Burlesque is an art form that still thrives today in progressive artistic spaces (that is, pretty far away from Scores). The tradition has a long history in America, incorporating talents such as musical abilities and athletic feats. (To strip, as the wise Stephen Sondheim wrote in the classic American musical, you’ve got to have a gimmick.) Exotic dancers today, however, look much different than their artistic predecessors, and these images of burlesque performers taken in the 1890s (found via Lost at E Minor) are a lovely look at the creativity and fashions of a budding artistic movement that celebrated femininity and sexuality.
