Women in Australia have known for years that taking a few dance classes is a great way to stay healthy. With belly dancing, salsa classes, and foxtrot workshops already a mainstay in the community, it should not be a surprise that Australia is featured in the 2011 Paris Burlesque Festival. Are Cabaret dancers with fierce boudoir moves any match for pole dancers from down under? Altogether, out of twenty performers, five Australians will be represented in this Parisian event this year.
On the invite list are Perth's A'dora Derriere, of Perth and Trixi Tassels representing New Zealand. However, the rest of the list is from Sydney with stars Boylesquer Monsieur P AKA Ben Palumbo teamed with Jazmin Baret AKA Ruby Boukabou. Finally, the fabulous Lillian Starr completes the Sydney trio.
Being a part of this festival is a crown jewel in the career of a burlesque dancer due to the history of the city where this celebration is held. Although this is only year three of the official festival, Paris is steeped with 150 year of this kind of entertainment. It is commonly known that burlesque orginated in 5th century Greece. Despite this, it was the acceptance of this style by Paris and the invention of colored tights that gave burlesque it's rebirth in the 1860's.
The main place for burlesque eventually became the Paris cabaret movement of the 1880's. It carried on until the early 1900's when the whole world started to stand up and dance. The 1920's was a well-known time of cutting loose and having a good time in America. This jazz-spirit was also commonly found in Paris.
It was during the early days of Jazz that dancing in a nightclub environment was popular for regular people. While the music played, women would get up and dance on stage. Since there were few movies and no television, the stage was a popular place for people to watch.
Eventually, in Paris, it became accepted to watch a combination of jitterbug dances with a little bit of strip tease involved. With the spirit of the cabaret tightly interwoven in the local culture, Paris became a natural choice for showing a little bit of skin on stage.
