Oh, The Glamourous Life!

Dear Constant Reader,

This year I taught two classes at BurlyCon. I’ve been teaching virtually at B.A.B.E. since April, but this wasn’t the same. There was a bigger audience, new (to me) tech, a moderator, and the class was going to be recorded for later viewing or purchase. I was kind of nervous, to say the least.

My first class was Who’s Who in Classic Burlesque. The whole thing is a presentation and I’ve taught it before, even virtually. Since I was using Google Meet for the first time, I did a trial to make sure my audience could see my presentation, that the film clips would run, and the audio on one of them could be heard. Everything seemed fine.

When class time rolled around, I discovered that unlike Zoom, when screen sharing in Google Meet, you can’t see the rest of the participants. I don’t know how I missed or forgot that. It was completely unnerving and threw me off my game. I tried a couple of different things that didn’t work for one reason or another. If I’d stopped to think, instead of panicking, I could have used my tablet alongside my laptop.

Anyway, I thought I did a terrible job. I get so much visual feedback from a class, even a virtual one, which just didn’t exist. I forgot things, I fumbled, I felt like I wasn’t explaining well, and the audio on that one clip didn’t work. When it was over, I knew that I didn’t want that class recording to be available. More on that in a moment.

My next class was Caring for Your Costumes. I have a lot of fun with it and student questions are a big part of it. I teach this one a lot. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve taught it at BurlyCon now. One of the pieces of feedback I got one year was that the student would have liked to have seen examples of things. The class covers a huge number of topics and it’s really not feasible for me to bring that much stuff when I travel. However, teaching from home…

I gathered a big pile of stuff and set it next to my desk, so I could just grab some show and tell when the topic arose. I realized the day before that something I wanted to demo was too complicated to do in front of my laptop, so I filmed a little video (and I’m inordinately proud of how it came out). I’m quite happy with how this class went and even more so that Christina Manuge told people it was a must-take class! (there might have been a little happy dance on my part…)

So that was the class I was happy with, what about the one I hated? I asked Iva Handfull, the Program Director, if I could re-record Who’s Who and replace the existing version. Yes!

Originally I was just going to record a voice-over and lay it over my slideshow. But then I thought about how much I hated not being able to see faces, so I learned some more about video editing and decided I would film myself talking and put the slide next to me, like on the news (I was actually thinking of Last Week Tonight, since that’s how I get my news, but you get the picture. So to speak). It took me four hours to film a 50 minute class. It was exhausting. At least it wasn’t four hours straight. I was filming on the last day of BurlyCon, so I took a couple of breaks for classes.

Then I started editing.  It occurred to me that I wasn’t restricted to the images in my existing presentation. I scanned pictures from my collection of Cavalcade of Burlesque (a magazine from the 1950s). The American Burlesque Collection let me use images of some of the items in the museum. It took me three days to edit, which was also exhausting, but I had a self-imposed deadline to hit. And I did. I’m pretty happy with the results!

If you would like to take Caring for Your Costumes or Who’s Who in Classic Burlesque, just click the link. Each class is $20 (of which I get $15) and they’re available until December 31.

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Dear Constant Reader,

What was it like taking classes at BurlyCon this year? We had three options: on-demand classes which were available at any time, live classes via Zoom or Google Meet where you could interact with the instructors, and recorded classes, which are recorded versions of the live classes, which could be watched at your leisure.

I tried to take as many classes live as I could and here’s a short synopsis. This is over the span of two weeks and there were whole days I went without taking a single class, mostly because the scheduling didn’t work out for me. If the title of the class is a link, you can take the recorded class for $20 until the end of the month (and the instructor will get $15 of that).

You Down with MSP? (Shimmy LaRoux): This was part of the Master track, which as I mentioned previously is for seasoned performers and had an application process. MSP stands for “Minimal Stage-ready Product” and the class is about using a similar technique for creating an act as bringing a product to market. It’s an on-going process of questioning and refinement.

Blues Burlesque (Zelia Rose) If we hadn’t been doing this virtually, it would have been impossible to take a dance class with Zelia Rose, who is in Australia. I set up in Albert’s room, with my laptop broadcasting to the TV and my webcam broadcasting me. Albert was completely uninterested in all this and snoozed the entire time. I discovered, as I lost the connection to Zoom multiple times, that the most convenient place to set my laptop is also a mysterious Wifi deadspot. How annoying. But my tech woes are unimportant. The class was about improvisational blue dances, with three base steps and variations on them.

Best Face Forward (Zelia Rose): This was a BurlyLab, a limited enrollment, hands-on class. It also started at 9:45pm, my time. It’s been many months since I found myself in a full face of makeup at midnight. She had a few useful tips I’ll probably incorporate and it’s just nice to shake things up with a different makeup style.

Pleasure and the Art of the Eyefuck (Jo Weldon): This is not a skill that comes naturally or easily to me and I was looking forward to learning from a master. I was wondering how well this would work virtually and the answer was VERY well. I could see Jo’s face, especially her eyes, much better than in a traditional classroom.

Cohesive Costume Design (Christina Manuge): I have to be honest; I was a little disappointed in this class. I think Christina was too. We watched her three excellent videos on costume design, but that was really all we had time for. I wish there had been more time for discussion. Still, I came away with one new nugget of information.

Fantastic! Advanced Fan Dancing (Coco Lectric): I should have taken the time to set up in Albert’s room, like I did for Blues Burlesque. Instead I thought it would be fine in my sewing room, forgetting completely that I now have a ceiling fan in there. Ooops.

Rhinestone & Embellishments (Frankie Fictitious): Frankie’s costumes are so beautiful and I knew I could learn some new ideas from her. I think I’ll also watch her BurlyLab and see if there’s anything else she covers there.

Illusions of Glamour: The Costumes of Burlesque (Rosey La Rouge): Rosey wrote The Book on the history of burlesque costumes (and I really ought to review it soon). Her presentation was a quick and well illustrated run through that history, plus a little bit about her experience creating the book. Very inspirational.

Closing in on the Reveal: Your Key to Better Burly Closures (Christina Manuge): This was an Intensive class with limited enrollment and I’m lucky to have gotten in because I decided to take it at the last minute. There was a series of videos to watch in advance and the class was a Q & A about them. I had seen them on Christina’s Patreon (if you make burlesque costumes, you really ought to join), so my last minute decision didn’t leave me behind. How wonderful to be able to ask questions “in person” of someone so skilled!

Fundamentals of Online Education – Adapting & Empowering (Robyn Swing): What a great way to close out BurlyCon! Not only did this class give me great ideas for continuing to teach on-line, it also showed me a new way to think about teaching in general. I’m definitely making time for a rewatch before it disappears.

So that’s 10 classes over two weeks (and I taught 2), which is exactly the same as last year, although packed into four in-person days. At least I’m consistent!

I also attended three social events. There were two dances, although I just relaxed and listened to the excellent music. During the first one, we played a party game for a bit; it was fun to connect with people for a while.  Albert stole the show during the second one just by lounging with me. I meant to attend the Jewlesquers’ Shabbat, but there were some tech issues. I also joined in the last minute Teaching the Tease caucus for teachers — thank you Saffron St. James for organizing! It was so great to connect with fellow educators and discover many of us had similar issues and challenges. I felt a little less alone after that.

I’m not including the classes I took (and am continuing to take) via recording. That may become a post of its own. I also didn’t include the classes I taught because those get their own post. Stay tuned!

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Dear Constant Reader,

In a normal world in early November I would fly to Seattle for BurlyCon (and also to see friends and family). I’ve been attending since the very first year and have only missed three (two due to a conflicting show and one because of serious illness). This is not a normal world, so the usual BurlyCon where we all pack into a hotel near the airport couldn’t happen. Instead, they took it on-line.

This was a massive undertaking in a relatively short time. As one of the presenters I got to see a little of how the sausage was made and it was pretty impressive.

Instead of a jam-packed four days with multiple tracks of classes plus other events, the schedule stretched over two weeks. If you couldn’t take a class live, most were recorded for later watching (and will be available until the end of December). If you didn’t have a full pass, you could (and still can) purchase individual classes a la carte.

There were advantages and drawbacks of the on-line set-up, of course. I’ll probably talk about those more specifically as I tell you about the programs I experienced.

I loved seeing the faces of my burlesque colleagues again and hearing voices in The Manor that weren’t just those of its occupants. It always felt so quiet when a class was over. I missed seeing people in person, hanging out between classes, and going shopping. And just being somewhere other than my house…

More to come.

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.