Bring on the Burlesque!

I just had one of the most amazing spiritual experiences of my life… in a burlesque workshop.

Yes. For those of us whose bodies have been the canvas of other people’s projected ideals, fantasies and power plays, claiming our bodies back as mediums of our sexuality for our own pleasure, is a deeply spiritual experience. Or at least it can be with the help of Victoria Libertore who teaches a series called “Goddess Burlesque,” and not just for those of us femmes.

I wanted to share a bit with you here. So here’s a little Q&A I had with her recently.

Victoria Libertore dancing in her solo show My Journey of Decay at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. By Stacie Joy

Why do you teach burlesque, Vic? 

I teach burlesque because it's been so transformative for me and I want to share that with other women.  Plus I absolutely love helping other people, especially women, create their own performance work.

How has burlesque transformed you? 

I think any act of creation and then performance transforms you. I can only speak for myself. But, burlesque has transformed my level of self acceptance of myself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. As you'll see if you go to a burlesque performance, especially of women doing it for the first time, the feeling of liberation is palpable. Often the women in my workshops learn to call on a part of themselves they may not know existed. 

Victoria as Countess Elizabeth Bathory in her upcoming GIRL MEAT (by Angela Jimenez)

What's the Goddess part of "Goddess Burlesque" all about? 

Well, I happen to think that our world is so hungry for the divine feminine. A woman being in her body totally, her sexuality totally and expressing her creativity totally is the Goddess embodied. Every woman has the Goddess within. The Goddess has been so stymied, bastardized and over sexualized in our society.  My desire is to help empower and reveal her within and to each of my students. 

Is burlesque a spiritual practice? An activist practice? A political practice? All of them or none of them?

For me, all genre of performance is a spiritual act. Performers are the modern-day shamans of our tribe bringing the dark to the light, and reminding of us all the possibilities of what we can be. Karen Finley has said