Gypsy Charms and Viva Misadventure have created various burlesque and cabaret style movement based courses for adults. These courses merge dance techniques and styles with drama based exercises to create accessible, enjoyable group movement classes. Inclusion is central to Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret’s course designs; our courses function as a ‘gateway’ to other dance forms as they increase confidence in participants. At the core of our course structure is a ‘conversational’ style of teaching method that promotes engagement between the practitioner and their classes.
Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret has developed the following courses:
Burlesque for Beginners – Discover Your Alter Ego
Developed for absolute beginners, this course merges drama and movement techniques to provide a comprehensive introduction to burlesque. Designed as a ten week course, burlesque for beginners’ uses popular perceptions of burlesque to draw clients into a movement based class and turns the syllabus focus from striptease based techniques to character based burlesque narratives. The focus of this course is to provide clients with a grounding in striptease techniques and movement forms that can accompany these. Central to burlesque for beginners is emphasis on creating narratives through the 3 ‘C’s of burlesque – concept, character and choreography.
Burlesque Improvers – Realise Your Alter Ego
Following on from our Burlesque for Beginners course, Realise your Alter Ego develops the 3 ‘C’s of burlesque to focus on building narratives. The focus shifts from striptease based burlesque narratives to more complex character driven burlesques. Movement styles in this syllabus range from Fosse style jazz and disco to Charleston and cha cha. Confidence building through the use of acting is central to this ten week course. Participants develop their ability to engage with various characters and are encouraged to explore facets of their own personalities through this course.
Burlesque Hen Parties
Based on the burlesque for beginners syllabus, our two hour hen party sessions have been sucessfully taught to hundreds of parties across the UK as well as for other UK burlesque hen party providers. These sessions are user-friendly introductions to burlesque that are suitable for all ages and abilities. Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret has trained more than 40 teachers across the UK in this syllabus.
Cancan
Developed from traditional cancan choreography, Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret’s syllabus uses versions of iconic cancan steps to create a gentle cardiovascular work-out. The emphasis in this course is to create an accessible introduction to cancan aimed at a non-dancer client base. Cancan has traditionally been associated with gymnastic moves, flexibility and strenuous cardiovascular choreography. Our course introduces clients to cancan choreography while gently improving their strength and flexibility through dance-based conditioning exercises.
Fan Dance
In 2008 Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret created a five-hour course dedicated to this increasingly popular genre of burlesque. Merging jazz and ballet style movements, the syllabus is designed for both beginners and more experienced dancers. From how to grip fans to more advanced floor work techniques this course safely introduces clients to this style of burlesque. The course also incorporates cabaret style group fan dances to demonstrate through participation the difference between burlesque and cabaret style fan dances to clients. These classes have also been well attended by burlesque performers who have found that the techniques included in this course useful in creating their own work.
Boylesque
In June 2007 Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret designed the first boylesque workshop to be held at a National Dance Centre. Character building drama techniques combined with simple movement styles are central to this boylesque workshop. Created to highlight the male influence on the burlesque genre the workshop focuses on parodying male stereotypes by creating burlesques of iconic male roles. Further to this, this session introduces men to male striptease techniques in a light-hearted manner. Click for link to Metro news article.
Performance Classes
Part of the Academy’s mission is to enhance clients’ confidence. Performance classes have shown to dramatically improve the confience of participants, not only on a stage, but also in their ‘real lives’. These classes may take the form of term-based hour long sessions, or longer one-off sessions, where group performance pieces are taught to and then performed by the class at a burlesque event. Academy of Burlesque & Cabaret has created group performance pieces for classes since 2006 and as a result of taking our course many of our clients have entered into a performance based career. Performance classes offer a holistic approach to burlesque as a performance art, focussing clients on not only the 3 ‘C’s of burlesque, but also on costume, lighting, direction and music.