What I forget to practice in my burlesque rehearsals
We just wrapped up a weekend of Blues and Burlesque Beats. I had the pleasure of taking part in some workshops hosted by the amazing Fortuna Maxima. I really love when we have guests come to nipaluna/Hobart and we can maximise their time and come together to share a lot of their unique skills.
Fortuna hosted two workshops – Stillness on Stage and Ethereal Feather Fans. It was during the “Stillness on Stage” workshop that gave me a lot of things to mull over these past few days.
The biggest theme in the workshop was the importance of adding stillness to our burlesque acts. It gives us a chance to really make an impression, to connect with the audience and to build the dynamics of the act. Yet it’s something in the workshop we all named up as challenging at times to do in practice. That’s despite knowing rationally how important stillness is to performance.
Humour me while I go on a bit of a tangent for a second…
During my yoga teacher training one of the things, I took away (aside from the postures and sequencing) was how much our brains operate in either the past or the future. We seem to really struggle to be in the present. Our minds race into future planning – from the big life questions to the mundane like ‘what are we doing for dinner’ stuff. Or we spend time revisiting past events, because they might inform future events and decisions.
And that’s why syncing breath and movement in yoga is so important to help stop our brains from moving forward and backwards and be more present.
I think this same technique can be applied to preparing for stage. The workshop gave me a lot to ponder and consider the so-called ‘small’ aspects of our performances that might not get enough attention in the rehearsal period.
I started to think about where I could apply more consideration in my rehearsals and what I don’t practice enough – and where I have started to make some changes.
Entering and exiting the stage
Arguably this is the most important and memorable part of your act. It’s the first and last impression you make on the audience. This week I’ve made a conscious effort to:
Have a clear start pose – even when walking on stage. I often tell my students to start performing from the stage wings, but it’s not something I think about enough myself.
Practising the end pose, and make sure that they really capture the mood of the act. Its something I do more intuitively but I often don’t film or photograph myself in these postures
Practising holding the end pose for a full five breaths before stopping. If I do this in rehearsal there is more likelihood I’ll do it consciously on stage
On breathing
Again, in yoga, most movements are synced to breathing. When I rehearse, I have made more effort to think about breath and movement – where in my routine I can stop and breath properly, or any movements that might benefit from an exhale (something strenuous for example, you want the hardest part of movement to be on the exhale not the inhale.
In the future this is something I want to more consciously build into my choreography from the beginning.
Costume flinging
I am a bad costume flinger. I really chuck things without consideration or knowledge of placement. I think this is also something to be more conscious of. I haven’t started thinking this through fully because I haven’t had a costumed rehearsal yet.
When I saw Dita Von Teese’ most recent tour, I also noticed that she is really careful with the removal and letting go of her costume pieces. And understandably as her stockings are probably $1,000 a piece. But the care and consideration is something I want to think of more deeply, so that I’m again more present and thoughtful in all aspects of my performance
These have been top of my mind as I reflect on “Stillness on Stage” and I wanted to share this here in case anyone else feels like they overlook a lot of these elements when they practice.
If you have something that is forgotten that you rehearse regularly, I’d also love to know!
Grace Cherry
Owner, Miss Kitty’s Meow