Dirty Martini

Exactly what the hell IS burlesque anyway?

Burlesque has taken off in the US. Women from all over the country in cities so small that they barely even have a stage to perform on host burlesque events weekly. Why has this form of entertainment resurfaced? Why are women who could easily be your sister or your girlfriend or even a mom taking it all off for screaming audiences filled with other women? This form has enabled women to voice their opinions without words, to show the world how sexy they are and at the same time start to believe it themselves, besides that, it's fun, that's why!
I started performing classic burlesque routines in New York City in 1997 after choreographing and performing my first fan dance with a touring theater company a few years before. Those fans sat on a shelf while my ideas for other acts simmered and Dirty Martini was born. Since then, the world of new burlesque grew up around me and my family of performers started to grow. I used to know everyone in the country who performed burlesque and now it's grown so large that new performers and troupes are so numerous that even in my own city I can't keep track of them all. When I performed with Cabaret New Burlesque at the Quartier D'Ete in Paris in 2005, I was a witness to the first new burlesque show there and in London the art form has been thriving with performers for more than five years. Young women strive to define themselves among fashion magazines and television selling the female body as a product as finite as Clinique moisturizer. Burlesque is the new punk rock. It offers a way for women to redefine themselves without the limits that society places. My fans often write to me about their own transformations. They don't want to hate their bodies anymore they want to flaunt what they were born with like I do. Burlesque is akin to drag and I believe that drag defies gender. Some people are crazy about building airplanes and some people need to dress up and wear feathers. Isn't it a beautiful thing!



Other things aside from burlesque that inspire me are as follows:
Road trips, small and large theater and the humbling experience of ballet class in the morning. People who have harsh opinions and know how to use them. My family both genetic and chosen.