Shimmying to success

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This article was published 14/08/2019 (1709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a time when the institution of burlesque was a pretty narrowly defined form of entertainment. It involved disrobing women, sexually suggestive music (think Harlem Nocturne), smoke-filled venues and an audience generally made up of men.

For the past three years, Carmen Murray has been bidding that definition a long, sweet goodbye in her capacity as the producer of the Winnipeg International Burlesque Festival, which will be observing its fourth anniversary this weekend in a pair of shows and a multitude of workshops.

Women may still creatively disrobe. But they do so in a smoke-free environment to all kinds of music. And the audience?

“I’m gonna say it’s a 60-40 mix,” says Murray, adding, “Sixty per cent women.”

The language has changed, too. The lexicon of old burlesque consists of terms such as “bump ‘n’ grind,” “shimmy” and “tassel-twirling.” But a conversation with Murray is frequently punctuated with terms of burlesque subspecies that shoot off the main flora like the tendrils of some exotic orchid: “Urbanlesque.” “Nerdlesque.” “Boylesque.”

Murray herself had to learn those terms, since her own experience as a producer — and sometimes performer — skews more traditional.

“Classical burlesque is my usual go-to,” she says. Yet under her auspices, burlesque is presented as a fun, inclusive entertainment. And it’s been snowballing in popularity.

“It is growing and thriving each year,” says Murray. “I would say what changed a lot last year was I had a lot more younger people that were interested in starting their own burlesque personas and performing, so that demographic is changing.

“But we still have that really fantastic mix of men and women… a lot of couples.”

Many of the people whose first experience of burlesque is in the audience may end up onstage, Murray says.

“It’s amazing how inspired people are to perform afterwards,” she says. “It’s the thing I really wanted as I was building this festival, to actually build a community here in Winnipeg, and that is definitely happening with patrons and also with performers. We’re getting a better performer base here.”

That’s where the workshops come in. The festival has two performance evenings Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. But would-be performers can learn from the artists as well.

“I’ve got eight workshops this year,” Murray says. “You can make your own set of pasties to take home on Thursday… and then on Saturday, you can learn how to use them. I’m going to have a (tassel) twirling workshop.

“There’s also workshops to help build their burlesque character, and we’ve got a lot of stage-based workshops on Sundays, learning how to emote onstage.”

In her day job, Murray works in health care. She sees a through-line between the two vocations.

“It’s difficult to disconnect the two because I believe in both so strongly,” she says.

“I’m blown away by how many people talk about how healing (performing burlesque) is. It actually helps their anxiety, with their depression or PTSD or whatever it is.

“These people might be working through a lot, and they found so much acceptance in burlesque,” she adds. “It helps them accept themselves. That was so unexpected. I couldn’t believe how many people find this so therapeutic.”

Murray adds it’s been healthy for her too.

“This is been very much a healing journey, watching how I have changed as a person and a woman as I’ve aged,” she says. “In this political time of #MeToo and everything, you have to be open to exploring where you’re coming from, whether it’s trauma, or if you’re coming from a very body-positive healthy place, or whether you’re trying to work through the issues.

“In my case, it’s getting older and gaining weight,” she says. “These are issues that women face in their lives and they kind of get brushed under the table.

“But in burlesque, you get to own those things. You get to use your flaw to be a feature,” she says.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing