The Weekend in Nerdlesque: April 19th, 2013
As I dive deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of nerdy burlesque, I’ve often wondered: has this trend altered how the burlesque schools approach educating new students? As the number of nerdy shows increase, I assume also an increase in number of students whose only experience with burlesque is, well, nerdlesque.
This weekend I get to witness a sweet little case study at Miss Indigo Blue’s Academy of Burlesque 101 Recital. On Saturday night fourteen brand new burlesque babies will take the stage and at least one baby, bless her sparkly nerdy heart, will not be shying away from using super specific fandom as her source material. Spoiler: her act is inspired by Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Whoa. Way to go for the nerd jugular, girl.
What will this look like? How will the audience respond? How is her experience (and the experience of her educators) similar or different than that of her classmates? Did her cosplay past influence her decisions? I have a feeling I will adore every second of it. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, like witnessing that first step on a burlesque stage. I was there once. I’ve equated it with jumping off a cliff and letting the applause of the audience (and your own hard work) stop you from crashing to earth. The risk is so great but the reward is so worth it. I hope she, too, gets to float on a cloud of applause.
Speaking of risks…let me take a moment to give special credit again to the ladies and lads who have dared take on the festival circuit with nerdlesque acts. Reports from the Texas Burlesque Festival all confirm that a super nerdy Star Wars act knocked everyone’s Stetson’s off and elicited the loudest response (and possibly some of the strongest feedback) from the audience. Molly Macabre didn’t win a title. Yet, my god, the balls to put that act up next to the classic tease should be commended. The community is taking notice.
If you happen to be in Plano, Texas next week you too can dive into the rabbit hole and check out Molly in Alice: Madness Returns, a show seemingly inspired by the dark video game version of the Alice tale. Nerd jugular! Get it!
UPDATE: for those of you following from last week, my secret pre-teen obsession was…the televsion show Moonlighting. 
