IN THIS ERA of overexposed celebrity sex tapes and panty slips, some look to the art of burlesque to put the tease back in strip. This classic cocktail of vaudeville, performance art, satire and the scantily clad is thriving in Philadelphia - though with a modern twist.
On Friday at Johnny Brenda's, Hellcat Girls Burlesque will pay tribute to the late Russ Meyer, the cheeky auteur who favored powerful, wasp-waisted women with eternally heaving cleavage.
"Burlesque is a celebration of women of all shapes and sizes, and the classic art of the tease," said Candy Mayhem, a Hellcat member since 2004. (Like most performers interviewed here, she preferred to use her stage name.)
"Every show is different, with props and costumes made by the girls," Mayhem said. "It's very similar to theater, where the audience is getting a glimpse into a world. At an average strip club, you walk in knowing what to expect, the women are generally all cut from the same mold - limited to what the club thinks the patrons want to see."
Dancers and performance artists Kiki Berlin and Violet Sweet formed Hellcat in 2001. Now there are seven members. Hellcat's shows, including at the Hot Rod Hoedown and Philly Rollergirls games, usually center on a theme, such as zombie proms or Jayne Mansfield look-alike contests.
The audience plays along, Mayhem says, often dressing as "zombies, villains, Bond characters."
The group's repertoire ranges from "the classic striptease feather fan dance to outrageous striptease out of a straightjacket," said Mayhem, who loves the freedom of expression burlesque offers. "With burlesque, if I want to dress up like a spider, spit blood topless and dance to Alice Cooper, it's all good."
The interactive nature of the shows is also a draw. So many women begged to audition that Hellcat introduced its "Goddess of Burlesque" contest, where the audience picks the group's newest member, "American Idol"-style. That'll be part of the gig Friday at Johnny Brenda's.
Each show is hosted by the Bawdy Girls, a marketing trio - Reba Allan, Jenny Balls and Leah Matoney - and self-described "life-styling force" that also handles Hellcat's promotion and publicity.
"Bawdy started in a one-bedroom apartment on Spruce Street, with Reba Allan and myself, making handbags out of vintage fabrics and re-vamping vintage lingerie," said co-founder Balls. "I'm not gonna lie, we like to go out and drink, so we would wear our creations out. Soon we were being hired to show up at events, creating costumes for each theme."
The Philadelphia burlesque explosion traces its roots to the 9-year-old co-ed troupe Peek-A-Boo Revue, once directed by Greg Giovanni, of Big Mess Theatre. That Philly-based theater company, formed in 1991, was one of the first troupes to include burlesque in its mix of drag queens, comics, dancers, and actors.
Burlesque is thriving elsewhere, too. There are troupes all over the country, and confabs - Tease-O-Rama, the New York Burlesque Festival, the Great Boston Burlesque Exposition and the Miss Exotic World Pageant - where performers and fans gather. Burlesque themes also are popping up in music videos from groups like Panic! At The Disco and the punk pin-ups of Suicide Girls. The scene's biggest star, of course, is Dita Von Teese, Playboy covergirl and former Mrs. Marilyn Manson.
"I think Philly burlesque is thriving today because we are very lucky to have so many amazing burlesque performers right here in our city," said Delicious Boutique's Psydde Delicious, a corset maker who's outfitted troupes from Philadelphia and other cities. Delicious also runs the punk-rock amateur go-go night Fast Cheap and Out of Control at Fluid, which has featured burlesque performances.
"The Peek-a-Boo Revue has been putting together some of the most talented performers and production you will find anywhere," he said. "It's much more than just burlesque."
"I just love to perform, and Peek-A-Boo was a place to do whatever I wanted," said singer/actress Heather Henderson, who also dances and DJs at Pousse Café, a monthly amateur go-go party for lesbians. "I have seen girls come through [Peek-A-Boo] who didn't want to take off their shirt, and then in three months after coming to rehearsals, they are dancing around naked and doing cartwheels. Shy performers end up being molded into brazen unafraid actors and dancers. We all take care of each other's egos, with the goal to boost everyone's confidence."
Henderson thinks part of burlesque's appeal is its sense of humor: "Burlesque is also making fun of sex. It's not so serious."
Peek-A-Boo director Lulu Lollipop says it's the bond with the other dancers that keeps her going.
"I asked my grandmother what 50 or 60 years ago was the thought of burlesque dancers, and she answered by saying that no decent woman would speak to a woman of burlesque," said Lollipop. "This attitude created the community in which sex workers lived, together. It was a club, so to speak. And to me, it is the same now. I have a link with all of these women that I wouldn't have had otherwise. That is not why I started burlesque dancing but just a wonderful perk."
Burlesque sometimes hobnobs with the Philly fine arts - like modern dancer Melanie Stewart's 1998 Fringe piece "Underlife Cabaret," or local painter Shayna V. McConville's striptease-inspired portraits.
"Burlesque is unashamed and unapologetic . . . just like punk," said Delicious. "It seems much more natural for a beautiful, tattooed, mohawked woman to find appreciation and a feeling of sexiness in the burlesque scene than in the much more conservative and uptight Old City scene."
Burlesque, said Balls, is "women working together to make the world a little bit lovelier." *
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