American Striptease

(Daily Beast) “You see a lot of burlesque-themed nightclubs opening, where there are girls dancing with boas, then the curtains close and that’s it. Burlesque was about striptease, and especially in America, a lot of the mainstream burlesque acts are taking all of the important elements about the history of burlesque out,” Von Teese laments. “I’ve made it my personal mission to stay true to what burlesque was in the ’30s and ’40s and keep striptease in. Maybe that makes me a little bit dangerous for American audience but it’s more important to me that I stay true to the big stars of burlesque, like Gypsy Rose Lee, Lily St. Cyr, and Sally Rand, the women who took their clothes off in front of an audience.” Continued