The League of Exotic Dancers: Legends from American Burlesque
- Submitting institution
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The University of Kent
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 17290
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- Digital media and book
- Open access status
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- Month
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- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This project aimed to expand understandings of American Burlesque history and to challenge existing paradigms by introducing instead a nuanced and intersectional narrative. Over five years, Regehr lead a documentary team embedded within one of American’s first sex worker’s unions, The Exotic Dancer’s League (established 1955) and the Burlesque Hall of Fame Reunion, an annual performance of the group’s half-century old routines for retro enthusiast fans.
The research methodology adopted a discovery-oriented qualitative design, with four main types of data informing the project: participant observation; semi-structured interviews; follow-up phone call interviews; archival research to investigate or contextualize the participant’s stories.
Key findings were that burlesque is not an isolated performance form, as it is often believed to be, but rather a variety of entertainments: pornography, lap dancing, topless go-go, which all intersect with and are a part of burlesque history. Joseph Roach’s It and Roland Barthes’ essay Striptease assisted in the analysis of parameters that distinguish the binaries of sex work and entertainment, and, more laterally, art. From this analysis, Regehr concluded that the physical and social framing of burlesque function to distinguish between burlesque as an historic entertainment and the contemporary sex industry. These framings – as told by historians, neo-burlesquers and retro enthusiast alike - not only overly simplify the experiences of historic performers but ultimately contributes to the marginalization of other forms of sexual entertainment and subsequently, the women who perform in those media. The complexity of the intersectional feminist approach developed by Regehr is important in fighting back against sexist readings of this community, which trivialised and stigmatised these exotic dancers past and present.
Findings were disseminated by way of a monograph; a book chapter; a journal article; and a feature-length documentary Tempest Storm, which aired on ARTE (France and Germany), Supper Channel (Canada), and iTunes.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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