Call Me Stormy

Babes of Burlesque: 25

INDIGO BLUE

Indigo Blue, aka “The Twirly Girl,” is headmistress of the Academy of Burlesque in Seattle. Per her website bio:

Sexy, funny, irreverent and ingeniously clever, Miss Indigo Blue flirts with the edgy, exotic and erotic fringes of burlesque…. Miss Indigo is more than just a great practitioner of the ol’ bump and grind; she enlivens her performances with a heady blend of brainy and bawdy that makes audience’s mouths water, as their minds whirl. For the last ten years , this “nouveau burlesque” entertainer has titillated crowds across the country and in Europe with her wild tassel-twirling techniques and smart, sexy and funny skits.

Channeling Wild Cherry in Temptation, filmed in 2010 at The Triple in Seattle.

Miss Indigo Blue’s salute to Ricci Cortez, “The Sleepytime Gal,” one of the first burlesque stars from the 1940s.

Her website: http://www.missindigoblue.com/

Babes of Burlesque: 24

IMOGEN KELLY

Known by the cheeky nickname “Her Royal Hiney,” Australia’s Imogen Kelly is the world’s Reigning Queen of Burlesque, being so crowned in 2012 by the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. She’s the first queen from Australia and only the second from outside North America, following in the footsteps of Immodesty Blaize. Before embarking on a career in burlesque, Imogen studied to become a circus artist, and she continues to incorporate many high-flying aerial routines in her shows. Her act is highly visual, with many elaborate costumes and props. Among many other claims to fame, she shares the world’s record for the largest custard pie fight.

Let Them Eat Cake is her tribute to Marie Antoinette.

Here, she goes aloft to perform her magic aerial act on the Australian TV program “Sideshow.”

Her website: http://www.imogenkelly.com.au/#!

Babes of Burlesque: 23

IMMODESTY BLAIZE

Much as Dita Von Teese revived burlesque stateside, Immodesty Blaize has been its leading trailblazer in Europe. She’s not only a dancer, but a showgirl extraordinaire, performing at the world’s grandest concert halls, from the Royal Opera House in London to the Palace Pisani in Italy and Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. She is best known for her signature act with an enormous rocking horse, although she uses many oversized props including powder puffs.

She was born as Kelly Fletcher in Hitchin, England, a small town in Hertfordshire north of London. Her entry in show business came directing commercials, but starting in the mid-1990s, she moonlighted doing burlesque in underground shows. Now, she’s at the top of the field — the only European ever crowned a reigning Queen of Burlesque by the Las Vegas Burlesque Hall of Fame. Following in the tradition of Gypsy Rose Lee, Immodesty recently tried her hand at writing, penning two novels set in the world of the modern showgirl.

Immodesty with one of her oversized props, a six-foot telephone.

An excerpt from the 2010 documentary Burlesque Undressed, presented by Immodesty Blaize.

Her website:  http://www.immodestyblaize.com/

Babes of Burlesque: 21

GIUDITTA SIN

Her website best capsulizes this free-spirited Italian.

Surreal, distracted, dreamy and poetic. As a modern Persephone, she embodies lights and shadows. Nymph with a mischievous smile and graceful step or gothic vamp with languid and melancholic look. Giuditta Sin loves to transform every performance in an opportunity to free her imagination, showing it in its many shades and involve you in her dreams.

Here she is at the sixth annual New Orleans Burlesque Festival in the fall of 2014.

Here is a second performance with Giuditta as a Snowflake, recorded at the Sweet Dreams Burlesque in Warsaw, Poland early in 2015.

Babes of Burlesque: 20

GINGER VALENTINE

Crowned as the 2011 Queen of Burlesque at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival, Texas-based Ginger Valentine combines classical elegance with raucous bump-and-grind. She can tease, but she also knows how to deliver the goods. Ginger divides her time between Dallas and Houston, performing frequently with the Bustout Burlesque in New Orleans as well as with her own company, the Ruby Revue. She has been featured on G4’s Attack of the Show.

Here’s one of her live shows with Bustout Burlesque.

She won the Queen of Burlesque crown with this classy and sassy routine. One YouTube admirer described her thusly: “A real pressure cooker! When she turns up the heat, the lid’s gotta blow off!!!”

Her website: http://www.gingerv.com/

Babes of Burlesque: 18

Elsie Diamond

This British songbird with a snow-white complexion harkens back to the grand Music Hall traditions, delivering comedy and patriotic war songs as well as sultry fan dances and even 18th century satire. C.J. Lazaretti, writing in This Is Cabaret, captured her appeal: “With a pair of war-themed skits, Elsie Diamond is a one-woman show. Tackling classics like `There’ll Always Be An England’ and Florence Desmond’s `The Deepest Shelter in Town’ on ukulele,  she boasts mellifluous vocals before launching into comely strip numbers full of poise.”

Elsie Diamond’s Burlesque act to ‘Diamond’s Are A Girls Best Friend’. Shot at Proud Cabaret Brighton by Scott Mains 2017

Take shelter, boys! Elsie sings and dances to “The Deepest Shelter in Town,” 2011, at the Proud Cabaret.

Her website: http://www.elsiediamond.co.uk/

Babes of Burlesque: 17

DIXIE RAMONE

The first major Neo-Burlesque star to come out of Italy, Dixie Ramone favors slinky, black fashions, with bustiers and high stiletto heels. She has appeared in a burlesque-based reality show shot in Rome, but also taken the world by storm, traveling to Australia, North America and major European festivals such as Fish & Whips in Berlin. Here’s her sultry Velvet Cabaret act, performed at Rome’s Micca Club in 2011.

Here, she shows off a different facet of her personality in a comic take-off on a traditional burlesque storyline — the shy, virginal girl who goes wild.

Her Tumblr blog: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dixie-ramone

Babes of Burlesque: 16

DITA VON TEESE

Perhaps more than any other performer, femme fatale and glamour girl Dita Von Teese can be credited with reviving burlesque in the 1990s. Her whirlwind success as an entertainer, pin-up model, occasional actress, catwalk fashion model and social debutante — briefly married to Marilyn Manson — all served to return the spotlight to burlesque. She was born Heather Renee Sweet in Rochester, Michigan, and her mother helped fuel her fantasies of more glamorous times by buying her retro gowns and garments that evoked the 1930s and ’40s movies of Betty Grable and other Hollywood starlets.

In her own words, Von Teese says she’s devoted herself to a quest “to put the tease back into striptease.” Ornate props she has used include a carousel horse, a giant powder compact and a clawfoot bathtub with a working shower head. In 2006, the Crazy Horse caberet in Paris invited her as its first-ever guest artist and in 2009, she danced on stage at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. Most recently, she has toured the United States with a revue she organized called Strip! Strip! Hooray!

Here, she works up a sweat before taking a swish in a giant martini glass. Rub-a-dub-dub.

Von Teese also dances to Sarah Vaughan’s “Whatever Lola Wants.”

Her website: http://www.dita.net/