Reviewing and refining your burlesque act

Often when you are starting out in burlesque, it’s really common to want to rush to create a new act. Get a new costume.

I’ve written before about how important it is to focus on having one or two really polished acts - rather than a heap of undercooked performances.

And of course it’s better for your bank balance!

It’s really important that you are able to give yourself the ‘feedback’ sandwich every time that you perform - and especially if you are pretty new.

Be Constructive

Get used to being constructive in your mentality.

If you only drag yourself down after a performance, you aren’t really doing anything useful for yourself. And you won’t improve either as a person or as a performer.

If you can watch back any footage or look at photos from your show that can be great.

When you are looking back at any documentation you want to start by focusing on something positive you noticed.

• This could be a great smile that you could see in a photo.

• Maybe you are watching some choreography you nailed.

• Or hearing an audience reaction that makes you smile.

These are all things you can build on and make sure that you continue on with.

So much of burlesque can be spontaneous. There might be something unexpected that came up on the night that you can focus on using again.

Focus on up to two things you want to improve on

When you focus on the constructive end of constructive criticism, pick out only one or two things that you want to improve on before your next performance.

There isn’t much point picking out twenty things….because it will seem overwhelming and like you can’t tackle anything.

Then you can do something to focus on how you improve these elements. Making a plan on what you want to do is really important.

• It might be setting aside some time to re-do some choreography.

• Or it could be fixing a costume malfunction that didn’t go to plan.

• Adding in something extra to the costume to make the act ‘pop’.

Finish up on a positive note

Never finish reviewing your performance on a downer.

Get yourself back in a positive state by reminding yourself of something you did really well that you are proud of.

I know that so much of our performances are filmed, photographed and documented.

And while watching a video is a great tool. It’s just that = one tool.

Burlesque is all about the ‘moment’. It’s why we so often ask the audience to not take photos or film during the show. It’s creating that fantasy in our minds, and that connection with the crowd.

So take a moment to step away from the documentation of your act - and remember how something felt.

What felt intrinsically good to you during the performance? Or something that you remember when you watched the audience.
Don’t only focus on the technical strength of your act- remember those moments of connection and savour them!

Grace Cherry onstage at A Decade Undressed (2018, Moonah Arts Centre)

Photo by Neil Buonaccorsi

What are your best tips?

These are a few ideas that I had to share. What are yours? Drop ‘em in the comments below so we can all build up our burlesque selves.