something that inspires you and that you won't get sick of. And you don't have to stop there, you can perform to dialogue, sound recordings, silence - anything! Don't believe me? If you've never seen it before, check out this video of Nasty Canasta performing her Car Alarm Fan Dance.

7. Go at your own pace

One of the things that threw me when I was new, and that still throws me now if I let it, is watching what other performers are getting up to and making comparisons. It's easy to get downhearted when it feels like other performers are putting out an exciting new act every week, or that everyone is picking up great gigs except you. It's important though to remember that everyone feels like they are lagging behind sometimes, even that person you really look up to. Online especially, a lot of performers will promote themselves by talking about their gigs, their new projects and their achievements but remember this is only half the story. You aren't seeing all their hard work, their frustrations and disappointments and the times when real life gets in the way. Just try to keep going at your own pace and things will come together. If you get too caught up with keeping up with what everyone else is doing you'll take all the fun out of creating and performing burlesque.

8. Don't get distracted by drama

Occasionally in burlesque, like in any other walk of life, things can get a little bitchy. With so many creative folks all crammed together in small dressing rooms and close knit local scenes it is inevitable that occasional dramas and spats will erupt. Its very easy to get drawn into drama and burlesque politics and it is pretty much always a waste of time. Focus on your own performances, avoid the backstage bitching and skip the cryptic Facebook statuses slagging fellow performers off. And most importantly, ignore anyone who threatens to ruin your reputation, stop you getting bookings or stunt your chances as a performer. These people rarely have as much reach as they think they do, and if your performances are good and your manner backstage is friendly, these things will speak for themselves.
(PS. Apologies. I know GIFs can be rather annoying but I just couldn't resist this one!).

9. Follow your passion

If you look at the most successful performers in burlesque they all have strong, distinctive on-stage identities and performance styles and this is important even for newer performers. In my early days of performance I fussed about whether something 'fit' what I thought was 'burlesque' style, whether that be sounds, visuals or movement. The problem with this is that it makes for a lot of fairly generic burlesque. Burlesque gets really exciting when performers begin to shape the genre to fit them, when they follow their skills and passions and create something personal. When I first started experimenting with the genre and how I could make it my own a little more I did receive a voice of dissent from an audience member who stated 'That's not burlesque, Dita von Teese wouldn't do that' and I felt a little deflated, but then I had dozens of people tell me how much they enjoyed my take on the form. People will enjoy your take on burlesque too, so learn the rules and conventions of the genre and then learn how to break them, or at least give them a little bend here and there!

10. Take a bow!

It might sound daft, but when I first started performing I would think nothing of leaving the stage as soon as my music finished and my final pose was over. When I watch early videos of myself back I can see how odd that looks. After your performance has finished, take a moment to enjoy your audience. Look out over the crowd and take a bow, curtsy or wave, or do something in character if you like. Either way, acknowledge your applause and enjoy it. It will make your performance look more complete and finished, the audience will feel acknowledged and it gives you a moment to drink in the rewards of your hard work. 

So these are ten things I wish I had known when I was a new performer. I hope you've found them interesting. Now I'd love to hear what you wish you had known when you were new (or now, if you're new now). Please add your own thoughts to the comments section below.

Until the next time,
x
Emerald 

Competition Time

Dear all,
it's competition time! I'm offering a free place on my January burlesque course (held in Nottingham) if you enter my competition.

Enter on Facebook
Copy and paste this text into your Facebook status:

I want to win a free place on Drama Queens Burlesque's January course in Nottingham. Visit Drama Queens Burlesque at www.nottinghamburlesquelessons.weebly.com

and tag Emerald Ace in your post.

Enter on Twitter
Copy and paste this text into a Tweet. (Or Retweet Emerald Ace's version of this text on Twitter)

I want to win a free place on Drama Queens Burlesque's January course in Nottingham. www.nottinghamburlesquelessons.weebly.com #burlesque #nottingham #lessons

Entries are open until 7pm Friday 11th January 2013. At this point all entries from Facebook and Twitter will be put into a hat and the winner will be drawn out and announced at the weekend.

Terms and Conditions:
You must be able to attend the course in Nottingham (which runs for 6 weeks, starting Wednesday 30th January).
You are welcome to repost / retweet as many times as you like, but each person will only be counted as one entry in the competition.
No cash alternative is offered.
Entrants must be over 18 as the class is for over 18s only. 

For more information on Drama Queens Burlesque take a wander over to http://nottinghamburlesquelessons.weebly.com/win-a-free-place-on-januarys-course.html.

Good luck all ye who enter here!
Until next time,
Emerald xxx

Goodbye to 2012

Dearests,
It's getting to that part of the year where many of us like to take stock and consider the events of the year. I had sort of been avoiding doing this, but I think the time has come, so, without further ado, here's my personal review of 2012.

The Hard Stuff

2012 has been a bit of a hard year, not just for me, but for a lot of people by the looks of it. Without lamenting too much, the looming presence of the year has been that my partner has been very ill and that has brought a lot of sadness, fear and stress into both our lives. Money has been terribly tight this year; not least of all because after I completed my teacher training I found myself unemployed and it took me a while to secure a job. I am currently working in a call centre, for now.  As my teaching practice progressed it became more and more clear to me that finding a teaching job was going to be hard, and so far it has been.

On the burlesque front I spent most of the early part of 2012 immersed in my teacher training and I performed only once or twice during this period. When I finally qualified I found I had gone off the boil somewhat, creatively (see my blog on creative block for more depth on this) and the issues going on at home made pursuing burlesque bookings somewhat of a low priority. All this means that I feel I have lost touch with burlesque and the people who make it great this year. I currently have a large question mark over what to do next. Whether to try and push though and begin working on new acts and reconnecting with shows and promoters to get work, or whether to focus on other creative and professional avenues. I'm still unsure. I miss burlesque, I miss performing and the creative process and I miss the people. I don't miss travelling so much, and often being tired from juggling performance with a day job!

In general though, I think 2012 has left me feeling a little sad, a little withdrawn and a little isolated. I've not wanted to reach out to people and tell them I'm struggling because it feels painful to do that so I've just been popping up occasionally on Facebook or what have you when I'm feeling a little more positive, but I haven't wanted to do the hard times publicly. In a way, I think I have ended up falling a little out of touch with some people I genuinely care about, because I couldn't make small talk with them as if everything was fine, but I didn't feel able to talk about the big stuff.

Ouch. Stream of consciousness moment. This has suddenly got incredibly personal and not very much to do with my 'burlesque life' blog. Still, I think at the new year people do tend to get reflective (read: maudlin) so I shall leave it in, but normal service will be resumed now with...

The Good Stuff

As well as the tough stuff that 2012 sent my way, there have been some fantastic adventures, achievements and general good times. Obviously the biggie was qualifying as a drama teacher for further education. I worked my behind off to get there and it was such an amazing experience. I think I have finally found where I'm supposed to fit career-wise and that's something I had never been able to say before. Working with my learners in teaching placement was also a huge joy, especially seeing them blossom in their own performances. I didn't think it was possible to feel so proud of a bunch of people you aren't related to. It has made me realise that teaching performance is something more rewarding than I could have imagined.

2012 was also a year of new creative inspirations. The single performance that made the biggest impact on me was the inestimable Gomito Theatre's Alchemystorium show (which I went with my students to see). I went in, not knowing what I was going to see, but I came out saying 'That. That's what I want to be doing'. Using clowning, puppetry, mime, home-made special effects, evocative lighting and sound and wordless narrative it felt like a logical extension from the type of burlesque performances I have been trying to make. It felt like the next step. I had been thinking quietly about clown for a while but this really lit a fire under me and helped inform how I want to shape future performance work.

With clowning in mind, in the summer I took a one day clown workshop with Mick Barnfather. I am aware that a couple of other bods in the world of burlesque have studied with him and after chatting with a couple of them, one thing seems clear. Clown is damn hard! I think I was pretty terrible in the workshop. I'm not really a spontaneous kind of a person, and I tend to over think and second-guess myself and these sort of traits don't seem to make a natural clown. That having been said, I'd love to go back and do a longer and more involved course (when time and money will permit) because I feel as though it would be something extremely valuable, if I could just get my head around it.

After summer was over and I found a job I began working on my own take on a clown piece (I'm not sure if purists would say it was true clown, but it was my attempt). Griselda Finkle-Pheffer was the result. I performed Griselda at Little Wolf Parade a performance and art event curated by local artist Rachel Parry. I was pretty happy with the performance for a first run, but ideally I'd like to trial the act out in front of a burlesque audience. In my more ambitious moments, I can see Griselda extending into a short, one-woman show, but perhaps I shouldn't run before I can walk!

Alongside these adventures, I did perform at a couple of burlesque shows this year. Back in April I shook my thing at the Missy Malone and Friends Burlesque Revue in Milford Haven. That show was fantastic, the audience were so welcoming and I got to enjoy a hotel sleepover with Scarlett Daggers and Sherry Trifle. In October I performed at the amazing Wet Spot in Leeds. Every time I do this show it reminds me why I love burlesque. The line-up was out of this world (Lili la Scala, Audacity Chutzpah, Laurie Hagen, Diva Hollywood, Velma von Bon Bon, Equador the Wizard, and of course, little old me) and I had a wonderful time. I felt a real sense of a community producing 'for us, by us' entertainment and that made me proud. Finally, my last show of the year was the Frou Frou club in Hebden Bridge. Highlights of that show included watching the most professional and exciting routine from a troupe of newcomers (learners from Lady Wildflower's classes), catching acts from the stunning Missy Malone and Roxy Reveals and laughing at Heidi Bang Tidy's anecdote about accidentally peeing on the 'safety thong', with a laugh of recognition because it happened to me once when I was rather merry (after all the work was done, of course).

So it has been a hard year, but there have been some joys too. 2013 is here now and there are new plans afoot. As I'm sure the whole universe knows by now, at the end of January I will be dipping my toe into burlesque teaching and running my first burlesque course, I also hope that 2013 might bring with it new opportunities to create acts and perform, but I'm not setting myself rigid goals about exactly what, where and how much. This year I have learned that if I try to force these things, it just becomes more difficult.

So, onwards and upwards into 2013.
'Til next time
x
Emerald

Burlesque, Teaching and Why I have decided to wade in

Dears,
Firstly, two blogs in one week! I know, it's a rare and unusual occurrence!

I have been performing burlesque for almost seven years, and in that time I can't think of an issue that has been discussed more frequently, and caused more difference of opinion than the question of who should (and perhaps more importantly, who shouldn't) teach burlesque. The teaching question is a bit of a biggie because the teachers of today create the performers of tomorrow and new performers are, in many ways, the lifeblood of our artform. When newcomers are taught well they bring a flood of new ideas, enthusiasm and freshness to the burlesque palette; when they are taught poorly we end up with a glut of identikit, uninspired performers who then feel disillusioned and pushed out by the burlesque scene when they don't find bookings easily.  Or worse, cheeky promoters put on shows entirely peopled by unpaid, inexperienced newcomers who cannot find work elsewhere and audiences come away feeling this is the the be all and end all of what the genre can offer, closing off potential audience members to the rest of the industry. So, teaching really is a bit of a biggie indeed.

If you look at the different viewpoints in our burlesque community there are many differing views on who should teach. Many agree you should be an experienced performer, some feel you should be a formally trained teacher, some people think dance training is beneficial. Some contingents have argued that only performers who work internationally and consistently in headline spots should teach while others feel that if you have taken and completed a burlesque class yourself you are now qualified to pass on what you know. Alongside this, many gyms and dance classes now offer burlesque lessons taught by fitness instructors who have never performed, taken a class or even seen a burlesque performance (and that film doesn't count!). However, some would counter that these classes are not aimed at aspiring performers, more for those seeking fitness and fun.

In this blog I want to talk about teaching aspiring performers, as I feel that hen party classes, burlesque themed fitness classes and lessons that are clearly marketed as just-for-fun do not necessarily have the same impact on our industry that the training of our successors clearly does, and therefore, the credentials of those who teach them are (arguably) less of an issue.

In the past, when the teaching debate has arisen, occasionally the idea of accreditation of teachers or qualifications in burlesque has come up. You can see why it might; in other performance disciplines such as playing a music instrument, dance and drama learners take exams and once they reach a certain level they can take teaching exams. If they pass, they can teach. So why not burlesque? I think it would be difficult to do a similar thing in burlesque for one big reason. The skills you need to play a violin or dance ballet en pointe are standardised in a way that burlesque is not. Some burlesque performers dance, some don't and even those who do won't all be dancing using standardised steps or techniques. Some performers make narrative acts, others plan to create a moment or simply an aesthetic statement. Some burlesquers aim to entertain with a musical performance, others to entrance with a sensual striptease, still more to amuse through comedy or visual gags. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! With performers each bringing their own skill sets from hula hooping to mime to trained animals to pain and endurance shows, how could we ever standardise burlesque down to its fundamentals?

I think one of the reasons that burlesquers, by necessity, must each do their own thing (as Gypsy told us 'You Gotta Get A Gimmick'!) is because of burlesque's short form nature. You need a tap dancer, followed by a stripping axe thrower, followed by someone who plays the trumpet in their act to stop what I have heard one respected promoter refer to as 'the dreaded fan-dance-to-bumps-and-grinds pile up'. All aspiring performers cannot learn the same skills, routines and approaches because that would make the shows samey and boring, and this would eventually lose all of us our audience.

So there are no fundamentals that can be taught for burlesque? Well, I thought so when I first examined this question, but I, like many others was thinking in terms of dance. Burlesque has no fundamental steps or moves. It may have standards we have all seen and know; the Dita-esque over the back shoulder stocking removal, the feather fans used behind the head to make a clam shell shape, the walk-walk-walk and pose, walk-walk and pose. But these are not the fundamentals of burlesque the theatrical genre, we are back in the hen party class if that's what we teach as the bare bones of burlesque. While there is no harm in performers using any of these well known burlesque tropes at any time, they don't make burlesque what it is. If they were missing from an act, it would still be a good burlesque act, if it was good (so to speak).

So I looked at my own experience as a recently qualified drama teacher. I started thinking about what makes live theatrical performance good in general and I found there were three areas that really stuck out as important and that could be taught - because I had been teaching them to my own students. And when I thought about it, they started to feel like the fundamentals of not just good performance, but also of good burlesque performance. If any of them were missing, your burlesque act would be missing something. So here are my three fundamentals of good burlesque:

Characterisation (or persona) - Many burlesque performers work with a specific character (Edward Scissor Hands, Kurt Cobain, Elizabeth Bennett) or with a character type (nurse, panda, anthropomorphised cake) but those that don't use discrete characters for different acts still come on stage as somebody other than their day to day selves (unless their day to day self is really, really full on!), they must have an onstage persona. For burlesque performance to be strong learners have to be able to create a character, learn how to express that character in how they move, the expressions they use, the music they select, the costume and props they select etc, and they also have to practice sustaining this and not slipping out of character and showing us a flash of their day to day self.

Narrative or Concept - Not all performers work in a narrative style but you still need a strong idea or concept of what you're going to do. It should be well thought out, personal, original. Or if the concept itself is a standard or well worn idea, learners must find a way to make it new again, to make it their own, to put their own personal spin on it. If the concept (or narrative starting point) is 'Housewife' there are a thousand directions you could take that narrative in and learner burlesquers can be encouraged to explore past the first idea. In drama teaching, I would never allow my students to use their first narrative or concept idea without first encouraging them to explore some alternatives because the first idea often comes from your comfort zone or the familiar. It's only by exploring what else you could do with a concept that you can figure out if your first idea was the best one, and the only way to produce something original.

Relationship with the audience - Bizarrely enough, I think this is something that is sometimes forgotten in burlesque teaching. Burlesque is an interesting form because there is not usually a fourth wall, and if there is, that is usually a conscious decision by the performer (and creates a whole different relationship between performer and audience). In drama teaching, when I was working on plays with my learners, sometimes I had to remind them to stop mugging to the audience at, for example, a particularly funny moment. But then when we ran a variety unit it was a different story because that fourth wall dissolves, the audience are there in the room with you and there's no getting away from it. Burlesque performers, in general are working to, for and in response to the audience. Or at least they should be. I have seen many, otherwise strong newcomer performers perform their routine as though they are performing to a video camera or an empty room, but the greatest, most popular burlesque performers know how to make their audience feel involved and included, they know how to work the room and draw people in, and I believe that can be taught as a performance skill.

So these are my big three burlesque fundamentals, common to all good burlesque. Sure, there are other things that are important like being good at whatever skill sets you are bringing to your acts (dance, singing, comedy, hula hooping) but in a group class, unless you want all your learners to come out the same those are not really areas you can focus on so closely.

I have done some research and, in my area at least, I have not found anyone teaching burlesque in this way (apologies if you are out there and I have just not found you), teaching holistic performance and creativity skills, specifically geared to burlesque performers, that they can then take away and use in their future performing lives. So I have decided that I will throw my hat into the ring and give it a go. As I discussed above, there will be some people who think I don't have the ideal credentials to teach, and there will be others who think I am in the right position to do so. I'm not claiming to be the best performer out there, and I'm not claiming to have all the answers, I can't teach learners to dance, or throw knives or rollerskate in their acts, but I can help them unlock their individual creativity and skills in the areas I have just discussed. I am approaching this with integrity and a genuine desire to see learners become creative, individual performers with the tools they need to create personal burlesque acts for as long as they wish to perform.

Teach a woman a burlesque routine and she'll burlesque today, teach her how to create her own burlesque routines and she'll burlesque forever.

With that said, if you are a new or aspiring burlesque performer who would like to take my class please visit my burlesque lessons website, Drama Queens Burlesque.

Til next time
X
Emerald

The Big Dork meets the Little Wolf.

Dear all,
It may be two weeks after the fact, but it's taken me a little while to process the experience and find the time to write about it, Saturday 10th November saw me debut my first attempt at a clown performance at the wild and wonderful art happening that was Nottingham's Little Wolf Parade, a totally bizarre and enthralling adventure into live art, curated by the gorgeous and talented Rachel Parry.

This performance was a little scary to me for more than one reason. Firstly, I don't really have a lot of experience performing in front of an 'art' crowd. I really wasn't sure what their expectations would be and, especially compared to the other performers and artists there, my stuff is rather tame and a bit 'nice'. Still, as one of the artists kindly remarked, I would be something of a palate cleanser if I did something cosy after all that mind-expanding stuff!
In the end my sister (who was my date, company and general wine-bringer for the night) and I did not get to see everything that was going on (I had to keep an eye on the stage to make sure I didn't miss my turn) as the event was over several floors, but we did have a fantastic time and were kept thoroughly entertained and amazed all night.

The main reason the performance scared me though is that it was a debut, not only of a new act, but of my attempt to try out a new style of performance, in may ways similar to the type of burlesque I like to create, but in other ways new and different. My new act, called 'Talking to Boys with Griselda Finkle-Pheffer' is about a dumpy teenager, a real big dork, who daydreams about romance from the safety of her bedroom. It has been scary trying to step out of my burlesque comfort zone, in which I have had chance to get used to a formula. For this piece, working in (my own approximation of) clown some of the rules were different, or I found there wasn't a rule that I had in place yet so I just had to make it up as I went along (in the devising process that is, I'm not nearly brave enough to make stuff up as I go on stage... yet).

One thing that I found particularly challenging when creating this act was working with voiceovers (including hearing my own voice on recording) and the logistics of making sure the audience could clearly understand what was being said and not losing the narrative. I also learned a lot about timing. In burlesque timing has never been a large problem for me, but with this act I found there was a lot of tweaking times on the track, experimenting with how long it would take to perform certain sections, moments or even particular gestures. I found that often, soundtrack elements that sounded short when you were editing them were a long time in stage time when rehearsing. Conversely, spoken word elements that seemed at a reasonable pace when I recorded them had to have pauses added when I began to work with the soundtrack on its feet.

I don't know how other people make clown work, I don't even really know if what I have made would be considered clown by purists. For me I suppose it's somewhere between clown and burlesque because in a lot of ways it is similar to what I have been doing with burlesque. The way I constructed the piece was to flesh out the basic narrative including ideas for gags or visual candy bar moments, then record and edit the audio. Once I had a basic audio track I began to run the piece (huge credit to my other half for playing director and pointing out all the bits that looked shonky) then I went back and edited the track again for timing issues and rehearsed some more. Finally I added in a few extra jokes or neat moments that had come to me as I went along. I made the ending last, as I was unsure how I was going to end it. I knew I wanted to end with a little pathos but I wasn't sure how to do it in style, when I finally figured that part out the act was ready to go!

One of the other things that was a little bit of a change of gear for me was the visual aesthetic of the piece. In my burlesque performances I am a huge fan of drag queen-like stage makeup, wigs and elaborate costumes. I haven't performed on stage with my own hair showing in years and I've never performed with it in its natural, straight form. It felt a little odd and vulnerable-making to be there in so (comparatively) natural makeup and with my own hair showing, although this was something I felt more in the run up to going on stage. Once I was up and into character that feeling of self-consciousness and awkwardness about how I looked fed into the character nicely.

The audience seemed friendly and positive and a couple of people said some very kind things about my performance. I know that the first time is always something of a test run, and I feel really keen to bring Griselda out for a burlesque audience so see how she fares there before I decide entirely how I feel. It felt a little odd to be a doing such a family friendly act, but that was outweighed by the feeling that I had more scope to tell a story in my own way, without having to find a way to shoehorn in a striptease section.

I'm not sure I'll be turning my back on creating more burlesque acts any time soon, but I have felt that working on this performance has helped me break through the creative block I discussed in an earlier blog (for now at least) and perhaps, whether I create more stuff in this vein or move back towards burlesque in the future, the experience I have had creating this act will help me to think of more personal and interesting ways of telling stories through performance.

'Til next time
x
Emerald

The Creative Block

I’m not sure what happened. I used to be a little power house of creativity when it came to burlesque. I didn’t create the best, the most glamorous or the most innovative acts, and I didn’t make them as quickly as some of the other performers out there but I was always bubbling away with useable ideas and ways to execute them.

Then everything changed. Almost a year ago, my life changed drastically. I had been working a job that had turned into a dead-end drudge, and so I left to embark on a new adventure – training to teach drama for Further Education (that’s teens 16+ and adult education). So, I decided that for a year, while I went back into full time education, I would put performing firmly on the back burner and not work on act creation either. This turned out to be a sensible decision. My teacher training year was exhausting, with a heavy workload and I don’t know where I’d have found the time to squeeze in any performance commitments. As for creating acts, my mind was on essays, research projects and lesson planning. Very occasionally I’d have a tiny proto-idea which I’d jot down in a note book or my diary, but there it would stay. They never got much further than that; my mind just wasn’t in that place.

My teaching style (please note any potential employers who may be reading this: not my teaching style.)


So a year passed and I was only peripherally involved in the world of burlesque. But I was still there in the background. On the internet. Facebook, to be more specific. I went on Facebook every single day. Twice a day absolute minimum. Usually more like ten times a day. On days when I was lesson planning or working on assignments at home I kept it open in the background the whole time, checking it between bursts of work. Hell, it’s open in the background right now as I write this. I told myself I kept online in case I got booking enquiries; it would be rude to keep people dangling. I told myself it was to keep up with the friends I had made via performing. I told myself that having some sort of an internet presence was necessary for when I returned to performing properly, otherwise people would forget that I had ever existed. What I actually did on Facebook was saw status after status about my fellow performers’ creative endeavours. This person’s new costume piece, this person talking about a creative breakthrough with an act idea, this one had just had a great time at this show, that one can’t wait for that show. What I actually ended up doing on Facebook was just seeing everyone else getting on with it. Getting on with the business of creating and performing. And even though I was getting on with something myself, my teacher training, I still felt a little sad and left out that I wasn’t getting on with it (in terms of burlesque) too.

So everyone else was getting on with it. But by this point, I was getting on with my teaching practice. Teaching drama to 16 to 24 year olds was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on; I really felt like I’d found my spiritual home. I had awesome, inspiring colleagues and the students were by turns, hilarious, clever, strange, wonderfully talented and completely welcoming. At first, I didn’t even miss not creating myself. It was so enjoyable facilitating creativity in others, being the person to give suggestions and critique and seeing the beautiful, strange flowers these new vines produced. On more than one occasion I had seen something they had produced and said to my friends at work, ‘I wish I’d thought of that’. And it was a good feeling, these kids had the talent, they just needed showing how to unlock it. It was a joy. And I was learning new things too. I was unsure of myself at the start, but I think I left my teaching placement confident that I could be a Good Teacher.

But at some point, teaching stopped being so hard. It was still a pleasure and a joy, but I had learned some of the basic skills and I was finding there was a little of myself left over at the end of the week, in a way there hadn’t been at first. And that little bit of myself started wanting to create again, but it didn’t really know where to begin. Before I had gone into teacher training I had sort of lost my way with performance. For the longest time as a performer, my strong suit had always been silly, manic, comedic burlesque with a minimum of sex appeal and glamour. Then, I had a big idea. I decided to produce a serious, theatrical, highly costumed act around a strange creature that had fascinated me for a long time. My act ‘The Last Jackalope’ was born. I had been so nervous about this act, it was very personal and revealed my vulnerable side in a way that felt a bit risky, but in general, it seemed to be fairly well received. After working on another comedic act (a quick project that ended up working quite well) I decided to revisit my idea of strange, quirky but decidedly non-comedic characters. This is where things started to go wrong. I planned to create two more acts which could be viewed as companion pieces for the Jackalope. One was based on the legend of Baba Yaga, and the other on the idea of sea sirens. I finished the Baba Yaga act but although I was quite pleased with the costume, the actual body of the act never quite worked. It involved a huge amount of loose feathers and it was messy, inconvenient to perform and never had the striking visual effect I had hoped it would. Not to mention, the dark, bewitching, strong willed character was something I didn’t feel I could portray convincingly enough. I shelved the act, with the hope of coming back to it to rework but I never really found a way to make it come to life in the way the Jackalope had. As for the other act, I made a costume for it. You can even see an image of it from an amazing shoot I did with Candee Photography, but the creation of the meat of the act stalled. It began to feel like it should be a dancerly act, full of flowing waves of sensuous movement. And a sensuous dancer I ain’t. Again, I shelved it. I hoped I would come back to it again with fresh eyes and ideas, but I never have.

'Foam' my sea siren character, by Candee Photography.


Both of those acts felt as though they were made for somebody else, somebody not very much like me at all. The Jackalope was serious and sad, but it really felt as though it belonged to me. Dumpy, lonely, awkward me. Looking back, the other two acts feel like they might have been made for someone I thought I wanted to be. I feel like the ideas were fairly good, they might have worked, I would have enjoyed them with the right performer at the helm. But they weren’t for me. Not really.

In this year, I have come to realise what I really want to be doing, in terms of performance. I want to make people laugh. I don’t want to try to be something I’m not. I’m not sensual, seductive, alluring, vampish or exotic. If I could find a way to get back to making people laugh, that would be amazing. If I could find some of the tenderness I used as part of the Jackalope to counterpoint that humour, that would be good too. But mainly, I should be making people laugh. Leave the glamour to those who do it well. Being funny is more rewarding for me.

So, with a better idea of what I want to achieve, I started thinking about form. One of the things I had been finding harder and harder with comedic burlesque was how to fit the striptease element in, or, if I wasn’t going to include striptease, what should happen in the act in its place. Striptease was starting to feel a little arbitrary for me; I didn’t feel that a pastie reveal counted as a big finish. This isn’t a criticism of what other performers are doing. We all have our own obsessions, passions and things we get excited about and mine aren’t going to be the same as yours. But I had stopped feeling excited about striptease. I had been watching performance from various genres, burlesque included, both for my teaching practice and for pleasure and I think I identified a common factor for all the performance that really spoke to me. I think of it as ‘Surprise and Delight’. Something you weren’t expecting that makes you go ‘Oooh!’ That ‘Oooh!’ might be if someone does something really skilful, or sexy, or funny, or weird, or talented. But what really spoke to me was that feeling of something unexpected happening that makes you go ‘Oooh!’. For me, that explained the striptease problem. ….

In June, despite having a plan in place, I found myself unemployed. As boredom and desperation started to set in I hoped that I would now have the time and lack of distractions to get creative again. I started a log book for burlesque related musings, I went to a practical workshop to improve my skills and I started trying to actively mind map ideas, even using the techniques I use with my learners in the classroom to try and generate something workable. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself, because so far I have come up with a big fat nothing! Oddly enough though, creativity seems to work in mysterious ways. Although I have made nothing on the performance front I have started drawing again, and learned a ton of new songs on the ukulele, and got about half way through writing a short story, and almost finished writing my first song on the organ. I don’t know what this means. I’m not sure why performance, the thing that consumed so much of me for so long will not come, when apparently everything else is willing to drop by. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself. Perhaps it will never come back. I worry that that might be the case. I loved performing burlesque so much, but now I feel so ambivalent about it because I can’t make it happen. Perhaps I have to learn to let it just come naturally again.

- Edit – Since I wrote this back in early July, I am now working in a call centre with little hope of getting a teaching job any time soon. Due to some difficult stuff in my personal life performing and creativity have slipped even further onto the back burner. But I’m still hanging in there. I never posted this at the time because I felt afraid to, like people might judge me or think that I’m just useless, but the last few weeks have made me realise that if you don’t reach out to people you just end up isolated. So I’d love to open up a conversation about what people do when they lose their creative muse, or when they feel pulled in a different creative direction but they aren’t sure what that direction is, or when they block themselves from creating. If anyone would like to comment on their experiences about creative blocks I’d love to hear what you have to say, either here on my blog, or on Facebook or wherever.