Advertised as “4 Days and Nights of Glitter and Glamour in Gotham,” the New York Burlesque Festival takes place over four days at several locations around Manhattan.
Tonight I attended the festival’s Saturday Spectacular hosted by New York showbiz legend Mister Murray Hill. The evening featured about 40 acts with names like Gwendoline Lamour, Panty Raid, Lux la Croix, Peekaboo Pointe, Vivienne Vavoom and the Peach Tartes.
If you haven’t seen a burlesque performance, you might anticipate something similar to the raunchy grind-and-grab found in go-go bars and so-called “gentlemen’s clubs.” But in fact, modern-day burlesque is a form of entertainment that combines glamour, dance, performance art, a tad of titillation and more than a touch of humor and its practitioners attract equal numbers of male and female fans.
Most of the women onstage resembled WWII-era pin-up girls come to life, dressed in elbow-length gloves, tightly-laced corsets, veiled hats, fluffy boas, slinky satin, yards of rhinestones and towering heels. They flirted, teased, waved feathery fans, twirled their tassles, dusted themselves with enormous powder puffs and shimmied until their fringes flew.
Each act on the bill put its own twist on the form: Miss Saturn danced with hula hoops, Gravity Plays Favorites did intricate acrobatic moves on a pole, Diamond Back Annie was inspired by the rock group Kiss, Lux La Croix portrayed a lawn jockey and Imogen Kelly (using a French accent) was a witty Marie Antoinette.
Mr. Murray Hill helps replace a lost pasty
New York Burlesque Festival
Backstage Blog: 5th New York Burlesque Festival
Mr. Murray Hill
Angie Pontani
Amber Ray
MySpace: Bastard Keith
Belladonnas De Lux
Big Apple Burlesque
Miss Delirium Tremens
MySpace: Diamondback Annie
Gravity Plays Favorites
Gwendoline Lamour
Lux La Croix
Panty Raid
Peach Tartes
Peekaboo Pointe
Miss Saturn
Tigerlil
MySpace: Tigger
Vivienne Vavoom
MySpace: World Famous *Bob*
NY Post: Vavoom Town
NY Magazine: The Return of Burlesque in NYC
Riverfront Times: Gravity Plays Favorites
Secrets in Lace
Thirsty Girl Productions
Blather From Brooklyn 
Il t’arrive de travailler, ou tu passes ton temps dans les fetes ;o)) Elle a l’air tres sympathique cette fete.
It sometimes happens to you to work, or you master keys your time in the festivals ;O)) It has the air very sympathetic nerve this festival.
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