February 14, 2002


Inside a former mayonnaise factory turned fashionable Brooklyn club stands a bespectacled man with a polo shirt tucked in to his sensible khakis. He curls his rum and Coke near his chest, keeping his eyes fastened to the curtain in front of him. Next to him stands a couple in their 20s, both in knit stocking caps and perfectly slouched jeans, gazing toward the stage waiting for a sign of life. Down the aisle, a motley gang of firefighters huddles at a long wooden table. The remainder of the club is filled with an eclectic mix of young, old, straight-laced and trendy squeezed together to savor a modern incarnation of old-fashioned burlesque.

The dimly lit room darkens and a single spotlight splashes onto the curtain ready to illuminate the spectacle within. "Ladies and Gentlemen!" bursts the MC into the microphone, "straight from Trashville, Tennessee! It's the Amazing Wau Wau Sisters!"

The Wau Wau Sisters are throwbacks to classic burlesque, which began as an offshoot of vaudeville around 1900. It was a showcase of lush sets, provocatively dressed women, music and comedy acts. As it progressed in the following decades, it emphasized the strip tease. With the introduction of television, burlesque declined and the art form seemed to be headed for extinction. Today, in an age saturated with blatant sexual imagery and unrealistic body types, the revival of burlesque nationwide reveals that there is an audience eager for more tease and less sleaze.

Both Wau Wau Sisters, Tanya and Adrian (T and A if you will), are trained acrobats, dancers and contortionists. They explode with charm and wow the crowd with their versatility. During their multi-act performance, they may jump through burning hoops in flame-printed bikinis, swing above the bar on the trapeze or serve the audience deviled eggs. One thing is for certain, at some point during the show, the Sisters will have managed to discard their clever outfits and be left standing in their skivvies.

In New York, the Wau Wau Sisters (pronounced vhow vhow) have been bumping and grinding professionally for eight years in various circus shows and dance troops before forming their own act in 2000. Burlesque and vaudeville were genres that allowed them to showcase their diverse talents such as trapeze artistry and playing original songs.

The potential for unbounded creativity appealed to the Sisters as well. "We are the performers, the costumers and the directors," says Adrian. "We can do whatever we want in it."

And besides, she continues, "we miss the vaudeville days."

That's a shared feeling among those involved in the new burlesque. "Thank God that someone is keeping a portion of American history intact," says Dixie Evans, proprietor of the Exotic World Museum in Helendale, Calif. Evans is a former burlesque star whose gimmick was fashioning her act around the look and allure of Marilyn Monroe.

"It wasn't just taking off your clothes," Evans says coyly, "it was the way you did it that counted."

Today at 76, Evans is a valuable resource to those looking to bring authenticity to modern burlesque acts. Her walls brim with photographs of glamorous dancers and entertainers from burlesque and vaudeville's heyday and every corner of her museum is occupied by intricate hand-made costumes.

Artists, dancers and vintage wearing hipsters who burned out on the Swing dancing fad that hit in the mid '90s, are being drawn to the imaginative quality of burlesque. Major cities around the country are embracing the dusty, forgotten art form and are reviving it with renewed interest and energy.

Burlesque "isn't like anything else," says Michelle Baldwin, creative director for Denver Colorado's Burlesque As It Was. "It's not like going to the theater, but it has those elements.It's not like seeing a band, but there is music. It's related to going to a strip club, but it's not as blatant as that."

Burlesque can range from vaudeville-like cabarets, such as Cantankerous Lollies in San Francisco and Shim Shamettes in New Orleans, to individual specialty acts like Dita Von Teese, a Vargas-worthy pinup model from Los Angeles. They all share a love for elaborate costumes, classic glamour from decades past and a sensuous appreciation of the female form. Not to mention plenty of cheeky humor.

The audience hushes as the black curtain finally swishes open revealing the scantily clad Wau Waus armed with bright red electric guitars. The crowd whistles and shouts at the appearance of the dark-haired beauties crowned in cowboy hats and teetering in crimson tutus above their platform heels. Their sugary voices break into a country ditty about the rodeo. It begins sweetly enough but works its way into a not-so innocent song laden with innuendo. Delighted at being taken off guard, the audience encourages the Sisters with hoots and catcalls as the song reveals its true bawdy nature.

The crowd continues to buzz with energy when the Wau Wau Sisters take their final bow for the evening. Andreas Steinle, 31, and Franziska Groth, 23, comes to see the Sisters on a regular basis. "It's the combination of the styles of the performance: the singing, the dancing, and humor that makes it so much fun. And," he says, squeezing Groth's shoulder, "you can bring your girlfriend."

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