Grace Cherry's Burlesque 101: Starting Out

Miss Kitty’s Meow (L to R) Grace Cherry, Tiger Lilly, Oopsy Daisy

By Grace Cherry 

With a little over six weeks to go until the Adelaide Fringe, I can say with some certainty that I have bought every crystal coloured Swarovski in Australia, as I race to fix the beading on one of my g-strings.  If I had a time machine and asked myself five years ago if I could imagine this moment, I’m sure I’d have been inconvincible.

How the hell did I get to this point?

The “how did you get into burlesque?” question strikes again. 

I have a strong dance background and have always been in love with the idea of being in a chorus line, wearing a Ziegfeld Follies-esque headpiece. At 19, I realised that I wasn’t going to really cut the mustard. And physically I would never really fit the silhouette required. Giving up dance was a real struggle for me, and as soon as I threw in the towel, I secretly plotted to find something creative to inspire me again.

I discovered burlesque via the pole dance craze and started taking classes. It was a fun, dance oriented experience that let me make heaps of new friends. Thanks to Zara from Tasmania’s Pole Dancing and Burlesque Academy, I felt renewed!  

Lucy Sky Diamond

On a whim, Zara and her students were hired to add a touch of pole and burlesque to a rockabilly gig. I had only a really vague notion of what burlesque was. But getting on the stage, I was soon hooked!  It satisfied my desire to wear an insanely sparkly costume and my addiction to old time musicals.

But I desperately wanted to explore burlesque further and pursue performing more professionally, so I created Miss Kitty’s Meow with two close friends. We conspired to bring burlesque back, bigger and brighter to Tasmania (cue evil laughter and stroking of a fluffy white cat).

Back then in 2007 – 2008, there was zilch burlesque in Tasmania. For Miss Kitty’s Meow, Zara and fellow performer Lucy Sky Diamond, breaking into burlesque was about creating a revival.  We had to promote burlesque and really educate our audience.  

Luna Eclipse

Over in Adelaide, Luna Eclipse has had a similar experience. Luna comes from a professional bellydancing background, but wanted to perform burlesque acts as well. Like many of us starting out, Luna said, “I didn’t really know what I was doing - but I just went with my gut and it seemed to work”. With Sapphire Snow, she created a duo in Peaches n Gin Burlesque and has worked hard to build up a unique style – one they felt wasn’t present in SA when they started performing.

Bella de Jac

Our headliner Bella de Jac has also spoken on her struggle to pull her dance background together and find a style that spoke to her. Upon discovering Dita Von Teese’s much loved book The Art of Teese, Bella said she “had a crystallising moment of ‘why the hell have I not been doing this my entire life!’”. Working in the UK, she was able to “research her ass off” and work on developing acts and break into the performance circuit. She returned to Australia in 2010, which has seen her career rise and rise.

As you can tell, there are some similarities between the performers. I often see us as this raggle taggle crew of misfits. We have all struggled to fit neatly into other genres. “How did I get into burlesque?” quickly becomes “how did I not get into it sooner?”.

Burlesque melds a lot of the things we love about dance, theatre and music. But at the same time it allows us to create our own acts. Most of us are our own producers, choreographers, costume designers (sometimes costume makers). At the end of the day the success- and failure of course- is in your own hands. Terrifying…. but in a thrilling kind of way.

Miss Kitty’s Meow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSp_rw9d-eo

Grace Chery’s Burlesque 101 Series

Grace Cherry’s Burlesque 101: A History Lesson

Grace Cherry’s Burlesque 101: Starting Out

Grace Cherry’s Burlesque 101: What makes a good burlesque show?

Grace Cherry’s Burlesque 101: Burlesque and cabaret - similar but different

Miss Kitty’s Meow is Hobart’s leading burlesque and cabaret troupe with penchant for glamour, classic musicals and vintage fashion. They’ll be showcasing their tantalising show The Beautiful and the Damned: Burlesque Revue at the Adelaide Fringe 2012. As they put the finishing touches on their show, the troupe’s femme fatale Grace Cherry will be shedding some light, sparkles and glitter on the mysterious world of burlesque in this blog series.

Click here to get the tickets to The Beautiful and the Damned: Burlesque Revue at the Adelaide Fringe 2012.

Click here for Grace Cherry’s bio, more information about the show and Miss Kitty’s Meow.

Clich here to ‘Like’ The Beautiful and the Damned: Burlesque Revue and click here to ‘Like’ Miss Kitty’s Meow on Facebook.

Follow Miss Kitty’s Meow on Twitter.

Check out Grace Cherry’s blog here.

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