What Happens at a Burlesque Lesson?

This weekend I went to a friends Hen Party, which included a Burlesque Lesson in the afternoon. I have to say I absolutely loooved the Burlesque lesson, despite the outfit traumas it gave me!

Burlesque lessons naturally come in many variations, from those aimed at established burlesque artists looking to improve their craft, to group lessons for beginners, or what I went to, which was specifically aimed at hen parties who want to dip their toe into the world of burlesque, have a little fun, and leave with a simple but sexy routine to show off to anyone they’re brave enough to show!

The lesson was around 1 1/2 hours long and took place in the Langley, Covent Garden.

To begin a bag of belts, boas and gloves was provided and we had a bit of a dressing up session, followed by a photo session. The photos didn’t come out too great on my camera in the darkened bar, but you get the idea!

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Once the photos were done we were shown a few basics and given a few tips, without a history lesson, on the idea of Burlesque as a seduction. Teasing and titillating rather than giving it all away for free.

Working on posing, we were advised to think about our “character” were we super minxy vixens or cutesy Betty Boo types? After a few practice goes at throwing impromptu poses to the music, we lanched into a routine. This was taught in handy bite sized chunks, with a walk through followed by setting it to music, then running the routine through from the top with musical accompaniment. This meant along with some shouted instructions it was easy even for those with not a rhythmic bone in their body to learn.

There were no complicated high kicks or splits, and the only things that came off were the things we put on in the dressing up session – gloves, belts and boas.

After an hour and a half of sexy strutting and wiggling our, erm, boas. We finished the session with a final “performance” which was recorded for posterity on video (sadly not mine, so you can’t see it here, even if you wanted to!)

The Bride to be was given a copy of the music on CD to take away as a souvenir, though no mention has yet been made of using this to recreate our seduction routine at the wedding reception…..

I don’t feel I’m quite ready to hit the stage as a Burlesque star just yet, but it’s certainly given me a fun taster and it’s a fab idea for a hen or birthday party, a little bit different and a lot of fun.