The art of coy seduction

by Anna Davies

Mounting flight after flight of well-trodden stair, I made my way up the Danceworks building – past studios full of dancers rehearsing in front of wall-length mirrors. My class was, of course, on the top floor. Burlesque.

Bar a couple of evenings in fancy clubs sipping cocktails watching what is now considered more ‘art’ than stripping, I was new to this form of dancing. I’d been preparing myself for scantily-clad, voluptuous goddesses swinging their nipple tassels and shaking their lace-thonged ‘booties’. How wrong I’d been.

Audacity Chutzpah ­– my teacher for the evening – was dressed in a bright, floaty knee-length skirt teamed with a plain vest, and rosy cheeks atop a wonderfully wide smile. She had started out as a clown and then moved into burlesque as she loves performing.

With an open mind, I stood before the mirror and slipped my feet into something considerably less comfortable – heels are an integral part of the burlesque class.

Audacity had warned me that although it was a drop-in class, some of the other women – they were all women – had been to a previous class and had learnt a routine. Undefeated, I joined in with enthusiasm and took my place at the back of the class to avoid the scrutiny of Audacity. She moved slowly through the dance moves, ensuring everyone was keeping up, and reminding us to use our eyes to entice our audience.

We learnt the routine to Sam Sparro’s Black and Gold – not quite the Moulin Rouge soundtrack I’d been expecting.

At first I felt like a bit of a plonker eyeing myself up in the mirror but I persevered and soon got into the swing of it. It became rather fun pretending that I was on stage in front of lots of people, blowing kisses to my imaginary audience.

Burlesque, according to Audacity, is as much about what you hold back as what you give away. “The idea is to tease – rather than simply taking all your clothes off,” she said.
We managed to learn a whole routine in the hour-long class and then we were split into two groups to perform to each other. I lost the obviously professional dancer in front of me who I had been copying all night so had to rely on memory.

I managed to make it through the routine (just about), winking and grinning at my now real audience – before taking a bow and slipping out of class.

As I walked to the Tube, my calves and shoulders were aching from all the shimmying and and shaking, but I felt alive and glamorous and sexy.

The drop-in Burlesque dance class is £15 at Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street, W1K 6TN, every Monday from 8-9pm.