Soho Dive, Soho Divas: Sketching London's burlesque artists

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Is there a distinction in London between strip shows v.s. burlesque? For example I don’t think this place would be considered burlesque in many places.

Also, any recommendations for Burlesque in London?

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Some really nice work… The pencil and wash stuff is fantastic.

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Good question. Burlesque vs. Strip. I am sure other BBS readers have more authoritative links to share but the impression I got was

  1. Burlesque is a much more involved “show”, with more dance steps and complex outfits and transitions. There is no rush to get naked, it’s about how you do it. Heavy, heavy on showmanship and the more the better.

  2. There is less overt nakedness in burlesque. Pasties are common.

  3. (edit) Nobody is stuffing dollar bills anywhere.

That’s all I got.

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Yeah. In the US (at least my parts), Burlesque is theater - try to put a dollar bill in anywhere and you’re going to be told to fuck off.

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Pasties are common.

That’s not a nice way to talk about the British!

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No, it’s true, you’re never far from a Greggs.

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Yea, that’s my impression too.

The reason I asked is I’m in London at the moment. I’ve been going to the Soho area because there’s a bunch of nice restaurants there (as mentioned in the article). There’s also what appears to be a lot of strip clubs but no Burlesque or at least it’s not obvious there is any Burlesque there.

So, the art (which is awesome) saying it’s about Burlesque in Soho in London made me wonder does Burlesque = Strip Club in London OR did the artists use the wrong word OR are those 10-15 places that look like strip clubs from the outside actually Burlesque shows (in which case I’d be willing to check one out). Searching for Burlesque in London though doesn’t seem to bring up any places in Soho though OR maybe there used to be Burlesque there OR maybe there is lots of Burlesque there but it’s not the Strip Club looking places.

Confused (and would like to see a nice Burlesque show in London)

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Volupté Lounge used to be quite cool but the website suggests it’s not still around. I guess there’s still Madame JoJo’s then.

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