I have a confession – I am a little bit fascinated with burlesque dance.
I've always wanted to have a stab at it! Ha! I know you're probably laughing into your afternoon cup of tea trying not to imagine me prancing about with my pastie tassles and ostrich feathers {TMI!} but I just adore the way a woman's body can move so erotically, flirtatiously and sensuously as a form of entertainment. It both thrills and beguiles me. And I love the whole vintage glamour aspect of it too; the amazing makeup and hairstyles, the wardrobe and costumes, it's a theatrical spectacle that I find fascinating in every way.
I actually invited one of the UK's {many would claim 'the'} top burlesque performance artists, Vicky Butterfly, to perform at the Love My Dress Summer Soiree last year. I didn't mention it to anyone – it was a surprise for my guests on the evening, and she went down a storm, performing two of her actually totally awesome performances. You can catch a glimpse of her performing on this video and see some photos here.
So it was a great thrill to receive a submission full of burlesque images recently from Hannah over at The Tea Set, who I'm going to hand over to forth-with to explain how they came about…
"My friend and amazing designer Melissa mentioned a Burlesque & Boudoir Shoot last Autumn and I was totally up for it. We wanted it to ooze vintage glamour…"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Eliza Claire + Becky Williams + Carey Sheffield + Cherry Red Photography + Eliza Claire + Emmest + Horseshoe Photography + Karlos Wayne + Light Trick Photography + Photography by Foz
"Together we set about an amazing double life of dropping off the children at school and then going through pictures of gorgeous professional burlesque dancers, or taking trips into Brighton to visit Nicky and Chloe from She Said, for amazing underwear and showgirl dresses and Jo Flemming to talk about the 'red carpet scene dresses'…"
"The lovely and super talented Tigz Rice agrred to come and be 'Head Girl' and run a mini workshop, giving photographers lots of useful tips on posing models, etc. She arrived early on the day of the shoot with some of the models, and our Vintage Hair and Make Up artist, Miss Honey Bare – they must have been the most glamorous car load on the M25 that morning, a sort of alternative A Team!"
"The event, held at the Brighton Ballrooms, a beautiful caberet venue, went brilliantly and everybody had a ball. It was a real party atosphere, especially since we were treated to our own, amazing, burlesque show at the end of the day. The models were fab, properly glamorous, and their confidence and personalities really shows through in the images.
Plans are already afoot for the next shoot, which will have a different them and be held late spring.
To register your interest please pop to the facebook page and leave your details…"
Ahem. There are some relatively naked bodies following this click through…! Just a warning! 😉
Wow wow wow!!!
My love for burlesque has reached new heights this afternoon. What amazing photographs and a perfect piece for my theme that focuses on celebrating {not objectifying} the beauty that is the female body in ALL it's glory this week with 'Laid Bare…'
Immense thanks to the full creative team for sharing this shoot. Several photographers provided the imagery in this feature as part of this styled shoot workshop [as linked below). If you would like to participate in future styled shoots, please register your interest on the Styled Shoots Facebook page.
Ladies, discuss! Are you a burlesque fan? Could you be persuaded to learn the art of erotic dance? Or is this type of entertainment just not your bag at all?
I'm intersted in all and any views as always from my wonderful readers 🙂
Love as always,
Annabel
♥
Creative Team Credits
Photographers:
Becky Williams
BlueCloud Photograph
Carey Sheffield
Cherry Red Photography
Eliza Claire
Emmest
Horseshoe Photography
Karlos Wayne
Light Trick Photography
Photography by Foz
Shoot Curators/Organisers
Melissa Love Design
The Tea Set
Models:
Missy Fatale
Scarlet Cuffs
Miss Phoenix
Kitty Devine
All the other important stuff
Proud Ballroom
She Said Boutique
Joanne Fleming Design
Gresham Blake Tailors
Velvet Lifestyle Store
Tigz Rice Burlesque Photographer
The Flash Centre
Vintage Wedding Car
Hey Day Honey Vintage Hair & Makeup
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
Fabulous set of images and what a day 😉
The first time I saw burlesque dancing was when I was shooting a 40th birthday party – what struck me was just how graceful, how elegant, and how athletic it is. It’s nothing like striptease in the seedy, strip-bar way that I’d imagined, but incredibly beautiful and feminine. And I love that the burlesque dancers in our shoot all had such great personalities that you could REALLY see when they performed – from cheeky to fun to teasing, all the emotions that they could convey through dance and movement was just incredible.
Since that shoot (I stepped in front of the camera for a change and I have to say I really enjoyed it) I’ve actually started burlesque dance classes. I’ve been a burlesque fan for years, I’ve got the corsets and pasties, so I figured it was about time I joined the scene properly and let my inner burly girl out. Tee hee. Was an incredible day and so lovely to meet the performers and catch up with my fellow photographers too. Huge thanks to Melissa and Hannah for their vision and organisation. And for unleashing Miss BonBon Voyage! x
Love Joanne fleming who I have a first meeting lined up with in June… these images give me an idea about what to wear underneath my dress too!
I love burlesque dancing…I took the other half as a Christmas present last year and loved the cheekiness and seductive beauty of it.
Would love to give it a go…but not sure I’d have the nerve sadly!
x
I went to a Burlesque show in London for my hen party and loved it, I then did a Boudoir photo shoot as my gift to my husband and it is very liberating.
Burlesque has made a huge come back, even more so surrounding weddings.
Great fun for Stag & Hen nights and also for diffrent entertainment for the wedding itself.
Be unique its the best way to make your special day stand out.
http://www.hope-events.co.uk
Wonderful set of images such a great variety of styles.
What a beautiful article and fabulous images! Thank you x