April 4, 2001
"For thousands of years the female body has been objectified in art and viewed as a very beautiful creation in nature. This is just another form of that."
-Ingrid Christensen, on contemporary striptease

An ample woman in generous hunting attire enters stage right with a mischievous, bipedal lion. The two roll around on stage to a retro jungle beat, playfully battling for dominance in a homoerotic display that mesmerizes a roomful of multi-generational onlookers. The wily hunter raises a blowgun and shoots a tranquilizer dart into the lion, which stumbles to the ground and floats off to sleep. After vigorously stroking the slumbering beast, the hunter removes her shirt to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," revealing two double Ds packed tightly into a black bra. After wrapping the lion in her top, she feigns embarrassment, covers herself and scrambles offstage.

Meanwhile in north Boulder, a dark beauty with long, silky brown hair, voluptuous lips, and startling curves struts past middle-aged men juggling mentholated cigarettes and Budweisers. After her long, skinny legs mount the stage, she twirls around a large pole to the opening howls of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Halfway through the song, the dancer pops her top to reveal two pristine, gravity defying wonders. Men pull ones from their Wranglers and toss them onstage, hoping to take a closer peek before the music stops. When it does, the dancer gathers her spoils, nonchalantly reattaches her top, and saunters through the crowd in extra-high heels.

Welcome, Boulder, to Burlesque... As It Was and the Bustop... as it usually is.

Burly babes

"What we're doing is very different from anything having to do with modern commercial sex," says Michelle Baldwin, whose bawdy safari-style burlesque act recently graced the Fox stage during Cabaret Diosa's April Fool's show. "The way it's presented harks back to an era when a bare shoulder was absolutely scandalous."

A former librarian now working at a publishing house, Baldwin hadn't even heard of burlesque until she saw a Denver performance of Kitty West's Evangeline the Oyster Girl at the Mercury Café in '96, and witnessed a Giulianified New York City in the late '90s, where burlesque was making a comeback. The semi-seedy, N.Y.C. spectacle was a little too "updated" for her taste; she felt she could do better by re-creating the buxom beauties of the past with authentic costumes and the talent pool from the Mile High City. Taking advantage of her bookish workplace-and the video store-Baldwin researched and developed her vision. With the help of Denver designer Peter Yumi and set designer Jake Cressman, Baldwin debuted Burlesque... As It Was in the summer of '98 at the former Denver den of sin-the Bluebird Theatre. Baldwin has since traded professional strippers for big-hammed, retro-minded amateurs. They've performed in Vegas twice, at the Bluebird a few times, in Around the World in 80 Girls at the Gothic last September-which was featured in the A&E documentary It's Burlesque-and staged the Burlesque... As It Was 2001 debut at the Fox. During the Boulder performance, the troupe fulfilled Baldwin's mission to "combine forces with local music" by performing in between Cabaret Diosa acts.

"It's definitely tame compared to what you see in a (strip) club," admits Baldwin, whose grandparents were "wowed" by burlesque performances in the '50s at west Denver's Tropica club. "It's the old bump and grind that you think of your grandfather going out and seeing. The furthest we go is pasties."

Unlike your run-of-the-mill strip show, Baldwin considers the act progressive, a re-enactment of an art form that was a precursor to the women's rights movement and independent pop culture icons.

"The comedy aspect of it is sort of a throwback to vaudeville," says Baldwin, whose troupe elicits cat calls just as easily from war-torn octogenarians as from lily-livered twenty-somethings. "What Bette Midler does-what Carol Burnette did in the '70s-that's burlesque. Even modern sitcom comedy, it's female characters who reflect the old burlesque in just about any modern comedy. Those strong characters were formed with women who were in control of their sexuality."

Bustopless

"I don't think anyone should take a position in the adult entertainment industry unless they feel o.k. with the idea before going in," says Ingrid Christensen, head of marketing and promotion for the Bustop topless strip club in north Boulder.

A two and a half year veteran of the Fox Theatre and a three-summer seasoned waitress in Denver's country club service industry, Christensen discovered her position through Boulder's tightknit bar/restaurant society (whose secret handshake makes cocktails magically appear and doormen turn a blind eye in assorted venues throughout the County). Used to random barroom brawls and degrading wisecracks from dues-paying country club types, Christensen was surprised at the respect granted to the Bustop dancers. Surprised period.

"To pull back the curtains on strip clubs really normalizes things," says Christensen, who admits to being fascinated by the exotic dance profession. "You realize that it's not that big of a deal. It's not a big deal for the dancers or people working there or the patrons."

Instead of the stereotypical "strippers equals drugs and prostitution," she found a different environment, without a sleazy mystique; one where stripping was simply another form of entertainment-a stepping stone to a modeling or acting career, or a way to capitalize on good looks before getting married, having kids, and committing to the nine-to-five grind.

"You have just as high a chance of leaving bitter from a job working at a restaurant-if not more-than you do being a dancer in a topless bar," she claims. "These are normal girls. They have normal lives. Some are married with children, who have husbands with nine-to-five jobs. This is truly a choice that these women make."

So is the bare-breasted, pole-twirlin' stripper the 21st-century equivalent of the burlesque beauty of days gone by? Or is she simply a loose woman with questionable morals and a purse to fill?

"I think it's a sign of the times. There was a point in recent history when showing your ankle was considered scandalous," Christensen says. "I think it really depends on the attitude that is taken with the performance. You can be just as elegant and sophisticated topless as you can be with tassels or when partially covered up. You think about the Beatles back in their day. We feel they were pretty innocent and we're very scandalous. It's all relative of course."