Coveting our neighbour's fripperies...

Away to The Ballroom in Canterbury last week for a night of burlesque. And what a celebration of the female body it was! 

We were treated to some beautiful dances with huge feather fans; gorgeous costumes; and a brilliantly dark and dramatic burlesque routine to an excerpt from Swan Lake. Best of all, every woman who danced – from the petite to the very generously built – clearly loved what she was doing and danced with confidence and aplomb. 

We were on our best behaviour and, when various performers used music that we use, we resisted the temptation to get up and do OUR version of All That Jazz, Fever and Tainted Love…but, oh, those stage lights were calling! 

Yours, green with feather fan envy,

Burlicious x

Now you see it...

There was no class last week because of half term. Fearing withdrawal symptoms, we took ourselves off to glamorous Whitstable to run a burlesque session as part of a half day “girls’ afternoon in” workshop. 

What a riot!  About 30 women entirely new to burlesque joined us for an hour’s session, which was fantastic. To top it all, the Sparkly Bra Pixie’s corset suddenly burst its zip while we were demonstrating the routine and made a determined slither towards the floor. Ah, that put a twinkle in the handyman’s eye when he came into the room! 

We do like to delight our audience, you know.

Yours, dithering deliciously over which of our fabulous dance routines to teach next,

Burlicious x

And, oh, our cups runneth over!

What a class with which to end the half term!

The Cupcake Queen brought us beautiful, homemade cupcakes to celebrate her birthday. They were almost too pretty to eat…but we managed it bravely. Well, a Showgirl builds up an appetite shimmying and grinding, you know!

And one of our glamorous girls stalked in in her spike heels with armloads of gorgeous garments for all of us to add to our existing wardrobe of sparkles and spangles. 

I tell you, an hour dancing to Lady Marmalade and Little Spender, then a rootle through some fabulous clothes – cupcake in hand – choosing fripperies to wear for the next half term of classes, well, it doesn’t get much more perfect than that! Bliss!

Yours, simply loving what we do,

Burlicious x

Slave to our sequins

Ah, the irresistible shimmering lure of a sequinned or beaded garment. Oh, the delight of seeing little flashes of light darting off your curves as you strut about deliciously. And, oh, the predictable downside of the chafing and scratching of sequins against tender Showgirl skin.

Here’s a thing - we can put a man on the moon; we can talk to someone on the far side of the world using a gadget smaller than one of those coy decorated tampon boxes that women used to carry in their handbag; and yet we can’t invent a non-scratchy sequin. Really? Something’s clearly gone wrong somewhere in the management of the world's priorities.

Here at Burlicious Towers, we need a live-in wardrobe mistress – someone who will scour the world for knickers that fit; who will tirelessly sew sparkly bits onto our outfits (it’s the magpie in us, we can’t help ourselves, we MUST have them!); and who will lovingly edge our sequinned stuff with ribbon so we can dance without being shredded.

Honestly, you have no idea how we sacrifice ourselves for our art! J

Yours, seduced by the twinkle in a sequin's eye, Burlicious x