A peek into Baltimore's burlesque scene

(Midnight Sun) ... If you haven't been to a show before, picture a room packed to the rafters with fold-up chairs (if there are chairs), a forest of Natty-Bos and plastic wine glasses perched precariously by everyone's feet, probably more women than men (all of which have the best lingerie drawers in the city), and a woman or man up on stage doing the smartest, funniest, striptease shimmy you’ll ever see.
There's a danger in over-analyzing it, cause you'll sound like an ass, but burlesque is for folks who want some banter with their sexy. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

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