Two burlesque troupes, both alike in sensuality, in fair Toronto, is where we lay our scene; sly marketing inspires fresh enmity, where ruffled feather boas leave stages unclean.
Yes, unbeknownst to the population at large, a feud wages in our city with all the makings of a compelling drama: mistaken identities, a war of words and women who dance erotically with pasties on their nipples.
A recent transplant to Toronto, Cecilia Bravo of the Fluffgirl Burlesque Society, has brought a taste of Vancouver’s thriving burlesque scene to our city in the form of Burlesque Night every Wednesday upstairs at the El Mocambo. However, the established burlesque groups of Toronto, united co-operatively under the Toronto Burlesque and Vaudeville Alliance (TBVA), have accused the El Mo burlesque organizers of using sneaky promotion techniques: booking shows on the same nights as TBVA troupe shows and posting announcements on the TBVA message board under the false guise of one of Toronto’s most notorious burlesque performers, Sasha Van Bon Bon, Eye Weekly sex columnist and member of local troupe The Scandelles. These tactics contradict the precise aims of the TBVA message board, a medium for burlesque groups to organize so as to avoid double bookings, and to work collectively to further the popularity and quality of burlesque in Toronto.
Of the El Mo burlesque promoters’ tactics, specifically the unauthorized use of her name, Sasha says, “What they hope to accomplish by this is beyond me, but this silliness is not what I want for myself, or my burlesque troupe, or cabaret in general in Toronto.”
However, uninitiated in the Toronto burlesque tradition of working co-operatively, Cecilia Bravo is puzzled by the fuss her troupe has stirred up. She sees double-bookings as inevitable in any busy arts community, and denies hostile motivations. Though she regrets offending her fellow artists, she speculates that some healthy rivalry between burlesque groups may inspire wider interest in the local burlesque scene.
Certainly, the turnout at the first of the El Mocambo burlesque nights speaks to Bravo’s optimism. While the Alice in Wonderland-like elongated dimensions of the El Mocambo’s second floor kept the room from feeling crowded, arriving half an hour before the show (key for paying cheaper cover charge) I found all chairs occupied. Initially slow to react, the bar staff eventually brought up more chairs for the growing crowd of both experienced burlesque fans and curious first-timers.
The performers paralleled the makeup of the crowd, with acts that revealed a range of experience, from the seductive and clearly skilled Oriental fan dance of Chesty le Roux (member of Toronto’s The Harlettes), to newcomer and star of the evening Dolly de Wild’s endearing snow-bunny strip show, done bouncily to Dean Martin’s “Let It Snow”. Likewise, there was a range in act types, from the more conventional sex-kitten strip of Fluffgirl member Sistinas, to the unusual flashlight-swinging Vegas showgirl-like duo Les Femmes de Feux. Cecilia Bravo, in the persona of German dominatrix Mistress Von Minx, announced each act with delightfully cheesy comments such as, “She’ll shiver your timber and swash your buckle.”
All together, the evening had an atmosphere comparable to a middle school talent show: the acts were slightly amateur but clearly lovingly practiced, and though they seemed a channel for sexual energy, the acts often failed to manifest as seductive.
However, this comparison shouldn’t be interpreted as negative. Quite the opposite, in fact-I (and apparently the cheering crowd also) found this fun amateur take on what is ‘sexy’ a welcome change to the airbrushed, cookie-cutter image of sexiness promoted incessantly in the mainstream media.
It is much easier for most women to identify with and appreciate the sexual energy of a chubby woman, whose butt crack is peeking out of the top of her underwear, doing an absurd strip show in a pirate costume than to identify with the model on the cover of the Victoria’s Secret catalogue. Perhaps this is why the audience at this event was predominantly women, unlike the mostly “gentlemen” audiences of burlesque’s heyday in the 1920s.
The presence of bodies that challenge conventional notions of beauty is a characteristic of burlesque that both Cecilia Bravo and Sasha Van Bon Bon support. Bravo herself got involved in burlesque as a venue to express her alternative 1950s-inspired style, a style not validated in the conventional bar scene. As for Sasha, she finds burlesque appealing because it demonstrates that there are “different types of women in this world and they have an indelible sexual presence that’s been ignored.”
However, Kristine “The Ripple” Inez, an erotic dance instructor/historian (and under another identity, a Varsity alumnus), points out that though burlesque claims to challenge conventional notions of beauty, the Toronto scene remains mostly white.
Inez models herself after 1950s African-American burlesque star Lottie “the Body” Graves, yet has found in her research that both currently and in the past, black women have remained largely absent from burlesque.
The absence of black performers in the past stemmed from the racial segregation of burlesque clubs. Burlesque entertainment was almost exclusively white women performing for white “gentlemen”. Therefore, Inez sees the current revival of burlesque as a time when past gaping absences can be addressed, saying, “now that we have reclaimed burlesque, we can either keep on imitating the established icons [blond bombshells] or push the envelope further” to address issues of representation.
Furthermore, as Inez points out, alternative culture in Toronto works like a spirograph, where drag queen, gothic, pagan, historical re-enactment, burlesque and queer scenes function interdependently, so advocating representation of women of colour in burlesque may serve as a broader challenge to the white predominance in alternative Toronto culture.
In light of these more pressing questions of racial representation, the feud between the Fluffgirl troupe and the TBVA seems rather trivial, an opinion that parties on both sides appear to concede, though bitter feelings are always difficult to surmount.
Hopefully the rival troupes will be able to overcome their differences and realize that they have much in common. Both groups have a mission to provide women with a venue to express and reclaim their sexuality, while educating and entertaining audiences with their challenge to conventional sexual representations. As well, both groups remain optimistic about the future of burlesque in Toronto. Sasha believes more women outside of the mainstream can discover a place for themselves as entertainers in burlesque, and Cecilia Bravo has a vision of Toronto being able to sustain burlesque nights every night of the week, as is the case in New York City. Bravo sees her troupe as advancing this goal by bringing choice and variety to the burlesque scene.
As Sasha says, people in general need to possess more humour about their own sexuality, “an essential quality in being a more healthy person in general.” Let’s apply this statement to the Toronto burlesque scene-more fun and less feuding will provide this form of performance with the respect it deserves as an outlet for all women to feel comfortable with their sexual selves.
El Mocambo’s (464 Spadina) burlesque nights continue every Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. The Fluffgirl troupe will spend the spring touring Canada, but do have two local dates coming up – a Valentine’s Day bash at the new Drake Hotel (1150 Queen W.), and as part of the wacky Lucha Va Voom event (Mexican wrestling is involved) at the Kool Haus March 4 and 5 (132 Queen’s Quay E.). The Scandelles present My Bloody Valentine Feb.13th at Lee’s Palace (yes, kids, the renovations are finally done). For more info on local burlesque, keep an eye on the listings in the alt-weeklies, and check out eyeteaser.com/fluffgirl and thescandelles.com.
