The Suicide Girls certainly didn’t start burlesque, for it is a performance art that began in the Victorian 1840s as a mixed show of comedy and dance routines. Then, the 1870s through the 1920s saw burlesque becoming gradually more lewd, as defined by contemporary societal standards, while the shows began to increasingly focus on the female form in minimal attire. Still, though, the acts had particular humor, routines, and dialogue that defined the genre. By the 1930s, the strip tease was a quintessential feature of a burlesque performance – a feature that condemned the show to its eventual demise as a popular art form.

The Suicide Girls didn’t start New Burlesque or Neo-Burlesque, either, as that version of the genre began to experience a resurgence in the mid-1990s, before this website was up and running. Acts began to take place around the world, paying homage, for the most part, to the attire, comedy, and striptease of the original burlesque. But that is just the very basic starting point for today’s shows…

When I sat down to write the first article on Suicide Girls for the SG Community Diary, I thought, What better group of ladies to feature than the burlesque girls? The women who not only respect the pin-up modeling of yore, but also the sexy, live entertainment of ages past? My own first introduction to SG was the tour, and I remember smiling the whole way home, covered in disgustingly sticky, wonderfully sweet chocolate syrup from the hands of Stormy. The girls highlighted in this article are not the girls of the SG live tour, but they are SGs – girls with their own troupes, their own acts, their own kickass performances. Here is a glimpse into the sultry burlesque lives of Tsui, Calamity, Sydni, and Salome.

Naturally, the first question that I asked the ladies was, “Why do you do burlesque?” As a Suicide Girl myself, I have answered the, “Why do you do nude modeling?” question so many times that it just seemed to be the organic starting point. Why get up there, naked, in front of a live audience? What do you gain from the experience? The girls’ answers made one thing very clear: they aren’t dancing because they have to or because they couldn’t find a job or because it’s the newest craze…the girls are burlesque performers because they love it.

Two of the girls particularly underscored previous dancing or related experiences as initial motivations for such performances; Tsui had been a ballet dancer, a gymnast, an actress, and a circus performer, while Salome was accomplished in Latin, swing, ballroom, and belly dancing. It seemed like a natural progression for both girls to begin performing burlesque acts, as they found homes in troupes of like-minded women with similar interests.

All of the women truly seem to love the performances. Sydni spoke of her affection for “the glamour, the history, the movement, the blatant sexuality, the costumes, the crowds, and pretty much everything it’s supposed to be.” Calamity specifically underscored her love of the creative process, everything along the gamut from concept sketching, creating pieces, choreography, and the eventual realization of all of her hard work. As a woman that was an actress since the age of 11, she loves the crowd, the power-play, the adrenaline rush.


Tsui

All of the girls began to perform – in this respect – about three years ago, but each also emphasized the evolution of their acts over time. Both Tsui and Sydni indicated that they began by performing the more traditional aspects of the shows. The music and movement was originally more conventional, but, over time, the girls have added increasing complexity and nuance, personality and style to their performances. Tsui speaks of her acts as “elaborate and theatrical,” involving such novelties as trapeze, fire, magic tricks, and handmade costumes, while Sydni similarly and awesomely stated that, “Sometimes I just like to behave like a rock star and I throw things, spit things and smear things all over my body.”

To tell you the truth, this interviewer can only see further evolution of the girls’ performances in the future. “Like with any sort of performance,” Salome says, “I’m still on a long uphill road to proving myself.”

It’s certainly not easy work, though, as intense practice, performing, and touring schedules fill the girls’ calendars. Tsui really manifested to me the commitment and dedication that the world of burlesque requires if you’re going to take it seriously:

And then there's the day of performance, which seems to be quite the adventure, each and every time. These SGs don’t just get up on stage and hope that all goes well; they treat each performance as a unique event.

Tsui and Calamity particularly emphasized the importance of mental preparation, listening to the music and practicing the routines in their heads. And then there are physical appearances and getting one’s self ready to be presented to a live audience, which is a process that all of the girls really seem to enjoy. “Make-up,” Sydni says, “can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.”

There is the readying of props, the gluing of pasties, and the communicating with the DJ, all of which seems to be double and triple-checked, just to be sure. But, eventually, each girl seemed to express a little bit of nervousness as the hour of performance approaches.

Tsui drinks with the girls, Calamity checks everything just once last time, and Salome does her routine of “buying booze, doing hair, opening the booze, putting on makeup, smoking a cigarette, retouching the lipstick, putting our old dance numbers on the jukebox to warm up, and chugging the last of the drink” before getting on stage.


Calamity

There’s a bit of nervousness waiting in the wings, but it seems that, once on the stage, each girl is right at home. Tsui excitedly wrote about the mental buzz, her love of interaction with the audience, and the experience of seeing all of her preparation come together. And Calamity seems to agree, “Strutting out into the spotlight is absolutely invigorating. It doesn't matter what sort of stress you've had during the day--it could have been the shittiest, whacked out day--as soon as you hear the first ‘WOO!’ from the crowd, you feel like a million sexy bucks.”

Sydni also speaks of the feeling of coming alive, “About 20 seconds after being on stage I have not a care in the world, because the stage is mine and everyone is loving that I love what I do. It feels liberating.” And, with an audience like Salome describes, you really see the appeal that this art has for the ladies involved: “Our audiences don't applaud -- they shout and howl and bang on tables. We dance to the kind of music that when you hear the opening notes you think, ‘Holy shit, I love this song! I can't wait to see what these crazy bitches do with this!’”


Sydni

While the performances definitely take inspiration from recognized and famous burlesque artists - Gypsy Rose Lee, Tempest Storm, and Lili St. Cyr - each girl also recognizes unique motivations, as well.

Salome speaks of her respect for Rob Zombie, Swing Kids, and her “60-year-old spitfire belly dance teacher back in California,” and Sydni recognizes The World Famous Bob, Dirty Martini, Immodesty Blaize, and Paula the Swedish Housewife, among others.

Calamity acknowledges “the girly-show and hootchy-cootchy performers of sideshow fame, ladies who were earning a living performing (to the delight of their visitors) outside the general public's disapproving eye,” while Tsui particularly emphasizes the influence that music, her artwork, and the world around her have on her performances.


Salome

These are the diverse influences that at the same time pay homage to the original art of burlesque, while injecting the performances with unique style and flavor. Glitz, glamour, razzle and dazzle of the past are all incorporated into the performances of these artists, but so many other elements simultaneously exist.

Imagine Tsui, for example, heavily tattooed and adorned in a handsewn costume of over 500 peacock feathers - and just as many crystals - swinging from a trapeze. And Calamity describes the amalgam of her performances beautifully: “Two parts sex appeal, to one part spin. I like to approach an act with a solid concept and try to come up with a twist ending or some sort of ‘turn on the side’ aspect,” she says. Highlighted by Sydni are both the “fucked up content” of some of her acts and her unconventional appearance: “6'1" with brown skin and blonde hair,” the Chocolate Glamazon who is “not afraid to do anything on stage.”

Salome, too. Yes, Salome, too. For an '80s hair metal show, you might find her adorned in Aqua Net, mall bangs, blue eyeshadow, sliced-up band t-shirts, fishnets, and cutoffs. Black on black, blood, and priest robes populate the stage for a Goth performance, and she can even complete the spectrum with red sequins and candy cane panties for a Christmas show. This little firecracker says:

What it comes down to is that each of these girls is an artist and a performer. Each recognizes the legacy of the genre that she participates in, while, at the same time, creating something completely unique and out of this world.

These girls are powerhouses of creativity - twirling tassels, entertaining, titillating, shimmying, shaking, bumping and grinding on stages all around the globe. But, like all the best performances, these acts are something to be seen, to be experienced, rather than to be read about, so check out the links below, and try to see a live performance of at least one of these girls sometime soon.

Tsui: http://www.renegadeburlesque.com
http://www.myspace.com/tsuisuicide
Calamity: http://www.myspace.com/vaughnlacie
Sydni: http://www.myspace.com/sydnideveraux
Salome: http://www.myspace.com/flamingdames

And also please check out the pages of these ladies, who I was unfortunately not able to include in the article…
Bettina: http://www.bettina.ca/eventscalendar.htm
Tigerlily: http://www.myspace.com/peekabooburlyq


Fatality thus concludes the first installment of SG Community Diary, a newswire feature intended to highlight some of the wonderful, interesting, and amazing stories of this website’s models and members.

Please contact her or Anarchie with any other potential stories!