Kristina Nekyia, one of the performers at this year’s Toronto Burlesque Festival
“Inside every conservative asshole is a burlesque performer dying to get out.” These are the words of veteran Seattleâ€based performer Armitage Shanks, master of ceremonies at the Headliners’ Showcase of the 5th annual Toronto Burlesque Festival, running from July 19â€22.
Slathered in glitter, and decked out in an array of mink scarves, feathers, and long gloves, over 20 male and female performers of all shapes and sizes graced the stage during Thursday night’s showcase at the Gladstone Hotel, complete with nipple tassels, pole dancing, and of course rhinestones galore.
With over 120 performers over the course of four days, the festival is buzzing with local, national, and international performers, hailing from as far away as Australia, the Netherlands, the UK and L.A. The program is overflowing with events, glitzy costumes and entertaining stage names, such as Bianca Boom Boom, Nasty Canasta, Velma Candyass and the Saucy Tarts.
Once a marginalized art form, the goal of the festival is both to push burlesque into the mainstream, connecting emerging and veteran performers, and to bring top international performers to the city, all in a concerted effort to establish Toronto as a bustling hub of burlesque performance. Coâ€executive producer and festival founder Sauci Calla Hora, a performer herself, remembers when she was first introduced to the art form at New York’s first-ever Burlesque Festival in 2002: “Back then everyone thought it was stripping.”
The big-name performers at this years festival include 2012’s Reigning Queen of Burlesque, Imogen Kelly, Miss Exotic World 2005 Michelle L’amour, and Canada’s own Roxi D’Lite, the first Canuck to be crowned Reigning Queen of Burlesque (in 2010). Imogen Kelly is credited with being largely responsible for legalizing striptease as a form of entertainment in her native Australia. Events include Saturday’s 5th annual Burlesque Ball, workshops at the festival’s “Burlesque University” and of course Friday’s International Strip Search Competition.
In many ways the rising popularity of burlesque is another example of Toronto’s neverending fixation with nostalgia and deep hankering for times gone by. Shanks echoes this sentiment as he kicks off the night by asking the audience to transport themselves to the lewd and raucous streets of 1920s Berlin.
The variety of shapes, sizes and performances is itself a highlight of the night, including Mysterion the Mind Reader, who manages to put a rhinestone in his mouth and later pull it out of his eye, Mena Von Fleisch’s army bad girl routine (which involves her spanking herself with a pair of German flags) and Michelle L’amour in a scantily clad maestro’s suit conducting Beethoven’s 5th with only her butt cheeks.
“We are hot because we are,” Shanks slyly reminds the audience midway through the show.
What’s immediately evident watching is that confidence plays a major role in a burlesque performer’s success. The more fun a dancer has onstage, the more fun the audience has watching them. No one proves this better than Dew Lily’s hilarious new take on “the emperor has no clothes,” involving him miming an elaborate striptease while already wearing nothing but a thong, and Coco Framboise’s sexy, elegant, and comedic kitchen routine, tossing food from a frying pan into the audience and ending with her gyrating with an enormous two-foot strip of bacon.
In a slew of dozens of fiveâ€minute performances, some acts stand out for their originality. Dr. Lucky, professor of burlesque at NYU, opens by peeling a potato lodged between her legs in pink curlers and yellow rubber gloves, and ends with a debauched dance in which she smears the peels all over herself while holding a plastic Mr. Potato Head to her crotch. Later, in an unsettling routine, Kristina Nekyia writhes and twists on a pair of crutches
and full leg braces in an alarming and edgy solo act. Finally, Sexy Mark Brown’s angry preacher persona storms onto the stage to reprimand the audience for their digressive tastes only to take his own pants off in a hilarious theologian’s striptease.
When asked about how burlesque has changed since the festival began in 2008, Calla Hora says she’s noticed an influx of highly trained classical and contemporary dancers entering the burlesque scene. The result, she believes, is that veteran performers have had to head back to the mirror to work on their moves: “We need to make sure our performances are top-notch.” But even though these young performers are flexible, fit and highly disciplined, Calla Hora warns newcomers goodheartedly: “Just because you’re a good dancer, doesn’t mean you’re a good burlesque performer.” As Calla Hora says, there is much more than dancing involved to keep an audience at ease while you’re wearing nothing but nipple tassels and a studded thong.
The Toronto Burlesque Festival continues at the Gladstone Hotel and various other venues through July 22.
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