Filthy, funny and feminist: inside the wild and wicked world of Scots Burlesque
SPECIAL REPORT
WE all know there are p lenty of subtle but wellknown differences when it comes to how things are done in England and how things are done in Scotland.
Up here, we like our sausages square, our men in kilts, and our fizzy drinks made from girders. Now, to add to the cultural variations we have ... Burlesque.
The leading Burlesque queens in Scotland say that while performers down south take themselves exceptionally seriously and go in for “classic Burlesque”, dancers up here like to splice seduction with a healthy dash of good old-fashioned Scottish humour, and a side order of feminism.
Put simply, Scottish Burlesque is earthy and “real” and about the women, while down south it’s a bit more old-fashioned and camp, and often just for the boys.
This week the differences will be on display at the Burlesque Festival in London – one of the world’s biggest celebrations of an art form which harks back to the fin-de-siècle Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge, or the debauchery of Cabaret and the KitKat Club in prewar Berlin.
One of Scotland’s top acts, hailing from Aberdeen, is the wonderfully named Whisky Falls. Fittingly, Whisky performs a special “pour” act. Traditionally, these rather saucy acts see showgirls clad in feathers and crystals pour champagne over their almost-naked bodies. Whisky, though, likes to do things in a more Scot- tish fashion, dropping crystals and feather boas for leather and tartan, and instead of champers using good old Scotch whisky.
Innocence Bliss from Inverness makes no bones about the fact there’s a political side to her act. She says her dance is about celebrating proud women and their “individuality and body confidence”. Wearing her politics literally on her sleeve, she performs in a rainbow costume inspired by the LGBT flag.
Also on stage at the London festival will be Brandy Montmartre from Glasgow – aka Hannah Rose, who is studying for a PhD.
Her act celebrates the feisty women of Glasgow with her raucous rock’n’roll jive-stripping act. It’s all about women who take no nonsense, love to dance and live life on their terms. The performance is funny, full-on and rather filthy. The act, she says, is “always a challenge, as it involves the most removals I’ve ever attempted in a routine. I’m sure I can pull it off, quite literally”.
Burlesque in Scotland, she says, is earthy and funny – more real than elsewhere. “London is known for very classic burlesque,” she explains. “Up here there’s more of a scene for comedy, especially in Glasgow.”
London will really see what Scots Burlesque is all about thanks to Wild Card Kitty, from Glasgow. Her act is a twisted homage to Kafka’s Metamorphosis – about a man who has been turned into an insect.
Kitty comes on stage as a cockroach which has survived a nuclear apocalypse, before proceeding to shed her synthetic limbs.
“I love performing a traditional bump’n’grind-style act,” she says, “but I also love infusing my work with humour – hence being a cockroach.
“I make the sexy look funny.”