Burly Q — a historical cabaret celebrating the history of burlesque entertainment — is showing in the city this week, during the final days of this year’s Dunedin Fringe Festival.
Producer and performer Verona Vega said Dunedin’s burlesque scene had grown in recent years, but remained under the radar.
A lot of people also had the wrong idea of what burlesque was about and tended to focus on the stripping side of it.
Burlesque was about the striptease, theatrics, and was inherently political because it involved doing something that one was "not supposed to be doing", Vega said.
The majority of their audiences also tended to be women, queer people and couples.
"There’s a saying in the industry, it’s like ‘strippers make money, burlesque dancers make costumes’.
"People think it’s for straight men to come and watch you take your clothes off, when really, that’s not actually who it’s for."
Removing items of clothing on stage was about embracing your naked self and the feelings of freedom, vulnerability and excitement which came with it, she said.
"There’s lots of different types of bodies on stage as well. You’re not fitting into this perfect showgirl ideal kind of beauty standard."
She hoped audiences left the show with minds opened and a greater understanding of where burlesque came from and why people did it.
Christchurch performer Ali Diamond — who goes by the stage name Diamond X.O. — said the show was a "snapshot into [the] rich history of burlesque entertainment" over the past 200 years or so, recounting everything which made it what it was today.
Pitched as a cabaret, the show would include singing and "a lot of dancing" but was different from a typical theatre performance or musical.
Burlesque, put simply, was a "theatrical striptease", Diamond said.
"Think of sparkly costumes and feathers and fans and tassel twirling."
Featuring ten performers, most from Dunedin, it was a "sparkly, campy, seductive experience".
She did not believe there was anything like Burly Q in the festival’s lineup.
"We’ve got people doing the can-can, we’ve got people doing belly dancing, we have a dress-up Hugh Hefner and his Playboy bunnies ... all jam-packed into 60 minutes of burlesque adventure."
Burly Q is showing at the New Athenaeum Theatre today and tomorrow.
