Stripping off our inhibitions through burlesque

by sjohnson | Feb 22, 2011

The top button of her crisp, white blouse slides open right on cue. A sparkle of light bounces off the golden wings pinned to her shoulders. As she turns into the light, her hand slides down the front of her shirt, leaving a trail of flesh along the way. The blue matchbox hat slides forward on her head. She smiles.

“Ladies and gentlemen, would you please take your seats: It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

For many, the idea of undressing in public is monstrous; the thought of stripping down in front of an audience would send most of us fleeing, clutching our sweaters closed. But for the members of Sexual Overtones, baring all onstage before 500 people at their latest show, The Big Top(less) Circus, was a thrilling success.

Sexual Overtones, or SO for short, is an Ottawa performance troupe that describes itself as a vaudevillian type variety show. Acts include singing-and-dancing and slapstick comedy, but the performers often lose their shirts along the way.

“It’s a lot about the humour,” says Cream Puff, “making people laugh to make sex acceptable, and to make people feel comfortable with different kinds of sex and sexualities.” Cream Puff (the troupe members, when interviewed, asked to be identified only by stage name) formed Sexual Overtones in 2008. After working with troupes like the Halifax Burlesque Society and Pink Velvet Burlesque, she felt Ottawa could well benefit from something similar.

Sexual Overtones is composed wholly of unpaid volunteers. Day jobs range from accountant, government employee, lawyer, and consultant to social-service worker—none are professional entertainers, says Puff. The group has around 30 members, of whom about a third are males. Ages range from early 20s to mid 40s.

Ottawa performance troupe Sexual Overtones.

Kinky and the Brain, The Dirty Thirties, The Muffin Tops and Aristotle O’Nasty (a burlesquing, gangster-rapping scholar) are just a few of the troupe’s committees, which are smaller groups within the whole. All the proceeds from their sold-out, two-hour-long Big Top(less) Circus in October were donated to St. Brigid’s Centre for Arts and Humanities and to Canadians for Choice. Their last two big shows have been held at St. Brigid’s, a deconsecrated church in Ottawa’s Byward Market.

“It’s an enormous space,” says Dirk Bag, another Sexual Overtones trouper. “People sit in pews and watch us perform on an altar.”

A flight attendant skit, in which members of the troupe read SO’s naughty interpretation of Porter Airlines’ safety manual to the tune of a 1960s porn score, was a huge hit a the recent show. The idea for an “in flight sexy demonstration” was sparked after Cream Puff watched Porter Airline flight attendants hand out coupons in downtown Ottawa.

Another memorable performance was an intricate dance. Two troupe members performed a five-minute, choreographed hip-hop routine while attached to one another by 15 feet of rope. Other skits might involve spills or cupcake-throwing fights, typically resulting in a swift pull at a pair of tear-away pants. “It’s funny because you can kind of see it coming and you know it’s going to be over exaggerated,” says Cream Puff.

“Mostly it’s just silly and we happen to take our clothes off,” says Puff. But not all of the skits end in nudity. While some performers end up in bottoms (and only bottoms), others are more comfortable in a bra or small tank top. It all depends on the performer and what they are comfortable in, says Puff.

‘You feel beautiful onstage, and confident.’ – Holly Harris

“There is a lot of gender bending as well. So some of the women in our troupe are queer and they don’t feel comfortable showing their breasts, so they’ll go down to a tank-top and wear a binder, which flattens down their chest. And there are guys in our troupe who are gay and sometimes they like to put pasties on [their nipples],” says Puff.

Their audiences tend to be just as varied as the performers and acts onstage. Males and females, from their twenties to their sixties, from different communities and classes, come and enjoy the shows, says Dirk Bag. Federal members of parliament and city politicians have been in the crowd, says Cougar, of the troupe’s Dirty Thirties committee.

The shows are about “making light of sexuality and encouraging the concept of it [sex] being fluid and fun and open and not something that we need to hide and shame ourselves from,” says Dirk Bag.

“Generally sex isn’t what polite society discusses,” says Heather Shipley, a Religion and Women Studies professor at the University of Ottawa who teaches a sexualities class. She says when something is made taboo, the way sex is, it makes us both anxious and curious. Satire and comedy are ways of breaking down the nervous feelings that surround our sexuality; they help us to feel comfortable, says Shipley.

Neo-burlesque

Comedy is not a new ingredient to the art of burlesque. Traditional burlesque from the mid 1800s through to the 1950s was a sultry, musical and comedic performance. Lydia Thompson’s British Blondes brought burlesque to North America from Britain in the 1860s; in costumes that were revealing for the time, the salacious group spoofed traditional theater. The burlesque sensation continued until the ’50s.

Currently, a revival, commonly referred to as neo-burlesque, has gained popularity in the U.S, Canada, Finland, Japan and France. Pioneers of the neo-burlesque movement, like Lili St. Cyr and Dita von Teese, have become household names. November 2010 saw the release of Steven Antin’s musical film Burlesque, starring Christina Aguilera and Cher. Although reviews were mixed, the film did mirror a current re-energizing of burlesque.

Also due onscreen, later in 2011, is Red Tremmel’s documentary Exotic World & the Burlesque Revival. The film examines what it claims was a driving force behind the neo-burlesque movement: a burlesque museum, formally located in California’s Mojave Desert and called Exotic World.

Today in cities across North America, a burlesque show can easily be worked into one’s weekend entertainment. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver now host yearly international burlesque festivals. Even Ottawa has Sexual Overtones, plus a troupe called Capital Kink that offers burlesque dance lessons to a participatory audience; and there are The Sin Sisters.

‘Mostly it’s just silly and we happen to take our clothes off.’ – Cream Puff

The Sin Sisters encompass the kind of sparkly lingerie that most people associate with burlesque dancers (but that Sexual Overtones, for example, avoids). The Sisters’ whole style is reminiscent of traditional burlesque. Since forming, three years ago, this troupe has grown to 11 people, including two comedic emcees, two poi spinners (who perform by spinning fireballs in circular patterns) and a whole lot of pasties, fans and sexy underwear.

Holly Harris (Headmistress Holly Sin) started with the troupe as an announcer and manager. In a tale itself befitting a burlesque skit, Harris’s first time topless onstage was to fill in for a sick troupe member, last minute. “It was nerve-racking at first, but then I got comfortable,” says Harris. “You feel beautiful onstage, and confident.” For Harris the experience has been about embracing sexuality, regardless of one’s shape or size.

What the Sin Sisters’ costumes lack in coverage they make up for in elaborateness. The troupe members spend hours every week gluing sequins on bras and glitter on fans and pasties. Burlesque as an art form, says Harris, is about the tease: It isn’t so much what we’re showing but how we’re showing it.

The Sin Sisters at the Elmdale Tavern: from top left, Scare-ah Lynne Sin (Sarah Lynne), Maggie Sue Sin (Mandy Carroll), Faith McSin (Liz Pomeroy) and Headmistress Holly Sin (Holly Harrison).

“You can do a provocative number without actually taking your clothes off,” says Nick Peron (Christopher Bomb Sin). Peron, who has experience as a stand-up comedian, recently joined the troupe as an M.C. Despite the proliferation of sex in modern society, in a public setting we still tend to feel uncomfortable, says Peron. The Sin Sisters are attempting to break down these insecurities by sitting back and chuckling at them, he says.

Response has been strongly positive, according to the Sisters. Last February they held a show before a packed audience, says Harris. It was not the number of people in the audience that surprised her, but rather whom it comprised: middle aged couples.

The Sin Sisters’ success has encouraged them to continue to expand. They plan on adding more variety to their shows. Harris says she is currently looking for a magician and a juggler.

Meanwhile other Ottawa troupes, like Rockalily and the newly formed BrownCoats Burlesque, continue to revive the art form. Neo-burlesque has allowed Ottawa audiences to laugh their way to a comfortable expression of sexuality.

And no one seems to be buttoning up their shirt anytime soon.