Building Burlesque Scenes in Small Canadian Cities

Burlesque in Canada is usually associated with big-city stages in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, where audiences have years of exposure to the form. Smaller and more remote communities tend to build a scene from a different starting point. In northern and rural parts of British Columbia and the Prairies, performers describe a place where many residents have never seen a neo-burlesque show and where the first task is explaining what one involves.

A scene that begins with one performer

Local scenes commonly start with a single determined person. A founding performer may be the only burlesque dancer in town for a year or more, performing alone, until a fellow performer proposes forming a group. Open auditions follow, a cast comes together, and the first outing is often a charity show.

Tying an early show to a cause is a pattern seen in many burlesque communities. It gives a new group a reason to be on stage, a ready audience and a way to introduce itself in a respectable light.

A loose troupe with rotating members

Small-city troupes are often less formally organized than big-city companies. A handful of core members stay constant while others come and go, and the roster typically includes an emcee, a singer, comedic performers and newer recruits, each working under a stage name.

Members frequently relocate for work or study and keep performing elsewhere. Some start new troupes in other towns and some turn to costuming, which shows how performers in the west often carry skills from one small community to the next, seeding new groups along the way.

Humour, props and the work of audience building

Winning over a cautious audience often relies on comedy. Routines built around everyday kitchen or household imagery, rather than conventional glamour, lower the barrier for viewers who expect something more explicit than they find. Small troupes also share bills with other local alternative scenes, such as roller derby nights, comedy shows and fundraisers, which broadens their audience.

Typical goals include a semi-regular revue at a local venue, invitations to guest performers from other cities and trips to other small northern towns.

Body image and the audience

Troupes often include performers of many body types, which becomes a talking point. Performers say audiences respond to the cast's confidence and obvious enjoyment, and venues that host such shows usually restrict them to adult audiences. Burlesque writers often cite experiences of this kind when they argue that the art form carries a body-acceptance message, though that view is debated, and critics of the genre point to its history of objectification.