Across two packed nights at long-standing North Melbourne performance space Meat Market, local Burlesque legend Domino de Jour gave attendees a showcase of homegrown talent that proved as big as its on-the-tin title.
Friday’s performance gave a showcase of the best and boldest in the scandalising artform, while the following evening promised similar volumes of star quality in the similarly programmed Victorian Burlesque Gala.
Speaking to the Big Burlesque Show here, audiences were treated to a stacked three-hour extravaganza of female, trans and non-binary performers, across varying genres and disciplines. Every shape and shade of Burlesque performance was on display, giving us everything from deliberately hokey magic shows, more traditional Burlesque dance routines, to a decidedly gangbusters set that saw one performer crack a whip while throwing their hips across the ground in four-inch-heel, thigh-high latex boots.
A markedly Sapphic affair, with much of the attending crowd comprised of women in same-gender couplings, the evening proved a celebration of femme-presenting sex appeal in all forms and sizes. There was a respectful diversity of body types seen onstage, making the roster of talent a valuable subversion of the one-size-only prism through which female and trans beauty is commonly viewed.
There was a minor fluctuation in strength of concept between performers, where some exhibited a clearer and more empowering narrative across their act, demonstrating dance moves and costumes that assembled a defined artistic whole. A small number of performers felt as though they were still finding their onstage persona, leaving some aspects of their routine as just a presentation of Burlesque style and trinketry and not yet mastering their own unique translation of the artform.
Nevertheless, the variety of performers ensured a compelling balance of relative newcomers and showstopping industry professionals. Threading it all together was the radiantly high-energy stewardship of Naarm-based, self-confessed Burlesque baddie Miss Ruby Slippers.
Her ingenious solution to the extended stage cleanup and reset period between acts was to present the crowd with a game of pass the parcel, each layer of wrapping bestowing punters with $2 plastic tiaras and unwanted skincare merchandise. A surefire crowd-pleaser as well as an amusingly practical solution to foot-bouncing impatience among the crowd.
For an evening that delivers on the promise of its title, The Big Burlesque Show was a fierce, roof-raising showcase of Naarm’s biggest and bravest acts in the scintillating, titillating world of Burlesque and the onstage erotic.
Reviewed by Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier
