There are many, many, many ways to approach burlesque act creation, and no one-size-fits-all for the creative process. 

What feels right for you is ultimately the right way for you. I am here to give you some more granular advice from a performer’s perspective, but out of everything I know and have to offer you, this is the sentiment I hope you hold closest to your chest.

I also encourage you to accept that it will take a hot minute for you to understand what your way really is. Expectations limit outcomes. Don’t put yourself in a box just yet — get out into the burlesque community, seek mentors, enlist coaches and teachers, and open yourself to the journey of self-discovery. Your experience in burlesque could be a potentially transformational undertaking, particularly if you approach the process of connection and performance with mindfulness.

The most dazzling aspects of this genre arise when its practitioners are meeting their highest calling and expressing their T-ease in its most authentic form (T-ease = your confidence, charisma, sensuality, playfulness, humor, groundedness, presence, and ease).

I encourage you to remain open and active in your experimentation as you continue to evolve and expand upon the quality of dazzling storytelling and entertainment you are able to bring to stage. Much like our experience of self and life, things can and should change over time. 

Challenging yourself to push your boundaries as a powerful creator (which you already are), is part of the joy the process of being a performer adds to the product of your performances.

And the scale is pretty grand. I have seen seasoned burlesquers step on stage and completely improvise mind-blowing performances. I have seen incredibly elaborate, multi-song solo acts that have kept me captivated at 10 mins in length or more. I have seen acts where for almost 5 minutes a performer barely moves but manages to keep the audience deeply mesmerized throughout. 

I think these are the type of examples you should be searching for, and content you will likely feel deeply inspired and ignited by. Be a fan, soak it up, and enjoy every single step of your personal journey and all of the things unique to you that it will inevitably include. Get curious, and get excited.

Choose to let any simmering sense of comparison-itis go, and embrace your experience of self and community on this path as a living reward for immersing yourself in it (mindfulness!). 

Choose to meet yourself where you are at and find ways to elevate and celebrate that every step of the way as you gain momentum in your ability to express yourself through this broad performance style.

Become part of the history of burlesque by modeling a mindset of growth, mutual support, celebration, and active community, with standards of creative care that will serve its healthy expansion and longevity as a valued cultural artform.

Connect with yourself and connect with others. Slap the special sauce of your own personal T-ease all over it, and you can only win!

Below, I’m going to share with you some of my pro tips to consider when tackling your order of operations, and personal burlesque act development process. 

Pro Tips For Your Stage Debut

Keep It Simple 

One act cannot be everything (if you love performing you will be able to do it again), and you cannot fit 10lbs of sizzle into a 5lb bag.

Accept that now, and try not to overcomplicate things.

Too many moving parts can confuse your message/presentation, and your ability to deliver it in an impactful and enjoyable way for your audience. When in doubt, keep it simple.

Make it easy for your audience to connect to you by offering a strong, polished performance of well-paced movement and action, where you can confidently be in the moment enough to fill your performance with T-ease from beginning to end.

Overcomplicating an act puts you into your head and out of the present (just trying to keep up with it), which is the first thing to drain your presence on stage. Any burlesque fan will tell you that that presence is what matters most.

Anything you deliver with musicality and personality is going to be a hit on the burlesque stage, and every act you do over time will illuminate a new aspect of your capacity to embody it with T-ease. Believe in that now.

Act Length

3.5-4.5 minutes is the total track time I suggest for a first burlesque performance. 

Consider your audience’s energetic journey and perspective as spectators to your art, and their ability to stay attentive to your performance throughout. 

Use the visualization practice I offer in this article to help you check your logic as you make choices and move forward.

POW! Moments

Structure 3-5 'Pow!' moments throughout the order of operations of your act. 

These are moments that jerk people's attention and either refocus or deepen their focus on you and your performance. 

They are moments that level up the intensity and entertainment value of the act through action and energy. 

They can be centered around a costume reveal, unexpected movement, heightened moment of musicality or personality, etc.

Work The Stage

Incorporate working the edge of the stage, and/or acknowledging all sides of the audience space into your blocking (progression of movement) in the order of operations of your act. 

It is easier to engage and connect with your audience when you make the most of the stage space available to you.

Even in limited space, use your face to explore all angles of the room and parts of the crowd while you are on stage, unless your concept for some reason explicitly dictates otherwise. 

As you may perform this act on multiple stages over time, it never hurts to give yourself a count or two within the dance that is left adaptable for traveling/showcasing across or around a stage of any (reasonable) size. 

Drill what you would do for both a smaller and larger space, so you have a sense of how to carry it through in multiple show environments. 

This adds a little mental flexibility to your creative process, which I think is a good pressure reliever, and always leaves you room for a little extra attitude and direct play with the crowd.

Your Not-So-Secret Weapon

No matter the energy your act calls for you to embody it with (joyful, wicked, sensuous, sly, cheerful, etc), your smile is one of the strongest not-so-secret weapons in your performer’s arsenal.

Use it liberally or deliberately. Use it to slow down, or before you speed up. Use it to ground you into the moment with a deep breath, and to send a thrill with eye contact to someone in the front (or back) row. Use it with a wink, and join the long line of teasers before you who also realized the power of smiling on stage.

Costuming

Unless you already have costume pieces you want to use, focus your initial creation time on your order of operations and figuring out your ’POW!’ moments and general choreography. 

Once you know what you want to do you can gather and craft costume pieces to meet your needs.

A typical mishap of beginning performers is spending too much time on creating their costuming in the early phases of the development process, and not enough time on choreography and execution.

Starting with concept and choreography allows you to move into rehearsal mode as you really dive into your costuming, making the most efficient use of your timeline and creation process. Don’t wait for one to be complete before starting on the other.

The moment you do have working prototypes of your costume pieces, start rehearsing with them. Working with your actual costume pieces and props ahead of time will allow you to troubleshoot anything that is going to go wrong or fall apart in those initial runs in your practice space instead of on stage (one hopes).

The idea here is balance (there’s mindfulness again). No one aspect of your act is so much more important than the other, and time and energy are finite resources. Try and let the water level of your progress rise evenly, so you don’t find yourself a couple of weeks from show day with a banger of a costume but no real movement to back it up and bring it to life.

Breath + Quality of Movement

No matter your dance background or personal movement style, leave yourself room within your choreography to really hold space on stage with your brightest expression of T-ease. 

Note that when I use the term ‘choreography’ I am referring to any and all movement that takes place on stage. You do not have to dance or have a dance background to become a great burlesquer.

You do, however, need to be able to embrace rhythmic movement and musicality in your embodiment on stage, and in the way you choose to showcase yourself and drive your concept or narrative. You need to be a mover and a T-easer, not necessarily a dancer. Though being a dancer definitely comes in handy, so if you have that skill set, plan to use it.

You don’t have to be in complete motion 100% of the time you are on stage, either. Slowing down can be hard, but it is where some of our most impactful and connecting expressions of T-ease emanate from.

Your character is not separate from your body in burlesque. The expectation is that their expressions are flowing freely as one. This is the essence of embodiment and allows you to be truly present during your performance (which is when the most moving acts are realized). 

Embodying your T-ease also requires you to breathe. Don’t hold your breath during any part of your choreography. In rehearsal, try to remain aware of your breath, and even give yourself moments to share some sensuous deep breaths with your audience, so it feels normal to maintain on stage (there's mindfulness again).

Breathe through your fluid and transitional movements, and hold space to fully soak in the impact of sharp moments so they can land in the audience’s register before you move on. Developing some level of yoga practice is very beneficial to this process.

Celebrate your beautiful form and the exhilaration of the moment and intentionally translate that into the electricity jumping out from the tips of your fingers throughout your act. 

Let the authenticity of the expression on your gorgeous face take us along on the journey you have planned for us all. 

This is you living your best life – align your energy and movement to express that vitality and watch yourself thrive!

Record Yourself and Actually Watch It

Use video as a tool for self-discovery and act development from day 1.

I understand that, especially at first, it can feel uncomfortable to watch yourself in practice on video. 

However, I am not sorry to say that you are gonna have to work through that.

The value of watching your at-home rehearsals (and actual performances) is truly beyond words, but I’m going to try anyway because you need to hear it. 

Being able to evaluate and understand the visual output of your movements not in real time (ie in a mirror as you go), allows you a MUCH MUCH more meaningful lens to process and evaluate your own work, and the direction you want to take your movement and energy in. 

You are responsible for what takes place on stage. That is part of what being a performer means.

Why not utilize every tool available to you to ensure that what you are putting on stage is what you indeed wish to share in the public arena?

It is impossible to gain that level of perspective on your performance without the use of video as a tool. Put that smartphone to use in this immeasurably beneficial practice.

Don’t think of your practice videos as excuses to judge yourself, either. We’ve covered this already, but if you’re feeling that resistance again just reading this, please start releasing yourself of it again right now. This is a constructive space led by mindful appreciation. No negative self-talk is accepted.

Think of these recordings as a tool to help you build a confident movement style and personal identity as a performer within this genre.

How else can you learn these things precious things about yourself throughout this process? 

This practice can help you tap into your inner wisdom sooner, as matching your internal muscle memory with visual understanding is insanely empowering. It will give you a much more articulate sense of control over the work you are creating for public consumption. 

Also, it almost always looks better than you think it does by feeling alone, especially in the beginning! It isn’t just about evaluating your performance, it is about learning to trust yourself in this role of performer.

If you are unwilling or deeply hesitant to start using video as a tool for your performance development, then there is probably more you can unpack before you start taking any large strides directly toward becoming an active performer.

In Conclusion

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

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 contributor to the sparkly future of this tantalizing art form. Now get out there, and create!

xoxo,

Jay