Even as corsets, feathers, high heels and high kicks were on display at the first-ever Greater Boston Burlesque Exposition last weekend, dolled-up dancers and the fans who went to see them said the performances, vendor displays and classes promoted a theme most do not associate with erotic dancing: female empowerment.
From classes such as “Know Your Intellectual Property Rights (And Everyone Else’s)” and “Negotiating a Gig” to informal discussions of women’s studies and gender roles in burlesque, participants explored the professional side of burlesque dancing at the John Hancock Conference Center this past weekend. Many of the performers said, aside from dancing, they have other lucrative — and slightly more traditional — day jobs.
Boston Babydolls intern Lili DeLema said she is pursuing a doctorate in microbiology at Harvard Medical School, and estimated as many as half of its performers have Master’s or Ph.D. degrees.
“Burlesque is just something I enjoy,” she said. “I’m not sure it’s a viable option as a full-time job in Boston.”
DeLema said dressing in complex costumes and intense makeup for dancing is, if nothing else, an important way of re-establishing her femininity after daytime work in the sciences, in which she said successful women are often attributed to having or are forced into displaying masculine characteristics.
“Women don’t wear skirts where I work,” she said. “It’s great to get outside my head and be feminine.”
Burlesque’s unique blend of feminine sexuality and self-effacing quality draws a mostly female audience, she said, quite similar to the 1930s and ’40s, when Boston theaters regularly staged “ladies-only” shows.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to find men in the audience,” she said
Eve Wartenberg Condon, a dancer who is finishing her Master’s in English at Simmons College, said she often uses gender studies themes and concepts on stage.
“Burlesque is a good fit for gender studies because it transgresses so many boundaries,” said Wartenberg Condon, who performs as “Eva Destruction.” “I’ve had women come up to me after performances and say, ‘I’m straight as an arrow, but I’m attracted to you.'”
Jasmina Sinanovic, a theater student at the City University of New York Graduate Center, said gender manipulation is a main theme in her shows.
“People freak out — they need to categorize [gender],” Sinanovic, known in the burlesque community as “JZBich,” said. “But I like to use humor and sexuality to show how gender is unstable.”
“We’re so jaded by porn that there’s no artistry,” said longtime burlesque fan Liz Devlin, who volunteered to sell T-shirts at the exposition Sunday morning. “Burlesque has that allure. It’s sexual and classy and not vulgar. It’s a nice way of women expressing themselves.”
“Most people think burlesque is stripping,” said Scratch, the director of popular troop Boston Babydolls. “But burlesque is a blend of dance and storytelling and theater. It has a broad range of emotions – it can be beautiful, raucous, funny. It’s an all-inclusive dance form.”
Clad in a red zoot suit and matching fedora, Scratch — who said he does not give his real name to the press — created the exposition, the first large-scale burlesque convention ever held in Boston.
“Many festivals are just that — festivals, performance opportunities,” he said. “We wanted to create a business development conference where performers could sharpen their skills.”
Currently, the burlesque community in Boston exists on a very limited scale, Scratch said.
“That’s part of why we’re here this weekend,” he said.