Just a wee reminder (can you tell I've been in Scotland for a while?) about the Burlesque on Wheels Workshop coming to Cleveland June 11th!!! 

Hold on to your hats cause these dames will make you dizzy with their whirlwind of tips and tricks. If you are currently performing, want to perform, just really like burlesque and want to have some fun then sign up. This combo in Cleveland may never happen again. Here's where to register.

For the next few weeks we will be featuring one of the gals who will be teaching in the workshop. Our first feature, Atlanta's own Vagina Jenkins.

Since 2003, The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins has been gracing stages worldwide with her classic, breathtaking striptease. An ecdysiast exemplar, Vagina Jenkins style puts a modern spin on classic burlesque, hoochiecoochie & shake dancer traditions. 

The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins uses African American vernacular dance, the conventions of vaudeville and low brow theatre as well as feminist/ queer performance art techniques to craft performance art that defies audience expectations and re-defines the boundaries of the modern art making process.

READ MORE (except above from her website)

In the Burlesque on Wheels workshop Vag will be teaching you all about Bump and Grind!!! Watch more of Ms. Jenkins below!

I haven't seen it yet, and I'll tell you what. I don't want to. I'm afraid it's going to be a Hollywood sham. Now I know my fears are not unfounded. Thanks Dr. Lucky! 

So what is a better example of burlesque? Watch this.

Sure I love the glamorous, cabaret side, but it's just a small small side to it. The second video is really why I love it!

Roxi

Cleveland Exotic Dance's blog is still at the same URL but we are no longer running on the Blogger platform. We are now running on Posterous.

Why?

Cause it's SUPER easy for our instructors and other contributors to post to the blog. All they have to do is send an email! So, hopefully it won't just be me trying to post. I am going to take a crack at regular posting again (If at first.....) but I should have some of the workload taken off. 

Our first newsworthy post is about the Psychology Professor in California who was fired for her Burlesque hobby.

Yup, California.

The hobby and her professional career never crossed paths. Although, it seems rumors were spreading around campus amongst students. Not surprising. With the Burlesque revival, I'm sure someone went to a show, saw her, and started talking. But this is college, people! If you're learning to function in a professional career and the adult world you should be able to handle the fact that people are multi-faceted and have a right to do what they want in their own time. And this University seems very into progressive psychology specialties, so this just boggles my mind.

Some Degree Programs offered at JFK
Consciousness & Transformative Studies
Holistic Studies
Holistic Health Education
Integral Psychology
Transformative Arts
Eco Therapy
Leadership for Sustainable Change

They seem fairly progressive, so what the hell is the problem? 

You go Sheila Addison AKA "Professor Shimmy"! You sue the pants off them.

I love this excerpt from Inside Higher Education
But her firing, Addison alleges in her suit, “evidences the university’s disgust for a woman performing in politically, socially and sexually based performance art.” One basis for her claims of sex discrimination, as she alleges in the complaint, is that a male colleague in another department was performing at the same time in a one-man show in which he was partially nude. Though he publicized his show on campus and invited students and colleagues, he was not disciplined, the complaint alleges."  (full article here) 

Another article about the incident at San Francisco Weekly.

We're behind you all the way Professor Shimmy!

Check her out

Holy Cow have I got some special classes for you! Our regular burlesque classes are now with the fabulous Danielle. She is a burlesque dancer, actress, singer, belly dancer, instructor, has been in movies, commercials, traveled around, she's just awesome! Soon, we will do a teacher feature and tell you all about her. But for now, the classes. Here's the detailed descriptions Burlesque 101!!!!

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks. Moving the studio was way more involved than I thought it would be. But it's done and we're getting momentum to start classes back up. This week we have a couple open houses. We have one today at lunch time from 11:30am-1:30pm, so if you work downtown stop on by. Also tomorrow from 5pm -7:30pm. The open houses are free and are a chance for returning and new

Here's a little preview of what June has to offer. The weather's getting warmer and the events are all hot to match! Please let me know if you hear of anything else going on related to anything we do at CED, or not related if it's f'ing cool. Friday June 4: Head on down to Columbus, OH for Sex Show starting at 8pm at Bristol Bar 132 East 5th Ave. Come check out Viva! & the Velvet Hearts! Check

You would be amazed how many underground performance artists there are in Cleveland. They all either have their own troupes that do small performances here and there, are independents doing shows around town a bit, or used to perform/really want to perform but are frustrated with trying to get gigs or don't know how. We really have AMAZING talent around here from burlesque to belly dance to

I was checking around my news feeds and was directed to Burlesque Daily a blog by Jo Weldon of the New York School of Burlesque. I have always love Jo Weldon and have planned to get to New York at some point to take classes from her. For now I do have 3 of her videos in my collection! Great stuff by the way! After reading her latest post today I Heart her even more. "I performed a burlesque fan