The power of a smile...and glitter

Last night ended up being one of those random Wed nights when I think that my night is going to go one way, but it ends up going in a complete different direction.Ok....no problem.

So after some food (just food as I am not drinking and could be why I was so deep in thought later on in the night and in this blog post) and chatting with some friends, we made our way to a strip club.

This is not the first time that my Wed nights have ended up at a location like this, but it has been a LONG TIME.  And the first time that I have been to one since participating in the burlesque class.

And  I mention this because when I was talking the class and talking about it, people who were not familiar with burlesque would always say, "Isn't that just stripping?"  And I would always say no, and explain to them why it was nothing like stripping.

Ok...well, maybe nothing like stripping is not 100% accurate.  They are closely related and I can see how strippers go into burlesque and burlesque performers go into stripping.  I can.  Trust me.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  If you can get up on a tiny little stage in nothing but plastic death stilts and make some money, well, more power to ya!

But...while my sober self sat at the club the statement, "Isn't that just like stripping" played over in my head and it started to make me a bit angry and a touch sad.

As I looked around at the girls dressed only in leg warmers and a blank stare, it hit me what the real difference was between the two....joy.

Yes, there was no glitter, no costume that was worked on for hours, no gloves and not a strand of hot rollered hair.  All of that was missing, but there was not one expression of happiness on any of the faces that I saw.

Have you been to a burlesque show? Take away all the rhinestones and fake eye lashes.  Remove the boas and fans. Tall, short, skinny or round.  Every single performer that I have ever seen always has the same prop...her smile.  The act could be funny or dark, it does not matter.  At some point she is going to look out in that audience and she is going to make all of those watching feel like she is smiling at them and that she is happy to have them there.

And I am not Pollyanna.  I know that stripping in a club is a way of making money.  It's cold and dark and can be filled with many more negatives then positives.  I know that the worlds are not the same. Trust me.

But there really is just so much more to burlesque then just getting out of clothes.

So the next time someone asks me, "Isn't that just like stripping?"  I am going to look them in the eye, give them the biggest and best smile that I have and happily explain the difference....with joy.