CELEBRATING A DECADE OF BRIDGE CITY BURLESQUE!

9th annual Oregon Burlesque Festival is closing out this chapter with local and national luminaries

(PORTLAND, OR, September 20-21, 2024) All it took was a gutsy Oregonian from Salem, with big dreams of showcasing a distinct artform with roots deeply intertwined to the working-class history of this state. Ellie Darling envisioned an event that would inspire performers from cities big and small to trek to the Bridge City to get weird, and the Oregon Burlesque Festival was born.

Burlesque as an art form came to the US in 1868, with the arrival of comedian and dancer Lydia Thompson and her “British Blondes” - a wildly popular show featuring the eccentricities of pantomime and burlesque. The touring burlesque shows that ensued quickly stimulated local productions – with their curious combination of comedy, satire, song and dance, variety acts, cross-dressing, risqué jokes and saucy costumes.

Meanwhile, in the recently-admitted state of Oregon, Portland is filled with workers looking to recoup from the stresses of labor as the city and state begin a century of dramatic growth and change. The Princess Theater was renamed the Star in 1939, a world-renowned burlesque venue in the 1940s-1960s. Burlesque of the 1970s-1990s matured to a form of fringe entertainment of mostly topless & nude club dancers. Portland carries on and evolves these traditions, celebrated internationally for our volume and variety of strip clubs.

In 2007 the neo-burlesque revival arrived in Oregon with local luminaries such as Angelique DeVil and Zora Von Pavonine. Since then the local burlesque community cultivated new traditions rooted in contemporary values & queer theory, acknowledging their roots as a theatrical form that combines satire, comedy, dance, drag, and adult entertainment. The Oregon Burlesque Festival is a culmination of decades of creating opportunity, despite exclusion.

Laurie Kurutz, a Professor of Costume Technology at Southern Oregon University, has been attending and supporting the Oregon Burlesque Festival and other local productions for years. “Burlesque is a progressive art form where artists use their bodies as a form of resistance, as a joyful expression, and as a means to tell a theatrical story as a force for social change as well as to entertain. The world of Burlesque dances at the intersection of proudly fierce feminism, gender identity, race and sexual politics, and social satire.”

Professor Kurutz’s contributions to the community include an oral history project, Voices of Oregon Burlesque, where she’s interviewed dozens of local performers, producers, and makers, with the goal of expanding the traditional narrative of history by capturing previously excluded or marginalized stories to create a more accurate depiction of Oregon’s social and cultural history.

In the January 2020 episode featuring Oregon Burlesque Festival producer Holly Dai, when Professor Kurutz asks about the empowerment aspect of burlesque, Dai shares “most of the time it allows a platform for typically female or female Identified performers to not be repressed societally…being told that they're not allowed to be naked, they're not allowed to show their bodies, they should be ashamed of what they're doing. And that is really empowering to be like, ‘No, I can do whatever I want.’ This should be normal. This shouldn't be something that we have to hide or be ashamed of. My skin shouldn't be something that we're ashamed of. I should be ashamed of the violence that's happening. Not the thing that's happening that's a natural part of human behavior. And that can be really empowering.”

Over the course of the Oregon Burlesque Festival’s history, Portland audiences have experienced more than 250 performers from across the Pacific Northwest, Canada, England, Australia, and Japan. The multi-day event has included a showcase of performers with a wide range of talents and a jovial competition, judged by a celebrity panel that included previous winners, local icons, and a living legend from the Golden Age of burlesque. Titles awarded included “Most Iconic,” “Biggest Tease,” “Keepin’ it Weird,” “Stayin’ Classy,” “Most Comedic,” “Wild Card,”and the coveted “Queen of the Roses.”

From 2013-2018, shows were held at the iconic Dante’s - a rock and dance club drawing its importance to the city’s history, subculture, economy, and long-standing status as the KEEPER OF WEIRD. In 2019 the Festival made the choice to shift to a theater-style venue and, in keeping a commitment to the cultural history of the artform and region, the Alberta Rose Theatre became the Festival’s home. Nestled in the heart of a Northeast Portland neighborhood, Alberta street’s historically Black-owned community theater has showcased some of the most innovative, diverse, and powerful performances in this history of the production. Despite being located in a city and state with the heritage of excluding and exploiting marginalized bodies - the Oregon Burlesque Festival has fostered a legacy of Portland being a welcoming, joyful, and inspiring environment for burlesque performers worldwide.

In this final year, neither show will hold a competition, instead, they'll showcase two incredible nights of the Festival’s most iconic previous performers, and one special Saturday night award presentation to local luminaries who’ve deeply enriched the international burlesque community. In addition to enjoying a lineup of 30+ performers, guests will also be able to shop for treasures from local makers Wild Curves, Hell Bent for Glitter, and GothFox Designs throughout the weekend. Single show and full weekend tickets range from $30-$70 and are available now oregonburlesquefestival.com/

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The Oregon Burlesque Festival is an annual celebration of theatrical performances that combine satire, comedy, dance, drag, and adult entertainment. The September 20th-21st, 2024 shows will feature local and regional talent from across the US and Canada.

The Oregon Burlesque Festival started in 2013 as a small event, to show off and share this elegant and eccentric burlesque art form with Portland audiences, in a place with a long history and connection to classic and neo burlesque movements. In its ninth year, the Festival now welcomes performers and guests from across the globe, and has grown to become an exciting weekend of elaborate shows. This 2-show event showcases the best of an art form where performers defy social and gender norms. Local and visiting performers in the Oregon Burlesque Festival reflect the full spectrum of bodies and identities enriching and defining the artform of burlesque today. Single show and full weekend tickets range from $30-$70 and are available now oregonburlesquefestival.com/

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For more information or to arrange a press pass contact [email protected]