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Burlesque meaning research paper
Burlesque meaning research paper
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The French Neo Classical era of theatre has influenced today’s society in a number of ways including woman’s fashion, dance, architecture and theatre performance. We have seen this throughout history and it still has continued into today’s society.
The term Burlesque is usually thought of as slightly naughty theatre produced and performed between the 1700s and World War II. Webster defines it as a literary or dramatic work that seeks to mock by means of bizarre embellishment or comic imitation, mockery usually by caricature or theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits, and sometimes striptease acts. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which itself derives from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Today Burlesque has no meaning as a modern marvel to most Americans. Burlesque is far from the commonplace twentieth century definition. The entertainment known as Burlesque has had many different types of audiences. "Burlesque" has been used in English in this theatrical sense since the late 17th century. It has been applied with hindsight to the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. A later use of the word, particularly in the United States, refers to performances in a variety show format. These were popular from the 1860s to the 1940s, often in clubs, as well as theatres, and featured vulgar comedy and female striptease. American burlesque shows were originally an offshoot of Victorian burlesque. They consisted of three parts: first they had comic sketches by low comedians, second they had male acts like acrobats, magicians and solo singers and third they had a burlesque in the English style on politics or a current play. The entertainment was...
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...shrieks. While the dance became less crude, the choreography has always tended to be a little risqué and somewhat provocative. Notable performers at the Moulin Rouge have included Ella Fitzgerald, Liza Minnelli, Elton John, and Frank Sinatra. The video with Christina Aguilera was filmed in the Moulin Rouge.
Works Cited
Burlesque. Dir. Steve Antin. Perf. Cher, Christina Aguilera. Screen Gems, 2011. DVD.
"French Neoclassical Theatre Movements." French Neoclassical Theatre Movements. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. .
Merriam Webster Dictionary. Springfield, Mass.: G & C Merriam co., 1981. Print.
Moulin Rouge. Dir. John Huston. Perf. José Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon. Mgm (Video & Dvd), 2001. DVD.
Nine. Dir. Rob Marshall. Perf. Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz. Sony Pictures, 2009. DVD.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
Throughout the movie, one sees how certain individuals perceive breakdancing to be similar to a comedy act. This is equivalent to the way that the hip hop industry has been perceived among society and in some ways explains why artists have to work so hard to make it.
This production embraced more than just Greek and Elizabethan conventions, also incorporating elements of French Neoclassical comedy. It also demonstrated the survival of many elements of comedy, farce, and satire such as character types, repetition, derision, verbal wit, and slapstick. The production did not adhere to only one theatrical age, but it combined conventions from Greek, Elizabethan, and French Neoclassical
Over the course of instruction, I have gathered an understanding that Burlesque differs from other kinds of strip-tease in it’s humor and current commentary, sometimes specifically on social or political situations. The theoretical portion of the performance was the most entertaining part--the performance portion was a bit more difficult for me. As a sexual assault survivor, on-stage vulnerability (particularly involving the removal of clothing) will always been a challenge for me, but incorporating my feelings about those kinds of situations made the exercise more plausible. While any commentary on physical sexual assault is a long way off for me, other components (specifically verbal) are still a source of tension among society at large.
“To say the word romanticism is to say modern art - that is, intimacy, spirituality, color, aspiration towards the infinite, expressed by every means available to the arts.” Charles Baudelaire. The Romantic era in classical music symbolized an epochal time that circumnavigated the whole of Western culture. Feelings of deep emotion were beginning to be expressed in ways that would have seemed once inappropriate. Individualism began to grip you people by its reins and celebrate their unique personalities and minds. Some youth began to wear their hair long, their beards scraggly and unkept, and their clothing was inspired by the outlandish and the flamboyant. Music morphed from a once tangible aural stimulant into music marked by its decent into the depths of human emotions most of which were not rational. Classical music became a stream of consciousness, a vehicle to convey their countless emotions. In the Romantic Period, music now voiced what, for centuries, people had been too afraid to express. The culture, the composers, and the music of the Romantic era changed classical music profoundly. The Romantic era classical music manifested itself as a time of the irrational and peculiar, a time that allowed many people the opportunity to express their inmost convictions through the music.
DiMaggio, P. (1992). Cultural Boundaries and Structural Change: The Extension of the High Culture Model to Theater, Opera and the Dance, 1900-1940. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Kathleen Casey’s The Prettiest Girl on Stage is a Man: Race and Gender Benders in American Vaudeville kind of brings this essay full circle with its exploration of the adoption of gender and racial performances in American vaudeville, a popular form of entertainment during the early twentieth century. Vaudeville performances are characterized by physical humor, masquerade, and metamorphosis. This particular type of performance is not much different than “camp” explored in Newton’s Mother Camp, which emphasizes gay humor and theatrics. While camp is performed by drag queens, the vaudeville performers explored in Casey’s work perform gender in different ways. One of the four case studies in the book is that of Eva Tanguay who embodies female
Sarah Bernhardt’s acting style, along with her exotic and alluring lifestyle led her to be slightly ostracized in the French Theatre. French styles of acting at the time were said to be “monotonous, rigid and too codified” and followed strict guidelines in accordance with the French acting academies (Pauk). In France,
Films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Imitation of Life all possess strong performative elements that allow their viewers to evaluate the characters in the these films in somewhat unique ways. With these films, the term “performance” seems to be a relative. The primary female characters in both films perform both on and off the stage. The way these women perform off of the stage provides the viewer with an additional layer with which to understand them. This layer opens windows through which we can understand certain aspects of desire and femininity and a host of other qualities that we can evaluate.
The changes in technology gave lighting to the theatres. The change in theatre brought around a new group of audiences. Its change from Neoclassicism to Romanticism paved the way for plays such as Hernani. It’s understandable that nineteenth century theatre has changed dramatically.
During the beginning of the 17th Century neoclassical thought began to dominate the stage in France. In the domain of theatre, this meant that neoclassical writers began to look back to the ideals and beliefs of classical times, accentuating the classic ideas of rational control and discipline. It was an age intrigued with regularity as the ideas stemming from this period insist upon certain norms of behavior in society. Throughout the period, specific emphasis was placed upon rational perspective and behavior (Neoclassicism).
Thesis: The French Revolution transformed not only the French society, but also had a huge influence and marked impact on what the purposes of the arts and their expression were now, making profound changes in what they would supposed to be used for, in the form of the Neoclassic works of art that made their appearance prior to the French Revolution, in which very special emphasis is given to the patriotic, the nationalist feeling, together with a strong sense of self-sacrifice that should be present in every person’s heart.
The ‘old style’ musical theatre had no social conscience. Always presented in the traditional proscenium arch, the musical isolated the audience from new ideas and innovations. Due to televis...
Baron, F., Brown, M., & Luhrmann, B. (Producers). Luhrmann, B (Director). (2001). Moulin Rouge. United States of America: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Theatre as we know it now was born more than two thousand years ago and has gone through many streams until it reached the current modernity. Among these streams is the avant-garde theatre. This theatre achieved a break in the traditional theatre and became the forefront of a new experimental theatre. Therefore it is necessary to ask how this theatre started, what impact it had on society and if this type of theatre is still common in our modern era.