Burlesque Is Strip Tease Fun, With Voodoo Pixie

She may not strike you as a the type to go out in little more than her knickers and bra, but when Voodoo Pixie hits the stage the pint-sized dynamo wears just that. The burlesque stage, that is. The once popular performance art has been seeing a resurgence in the last few years, and Vancouver is in the forefront.

"Burlesque is kind of like a very fun strip tease, with an emphasis on the tease aspect. It's not about taking the clothes off, but rather it's about the show and drawing the audience out. It's a lot more interactive with the audience in terms of the production," says the red-headed Voodoo Pixie who requested that her name be withheld "in case my Dad reads this."

Having completed the Becoming Burlesque dance lessons with the Screaming Chicken Theatrical Society, the 20-something office worker now sheds her work attire in favour of more flamboyant garments along with her fellow burlesque dancers. Voodoo Pixie first got involved in the Burlesque world while working in the UK.

"It's a lot of fun. You get a little nervous at first. You have to pump yourself up, maybe take a shot of alcohol before you head out your first time, but then when you get out and interact with the crowd it's great," said Voodoo Pixie. "They're usually really fun people."

At first she was attracted to the vintage aspect of it all, but soon she became enamored with the history, culture and production that goes along with performing.

The group she currently calls her own was unofficially started in some four years ago by Melody Mangler, the lead chicken with the company, and has been running as a not-for-profit for the last two years. Melody Mangler says that the current incarnation of the show was spawned from a now-defunct R-rated game show she used to host at a local punk rock bar.

"People liked the outrageousness of the show and we decided to add burlesque to it to spice things up and fill out the show at bit," said Melody Mangler, a blond bombshell whose look on stage typifies everything that is burlesque. "We got really inspired by the Do-It-Youself aspect, performance and avant-garde nature of the theatre and we started making our own productions and shows around the town."

The earliest roots of burlesque go all the way back to the late 1800s with the Drag Kings, Lydia Thomson and her British Blonds. Touring the US, they would parody classic literature dressed up as men.

"It was very sexual, although they would still have corsets on, they would reveal their legs through their tights. They were dressed like men and they weren't wearing skirts so this was quite scandalous. That was the extreme beginning of burlesque. Burlesque was used to describe those shows," says Melody Mangler. "Then it evolved to the variety show of the 1920s and '30s where you would have your vaudeville nature of the show, but the adult R rated version. It's was people did before TV."

However, as recessions and times of want tend to do, the Great Depression kind of killed things. Because people where more concerned over taking care of basic needs rather than entertainment, variety shows had a harder time bringing in audiences. Soon after advancements in movies and the advent of television, burlesque went underground.

But now it's back with dance groups popping in just about every major city in North American and Europe. Here in Vancouver and there are almost a half-dozen team of performers regularly staging shows a few times a month.

Offering lessons in various forms of dance for all ranges of experience, The Screaming Chickens are setting the pace for the city. When not teaching new students and potential cast members their way around the stage, Melody Mangler and her team contribute much to the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival. The 3-year-old festival has been growing by leaps and bounds, now running over 10 days and drawing participant and fans from all over the world.

The group is now seeing a change of venue to accommodate their growing and changing crowd. Now at the Wise Hall and not the Cobalt, it's not just for punks anymore.