You LOVE burlesque and are deeply drawn to it. You have experienced it as an audience member and became an instant fan.  You’ve read about the history, and have big ideas for your own future. It is an exciting time.

The call you are heeding within you is telling you to get out there and participate – to take your love of performance, the arts, community, and yourself and contribute to the richness of the live entertainment landscape your closest local burlesque scene has established to your community. 

You are ready to dive into the neo-burlesque world of guts, grit, and glitter for yourself. But how? Here is my mindful approach to burlesque act creation that will help you execute your debut in alignment with your vision for it. 

But remember — there is no one-size-fits-all formula in burlesque, because of how broad the genre is. Here, I am going to offer you the foundational aspects of burlesque act development that you can take and make your own with any song, concept, and personal performance style you wish to explore.

Step #1: A Community-Minded Approach

Continue your participation as an audience member, and develop some relationships within your local burlesque community. Yes, this step has nothing to do with your act itself, but IS a huge part of the foundation you will lay for yourself as an active performer.

Maintaining a local burlesque scene is no easy task (it literally takes a village!), and walking green into a show asking for an audition or stage time is pretty uncouth anywhere in the world you wish to make your performance debut. If you become hip to a call for performers or an open audition for a show or troupe, awesome. Otherwise, you may need to get a little more creative.

I suggest a community-minded approach.

You can attend shows and bring people with you. Share events on social media and tag the production or venue in your posts. If it is permitted, capture video clips at the show and share them with a performer via direct message on their social media after, making a kind introduction of yourself if you didn’t get to speak with them in person. If there is a tipping culture, tip. Be nice to the merch person. Volunteer to help work the door, or be a pickup artist or crew member to show your support and interest in participating in the show environment.

None of these steps will be ignored or unappreciated when it comes time to pitch your performance debut.

If you want the experience of burlesque as a performer in your life, I cannot encourage you deeply enough to also (and always) participate as a fan, supporter, and community member before anything else. 

Relationships run the world, and caring enough to show up and enjoy what you crave to participate in is an excellent way to demonstrate your interest, and learn more about what you are trying to get into.

It also helps to drive the positive momentum of the culture, which is something all of us should feel delighted by and mutually responsible for. 

And now here you are…it’s time to put together your first burlesque act! 

You are about to embark on an exciting journey of discovery with your own creative process, melding whatever facet of the burlesque style you are attracted to with your own special flavor of T-ease (confidence, charisma, sensuality, playfulness, humor, groundedness, presence, and ease). Congratulations! 

The advice and information I am going to share with you below are provided as a tested baseline for the creation of a repeatable burlesque act that will meet the parameters of most standard variety format shows. This is the most common show format among local-level productions, and to me, seemed most relevant to the first-time burlesquer experience. 

Step #2: Music + Mindfulness

What song do you want to use to craft this performance?

And what energy does that music evoke within you? 

The energy of your embodiment on stage is going to dictate the way your act is received. Starting on the energy plane and evaluating if the song you have chosen is in alignment with what you truly wish to embody through this experience will produce a more wholehearted result.

If you’ve got a few songs in mind and are trying to decide which one to invest in, try making a list with two columns.

In column 1, list the song names, and in column 2, list the words that describe the energy each song evokes within you (ie soft, romantic, playful, or bold, fierce, dominating, etc). Then reflect! 

You are capable of all things, but much like an actor evaluating a script to decide if they wish to immerse themselves in a role, you too can decide here what general energy you wish to invest your time in – you are gonna be in the mindset/headspace of this act A LOT, and you are going to listen to your music A LOT. 

Make sure that at this level, your emotional commitment to this act is one that is going to be enriching and enjoyable for you to develop and embody time and time again.

Slowing down to evaluate your experience this way is the mindful approach to burlesque act creation. 

If this is not going to contribute to your growth and well-being, why are you doing it?

[Music Bonus: If you are looking for some new music to inspire your journey, check out my public playlists on Spotify]

Step #3: Concept/Style

Once you have a song, it’s time to decide on a general concept/style for your act. 

Release some pressure here, and realize that the simpler your concept is, the more likely your audience is to pick up what you're putting down in your execution. 

If you are struggling to imagine this, do some research. Go down the YouTube rabbit hole watching multiple different kinds of burlesque performances. See if you can evaluate what you are watching through a categorical lens, and see what general styles and act formulas you can identify and are drawn to most. 

You might be thinking: I want to bump and grind and strip and flirt and tease my way through an act celebrating my (curves and femininity, strength and flexibility, character and charisma, all of the above). Great! That’s an act concept.

Or perhaps it's: I’m visually obsessed with fuschia flowers, and have always felt connected to their bloom. I’m going to be the fuschia this time, and cum into full bloom on stage. Huzzah! Act concept. 

Or what's coming up is more like: I really love baking, and am a baddie boss babe in the kitchen. I want to fuse my two loves and do an act where I develop an erotic connection to my oven, ultimately feeding it all of my clothes. Bam! Act concept.

Or even more likely: I am an experienced __________. I want to do an act where I incorporate my _______ skills into an act where I can end with a high energy asseling. Sick – act concept :)

I could go on and on, but I think by now you are getting a feel for it.

This is a super fun part of the creative process and one I hope you indulge in at length in your burlesque journal (start a burlesque journal!). 

After all, for every dozen or so solid concepts you might land on, one may only ever make it to stage. 

This goes back to mindfulness. You may have many great and workable ideas (that’s why you write them down), but you may not be in a mental, emotional, financial, or physical place to be able to bring all of those ideas to life at this time.

And hey, that is totally cool. That’s life. 

Do what is going to allow you to feel whole in your experience of creation meeting yourself where you’re at today, and let go of the expectation that you should be able to execute any awesome concept you come up with, at the exact time that you come up with it. 

Sometimes our skills, time availability, and mental capacity to take something on are not in calibration with our creative aspirations.

That’s human. And a tension that can offer expansion in our creative experience, as long as you don’t let that drive to do more become a stress pattern in your life. It is an opportunity to take potentially negative self-talk born of a positive/healthy thing, and turn it into an act of loving kindness in our relationship to self.

How? Give yourself some grace and respect for your creative spirit by prioritizing writing these things down in your burlesque journal.

Show yourself that your ideas matter to you by giving them a place to live that is accessible to you whenever you wish to call upon them. Let yourself enjoy this process and personal resource without too much pressure. Remember – expectations can limit outcomes.

Once you have arrived at a concept that feels aligned with the music you’ve chosen and also where you’re at in your experience and learning journey, you are ready for the next step. 

NOTE: Steps #1 and #2 are and tend to be interchangeable. 

Some of the most exciting acts my troupe ever brought to stage came to us concept first, music second. But when you come across that perfect track that lights you up inside, you know it’s go time!

Be open to either process. 

A word of caution – in this life, nothing works out optimally when forced. If you feel you have a killer concept, but are not finding the music to meet it in your mind, table it for a bit. 

Use your burlesque journal as a catch all for your act ideas over time, so you don’t lose track of your brilliance, but aren’t trying to force something to life that isn’t 100% on track for you at this stage of your experience (there’s mindfulness again).

Step #4: Order of Operations Method

The order of operations method is an approach to act development that is akin to creating an outline for your book report before actually writing it. 

I like it because I feel it offers me efficiency in my efforts, and the mental organization to maintain clarity on what my goals are throughout the creative process. 

It involves fleshing out your performance in detail after devising a guiding outline of theme, movement style, POW! Moments, and reveal progression in the order you plan to execute them during your act. 

Basically, you are going to write down the order of operations for your act before getting up to piece it together physically from start to finish. 

Now that you’ve got your concept in mind and your song at the ready, bust open your burlesque journal and get going on the following general details to help you create an order of operations for your act. 

• Reveal Progression: This is a list of the items of costuming you plan to strip out of, in the order you will be stripping out of them (some of these should also be POW! moments).

• POW! Moments: Depending on the length of your act, list 3-5 POW! moments you wish to include (These are moments that jerk people's attention and either refocus or deepen their focus on you and your performance.). 

• Other Tricks or Narrative Drivers: List any special tricks or moments or phrases of choreography you already know you want to incorporate, and any narrative driving moments you can already imagine. Examples of tricks might include — floor work with my boa, my already well-practiced _________(splits, high kick, shoulder roll, baton twirling sequence, etc). Examples of drivers may include — a plant in the audience heckling a specific line, attitude change with music shift, the introduction of a prop, or revealing of a sign that shifts the action (like the moment you realize you can peel away your petals, or understand that your oven is sentient and horny for you).

After completing these lists, listen to the full length of your song as many times as necessary (probably more than you think in this moment) to be able to get these items into an order that tracks with the musical journey of your song.

For pacing, you may choose to notate actual timestamps within the song for each major moment on your order of operations list, so as you are really learning it you are doing it at a pace that consistently supports your embodiment, not just your physical actions.

It should make sense and feel good in your mind and on the page. Check your logic, and when in doubt, keep it simple.

You will end up changing some of this around in practice, but are establishing a strong starting point to develop your concept in action.

• Stage Blocking: Make a simple diagram of the shape of the stage you will be performing on. If you don’t know what stage you will be performing on, create a generic rectangle. Use whatever symbols make sense to you (it will probably end up looking a bit like a football play) to dictate where you will be blocking movement and traveling throughout the act, from the time that you step on stage, to where you will exit. You may need several diagrams for the progressive portions of the act, so that you can avoid heavy overlap of travel lines on a single diagram and mentally organize the path you are creating for yourself. Use a pencil, and/or expect to re-sketch this out many times.

Create this blocking for yourself while listening to the music, and reflecting on your order of operations list. Begin plugging those reveal points and POW! moments into your stage diagram based on the progression of activities on your list.

You now know when and where you have time to fill with choreography, stage travel and transitions, and probably some audience flirtations and interaction, around the items in your order of operations list. You also know when and where all of those things will take place within the song and in the physical amount of space you are preparing to perform in.

You have created a pretty detailed visual reference to take with you into crafting your choreography, based on the actual (or estimated) footprint you will want to absorb during your performance.

Step #5: Iron Out The Details + Start Rehearsing

This means you are going to take the outline you just created, get up, and start working it out!

Try different things on for size, and refer to the guide you created to flesh out an act that you can feel confident and prepared to bring to stage.

Start by directing your energy toward forming a quick and dirty, rough but completed piece you can then refine and polish from start to finish. Think about how we learn to run (in this analogy running = you being ready to perform this act in public).

We aren’t born as sprinting gazelles on these gams. No — we must first sit up, learn to support ourselves with our arms and legs, crawl, stand, take unsteady steps, walk, jog, and then, only then, are we ready to run in any sustainable way.

Same goes for this process of act creation. My advice is to begin moving through your act as soon as you can, so you can get to running through it sooner as well. The more time you have to run before your first performance, the more future you will be thanking you for a wonderful experience when do take it to stage.

Through a little mindfulness and creative thought exercise, you just offered yourself a much more direct path in realizing your first burlesque act, from concept to execution.

In Conclusion

I posed the question earlier, and I will repeat it again now: 

If this is not contributing to your growth and well-being, why are you doing it?

At the end of the day, there are many gateways to the burlesque experience, and just as many possible paths to get there. 

After hundreds of rodeos (or almost 15 years in the burlesque biz), I wanted to pay forward some earned knowledge that it would have been rad to have a burlesque auntie share with me at the very outset of my experience. Bottom line is, I believe in you!

I hope you have found this piece to be helpful and motivating. As you continue to take steps forward on your own mindful journey into burlesque performance, I wish you an extraordinary experience that brings you closer to yourself and other similarly driven humans in this world.

You can become a positive driver of the burlesque culture and a contributor to the sparkly future of this tantalizing art form.

You may also choose to check out my post about Pro-Tips to bring the work you’ve done above to the next level, as well as my favorite Performance Visualization Tool to achieve creative clarity and emotional grounding as you head toward your first performance.

Now get out there, and create!

xoxo,

Jay