Q: What’s the difference between burlesque & stripping ? A: A lot of varnish.
Dear Auntie SAM: What’s the difference between burlesque & stripping ? Aren’t they the same ?
Attesting to the sweet naivety of love, and finally answering the age-old question: my husband & I both came to Basel for love. We believed moving here would help restore our failing relationship. We believed, that being the only two people on an entire continent who truly knew each other would allow us to reconnect & thrive together again. So we left behind all we knew; packed our books, our cats, our music, & little else. Boarding a plane destined to a world we couldn’t even begin to imagine, after 15 years together, we started understanding “love” – and each other – in brand new ways.
Not really, but truly: our plane crashed somewhere over the Mediterranean. Pieces of our life together shattered, scattered, sunk. Our hope drowned in aqua eddies. Promises cracked; memories bleached. All the rest: our foundation, our trust, our belief in Us – perhaps eaten by whales; mere plankton ? Forevermore forgotten. Forever lost. Were they ever even true ?
Time & anyone else who once cared weren’t around to attest to their veracity. And, so, we — he & I, a 20 year old deaf cat, & two madcap thug kittens — floated adrift pretending for awhile that we had at home on dry land. A backwards Swiss Family Robinson gone mad. Though no never so mad to believe we were still a family. Fortuna – bless her wicked heart – kept us sane enough to know we were shipwrecked survivors who, at best, would encounter foreign-speaking, foreign-being, uncharted-for-us Swiss land.
At best, her clear but cruel heart told us: our love could possibly end as friends.
One time, a girlfriend & I found ourselves in a foreign U.S. state without any money. Neither of us could stay there; we needed to leave. So we took our things – those unnecessary things we had brought with us – to a pawn shop. We didn’t earn enough money to leave. I found people who agreed to pay me to clean their houses. I cleaned all day. Maybe two. Yet, still: we didn’t earn enough money to leave. So my girlfriend & I invested our paltry earnings in the things baser mortals expect women to buy. We bought her the sluttiest looking makeup & clothing we could find. She worked one evening on stage at a strip club. We earned enough money to leave.
And then we never spoke of it again.
Within the burlesque community, there is a lot of discussion about whether or how or in which ways “burlesque” is different from “stripping”. Some performers use complicated Latin terms seemingly simultaneously chosen to make burlesque seem more “gritty” while also elevating themselves above those for whom proper use of Latin would be inconceivable. Some performers assert burlesque is more akin to glamour modelling. While others assert: “we’re all sex workers.” Irrespective of extremes, most performers within burlesque stand in support of strippers. Because, Darling, artists tend to side with the underdog &, also … let’s not be precious. At the end of the day, in one form or another, we all sell our bodies, minds, & hearts for cash. At least strippers are honest about it.
Still. And this is a big still.
I’ve never seen anyone leave a strip club feeling better about themselves. I’ve never seen them leave feeling confident. In love with their fans. Appreciating themselves as more than flesh.
I see these things all the time, after burlesque events.
When our plane began to sputter, I thought, “No, this can’t be true … What happens IF this is true ??? “
What happens if you come to Switzerland for love only to discover that who you were – as well as who you thought you were going to be & who you thought you were arriving with – all died somewhere over the Mediterranean ? And, yet still, each of you were going to live ?
Strippers do their loveliest best to please their audience. Typically, men enter a room. Women enter a stage. The woman reveals to the man things she believes will please him. Dollars slide into panties. Both leave satisfied.
Burlesque performers, however, show you what they like about themselves. They languish & luxuriate in their favourite, most delicious parts. Every performer wants to please his or her audience. But, whether every minute pleases you, is not a burlesquer’s concern. Sometimes it’s good to be uncomfortable. Because that’s how we grow. Sometimes it’s sweet to admit underbellies. Because imperfections connect. Sometimes it’s joyful to encourage sins. Because those moments in which humans can feel human allow grace.
Your Auntie has nothing against stripping at all. It’s simply not her style. But … a woman schooled in the art of showing everything yet revealing nothing at all ?
Sign me up, Darling. Ja. Oui.
When our raft arrived upon the shores of Basel’s imaginary beaches, my husband found his place within the bubble that secludes so many from the “coconuts” of this world. As for me, a solo siren, I dove deep into black waters & cried while currents carried me through netherworlds then deposited me onto the shore. Sun & sand licked my skin. Water nymphs & rhinemaidens beckoned me to return to play. My new world turned out to be nothing as I imagined. Not an Eden. Not a Hell. A Wonderland. „Where nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t.“ And, so … your Auntie — your former poker playing Rapunzel — emerged from her shipwreck:
She straightened her skirt & freshened her lipstick to show you what she likes about her.
The difference between burlesque & stripping, Darling ? Nothing, not a thing. Except one deep blue sea.
XO
AS
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TONIGHT (WEDNESDAY) become enchanted with the DUALITY of Fribourg’s IVY HIPSYLON. One part 50’s FETISH MODEL; One part NEO-ASIANIC BURLESQUE. ALL WOMAN. Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art Drawing Salon. SUD. 8 PM. 20 CHF.
Then see IVY perform on SATURDAY with many other SWISS BURLESQUE SENSATIONS & INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTARS. Can ! Can ! A Winter Wonderland Spectacular features ZOE SCARLETT, MAIZIE BLOOM, DOMINO BARBEAU, LOU SAFIRE, COLETTE COLLERETTE, IVY HIPSYLON, & MC CHARLY VOODOO. Opening performance by NOBODY READS (NICK NOBODY, SARAH E. REID, & FLORIAN HAAS). DJ REN LE FOXX. KLUB KING JEFF VAN PHIL. Casino by the airport. CONCERT 8 PM. SHOW 9 PM. 20 CHF.