My Burlesque Apprenticeship

[Darla Dynamite]

I used to spend a lot of my time with my grandmother because she was a housewife and she babysit me, especially in the summer when school was out. She would do her house work and I would dress up in my best clothes and use her dishes to have a fancy tea party. She would encourage me, by teaching me to make a menu for my tea party guests (or my cabbage patch kids). Then she gave me the idea that my guests may enjoy some entertainment. Then she did a spiffy little dance move. I later found out that my grandmother had been a amateur dancer and aspired to be a pianist, having studied in college at Jackson State University. (this is amazing to me because not a lot of poor women of color went to college in the 1950's)

It was in this very act that I discovered that my grandmother was a little different than other grandmothers like her. Over the summer, she helped me choreograph a cool little dance number that, while being mildly risque was the most fun i ever had. We used Christmas garland as boas and she even taught me her spiffy little dance move. Little did I know, what she had really done, was taught me my first little burlesque dance number.

I haven't thought about that in a really long time. Today is Thanksgivings which means that it's been 2 years since she has died. And i just signed on to be the apprentice to a Chicago Burlesque Dancer. I don't know. Maybe I needed to tell that story to get through today.

Thanks for reading...