Neo-Burlesque: Striptease as Transformation

The neo-burlesque movement restores glamour, theatricality, and humor to striptease, featuring pro-sex, gender-bending, and feminist performances. Performance studies scholar Lynn Sally explores the scene's history, culture, and philosophy, highlighting how performers use camp to comment on femininity and the broader community of "Pro-Am" performers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 30 October 2021
Publisher: Rutgers University Press

The neo-burlesque movement aims to revive a sense of glamour, theatricality, and humor in striptease performances. Neo-burlesque performers captivate audiences with their playful brand of pro-sex, often gender-bending, feminism.

Performance studies scholar and acclaimed burlesque artist Lynn Sally delves into the history, culture, and philosophy of New York's neo-burlesque scene. She explores how twenty-first-century neo-burlesque engages with the classic burlesque of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, examining how performers use camp to comment on preconceived notions of femininity. Sally also examines how striptease performers direct the audience's gaze, layering meaning with each layer of clothing removed.

Through detailed profiles of iconic neo-burlesque performers such as Dita Von Teese, Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, and World Famous *BOB*, this book makes the case for understanding neo-burlesque as a new sexual revolution. It also examines the broader community of "Pro-Am" performers who use neo-burlesque as a liberating vehicle for self-expression. Neo-Burlesque celebrates a revolutionary performing art and participatory culture whose acts have political reverberations, both onstage and off.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781978828087