Fringe: Best of Burlesque

The best I have ever seen so far was Blues and Burlesque last year at the Fringe, but that was a cabaret show, very witty and surreal. If you can't portray King Kong being attacked by paper planes flung from the audience, you probably aren't the star for me.

Last night's show was about demonstrating pure burlesque dance, full of fun and exhibitionism at its most unapologetic. The dancers are clearly having a whale of a time and I guess that's the idea, the cheek (oo-er missus!) and the wink of it, sexiness that's funny rather than a turn-on. Having said that, the most interesting was neither funny nor sexy, a dancer taking her narrative from The Last Of Us. She wore a mushroom zombie mask, and her dance was intersperced with moments where she's clearly in spasm, wracked as the infection mutates further. It was deftly grotesque as well as excellent dance.

Would I go again? I'd give it a solid 6.7/10 for what it is, but what it is doesn't really hold my interest. The idea seems to be to take the stations of classic burlesque routine (taking off the gloves, nipple tassel twirls etc) and find different ways to present them. Five dancers later the formula was looking tired. We left as bagpipes and fireworks sounded the end of the Tattoo up at the castle, and the moon followed us home, huge and golden.