The New York School of Burlesque is simultaneously flourishing wildly and struggling madly. If you'd like to help out, there are a variety of ways you can do so:
1) Take a class! See the schedule at http://www.schoolofburlesque.com/calendar.html.
2) Buy a gift certificate for a friend.
3) Let people know about us! Talk about us, link to us, send us letters of recommendation and compliments on the classes we can use on the site and in our proposals.
4) Recommend us to people for private parties, bachelorettes, birthday parties, and other special events.
5) Buy the handbook on our Merchandise Page.
We aren't really scouring for donations, but if you feel strongly that the New York School of Burlesque is worth supporting and none of the options above suit you, we welcome all support and will gratefully list you as one of our sponsors.
Donate:
$5
The School of Burlesque features classes taught by both legends of burlesque and current award-winning and celebrated burlesque performers from all over the country, in a venue that has been devoted to burlesque for nearly ten years!
We are also proud to be associated with The Academy of Burlesque in Seattle, featuring the nurturing and naughty headmistress Miss Indigo Blue, as well as with Michelle L'Amour's Burlesque Finishing School in Chicago. Here at the New York School of Burlesque we believe in celebrating the collaboration and community that make burlesque so valuable for women all over the world.
The New York School of Burlesque provides classes for women ranging from bachelorette parties out for a night of playful tassel-twirling, to singers looking to improve their sensuality onstage, to theatrical performers who seek burlesque's highest achievements.
The New York School of Burlesque gives you access to amazing teachers with a real commitment to joyous, dazzling burlesque, and a love of performance that goes beyond the simple need for attention. Everyone of them is an entertainer with years of experience on the burlesque stage. Their backgrounds vary from NYC downtown performance art hero World Famous *BOB* to Seattle's Headmistress of Burlesque Indigo Blue to Whitney Biennial artist Julie Atlas Muz. Miss Exotic World 2004 Dirty Martini offers a class, as has Miss Exotic World 2005 Michelle L'Amour. The legendary Angie Pontani teaches her incredible go-go moves. Certified Pilates instructor and degreed choreographer Peekaboo Pointe offers a weekly class in Pilates and tassel-twirling. Burlesque star of the 1950s Candy Caramelo has taught a class in authentic burlesque; NYU professor Lukki offers a series in theatrical development. Even boylesque sensation Tigger has been known to step in a offer his expertise in specialty classes. These teachers will fully engage and inspire you!
Jo Weldon, headmistress of the school, believes in burlesque as a means to introduce women who are shy about their bodies to enjoy the power of playful and/or confrontational exhibitionism, as well as creativity and self-expression through self-initiated theatrical performance. She also believes that play is not a luxury, and that burlesque is one of the most satisfying contexts for developing the fine art of having a good time, all the time. And one more thing: she believes that hard work, which is fun in itself when hard work means dance classes, theater exercises, creating sparkly costumes, makeup lessons, and making outrageous jokes, is the key to the best possible time, to a world of laughter, glamour, confidence and passion for life. The pursuit of happiness is a sensual as well as a spiritual quest.
The School of Burlesque features weekend classes sponsored by and held at the Slipper Room, a venue that has provided a place for burlesque, drag, and experiemental performance for nearly a decade. The owners have shown real commitment to their aesthetic and to giving performers free reign in the creation and presentation of their arts.
Located at 167 Orchard Street, this venue will enable students to not only learn movement in front of a wall panel mirror as in a dance studio, but to try out their moves on an actual burlesque stage. There has never been a school like this before.
We also offer private lessons and accommodate intimate bachelorette and birthday parties in our private space within the Slipper Room, the She Club:
The School is open to investors and business interests. If you feel passionately about this safe space for learning, as well as about the dangerous space of live theater, if you love burlesque and believe in it as both a business and an art form, and you have capital to support your passions, contact us.
We have a substantial support system in terms of idea people and assistants.