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Bring on the dancing girls

A new troupe sets out to revive the lost art of burlesque
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By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
February 6th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
It's a striptease, but these women are just as sexy with their clothes on.
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Prague Burlesque Night

When: Saturday, Feb. 9, at 9
Where: La Fabrika (Komunardů 30, Prague 7)
Tickets: 200 Kč in advance, 250 Kč at the door, available through Ticketpro and at the venue
For more information, check www.pragueburlesque.cz

According to David Jahn’s research, the last burlesque performance in Prague took place in 1910. That is, the last local burlesque performance prior to September 2007, when the newly formed Prague Burlesque troupe launched its inaugural night of dance, music and comedy.  
The revival wasn’t an immediate hit.
Jahn, a Prague-based entertainment promoter, says the Czech audience’s unfamiliarity with the idea of burlesque led to suspicion. “They’re too used to cabarets,” he says, drawing a line between stripping and striptease — what the modern-day burlesque performer Dita von Teese describes as “nostalgic erotica,” and Jahn describes as classy, sophisticated and “real fun.”
Jahn’s original motivation behind Prague Burlesque wasn’t a sentimental desire to bring back a neglected art form, but rather a fairly routine idea for an entertaining, potentially profitable show. Quite simply, he thought dancing girls couldn’t lose.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do something with girls … something stylish, with music,’” he recalls. Jahn already promotes and performs with two bands, The Gunmen of Ave Maria and Bruno Ferrari, so he had music for the show. He just needed girls.
Two women who danced and sang with Bruno Ferrari were interested, so they became the inaugural members of Prague Burlesque. However, Jahn got his first taste of how the audience might misinterpret the idea of striptease when he held open auditions for more dancers. Only three women showed up, and were like something out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears — one was too conservative, another was too raunchy, but the third was just right. She is now a member of the troupe, dancing under the stage name Rebeca del Rio. With subsequent auditions, the roster slowly grew.
“We didn’t rehearse much,” recalls Prague Burlesque dancer Demonica Coca of the first show. “I knew what I wanted to do. I prepared all the performances myself.” Coca, an auburn-haired, heart-faced beauty, was one of the dancers who knew Jahn from working with Bruno Ferrari. She has developed three different burlesque personas: a leopard-clad acrobat, a “drunken ballerina” and a gently domineering madam, complete with servant girl.
Another dancer, Lina von Sturm, auditioned because, she says, “I’m interested in burlesque because I see it as a fine art. I look up to burlesque divas like real artists,” she adds, citing the work of Gypsy Rose Lee and von Teese (whom she describes as “absolutely irresistible”).  
Jahn researched burlesque’s history and, drawing on its origins in vaudeville and music halls, assembled a throwback format for the Prague Burlesque shows. The performances feature not only dancing girls, but bands, comedians and even a magician, played by Jahn in the form of his alter ego, Count Koroptieff.
With two outings under their belt, the troupe is ready for a third show this month at La Fabrika. Jahn intends it to be the first of monthly burlesque nights at the Holešovice club.
A following has developed from the first two performances, mainly through word of mouth and sheer curiosity. One new fan even joined the Prague Burlesque ranks. Now known as Monique La Fleur, Monika Pokorná loved what she saw at one of the first Prague Burlesque performances. So, after prompting from some friends, she auditioned for the group.
“I wasn’t interested specially in burlesque,” La Fleur explains. “But for a long time I was interested in dance and music, and wanted to be a dancer — though not in some group. But who is interested in one dancing girl?”
Striptease audiences, that’s who.
“I saw my chance,” she says, “to do what I want, to have my own performances.” For Prague Burlesque shows she plays on her youth (La Fleur is 18 years old), creating a character she calls “the French girl,” dressed up like a doll and eating bonbons.
La Fleur’s attitude of using burlesque as an outlet for personal expression is exactly what Jahn says sets this form of dance apart from others, especially stag party-geared cabarets.
“The burlesque thing is not about nakedness or nudity, it’s more of a gesture,” he says. “It’s a gesture of emancipation for Prague women to show their power.”
Indeed, the Prague Burlesque dancers cite the alluring beauty and intoxicating fun of the performances as what drew them to the art and what keeps them involved.
“I love lush, colorful costumes,” explains von Sturm. “I like dancing, creating elaborate dance sets.”
“My grandmother is [a] costume designer at the State Opera,” Coca recalls of her innate love of the stage. “As a child I always loved to see the beautiful shows, the ballerinas, the costumes. The atmosphere just overwhelmed me.”
Now that she is a dancer in her own right, Coca says succinctly, “Burlesque, music and comedy — this is my world.”

Brooke Edge can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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