About
Sometime around 2003, an Albuquerque woman attended a performance of local burlesque troupe, Bella Donna Burlesque Revue. During the show, her 16 year background in ballet, jazz and tap dancing said, “I bet I could do that.” The dancer created a burlesque stage name, Holly Rebelle, a mashup of her love of rock n roller Buddy Holly and her prominent Star Wars Rebel Alliance tattoo.
Holly had already been performing as part of Crushed Velvet Rope, a local fetish company. CVR performed skits at goth and leather events, emphasizing a twisted and more adventurous side of sex. Holly realized this was a good point from which to launch a burlesque troupe. It would be different from what she’d seen of burlesque so far. She planned to focus on group choreography, modern music and a darker ambience. Burlesque Noir was born. A few internet postings yielded six burlesque volunteers and one professional seamstress. Within weeks, Holly choreographed Burlesque Noir’s first group pieces; a trio of flag twirling drag racers accompanied by Rob Zombie’s hit Dragula, and a fierce quartet of geishas dancing along to David Bowie’s China Girl.
After providing material for the next two CVR productions, Burlesque Noir made their first attempt at producing their own burlesque show. Their first production, Winter Wonderlust began with a sold out crowd and a line around the block. It was exhilarating to realize that after eighteen months of hard work; Burlesque Noir was officially off the ground.
By now, Burlesque Noir had recruited choreographer Tony Travis and swelled to fourteen performers. Burlesque Noir evolved, self-producing approximately five hours of original material each year and performing for whichever venues invited us including The Rumblers Car Show, Self Serve, Free Radicals, PRIDE and Alibi bar crawl events. Between 2006 and 2008, BN created over one hundred unique group burlesque acts, solos and duets.
In 2007, Kitty Irreverent invited us to perform at the first ever New Mexico Burlesque Showcase. Now half a decade old and known as the Southwest Burlesque Showcase, BN continues to perform at this annual event for the sold out house. Burlesque Noir continues to use this opportunity to show off their finest solos and group numbers each year at Albuquerque’s historic KiMo Theater. They have had the privilege of performing with national acts Vivienne Vavoom, Coco Lectric, September Smith, Scarlett Letter, Red Snapper, Miss Orchid Mei, Flame Cynders and many more.
Sometime before our five year anniversary, it became clear to us that many people who had never seen our earliest shows were coming to see us for the first time. With so much previous material, we reviewed videos of our older shows and an event appropriately titled called Greatest Tits was born. Holly had more on her mind than simply restaging older numbers for a new audience. She wanted to take Burlesque Noir to another level of performance and this would necessarily involve performing far, far away from Albuquerque.
Holly Rebelle applied Burlesque Noir’s Terminator inspired T-36 DD number to The 2009 Great Boston Burlesque Exposition on a whim. She never expected to be accepted. In spring of 2009, BN met to plan how to get five performers and a fragile setup of blacklights to Boston, Massachusetts; a city none of them had ever visited. Easter Weekend came and Burlesque Noir brought Boston five minutes, eighteen seconds of the Albuquerque burlesque scene. Our quirky hip-hop number blew away the judges and audience and five girls from New Mexico took home a Howard Award; the trophy for Best Duo or Troupe at the 2009 Great Boston Burlesque Exposition.
Since 2009, Burlesque Noir has put more emphasis and effort into national showcases and burlesque conventions. They returned to Boston in 2010 sit on the panel of judges for that year’s showcase. In October, they attended the 8th annual New York Burlesque Festival, performing at the annual Golden Pastie Awards (for which BN was also nominated). Burlesque Noir also drove to Denver in the summer of 2010 for the inaugural Colorado Burlesque Festival earning the nickname “Jabberwockies of Burlesque” in the process.
In addition to national showcases, Burlesque Noir has committed to other travel, making a special trip to perform at Naughty Pierre’s Clocktower Cabaret in Denver. We have also produced higher caliber local shows featuring out of town performers including Santa Fe’s September Smith and Zircus Erotique, Denver’s Clocktower Cabaret, and New York City tour Dangerous Curves Ahead: Burlesque on the Go-Go!.
Burlesque Noir continues to perform locally in Albuquerque but also travels to as many national and international burlesque showcases as we can afford in order to expand our audience. We feel it is important to Albuquerque to keep the art of burlesque alive by creating fresh ideas, networking with national performers and stripteasing for new audiences. We’ve helped put our hometown on the burlesque map and we’re committed to keeping it there.
Holly had already been performing as part of Crushed Velvet Rope, a local fetish company. CVR performed skits at goth and leather events, emphasizing a twisted and more adventurous side of sex. Holly realized this was a good point from which to launch a burlesque troupe. It would be different from what she’d seen of burlesque so far. She planned to focus on group choreography, modern music and a darker ambience. Burlesque Noir was born. A few internet postings yielded six burlesque volunteers and one professional seamstress. Within weeks, Holly choreographed Burlesque Noir’s first group pieces; a trio of flag twirling drag racers accompanied by Rob Zombie’s hit Dragula, and a fierce quartet of geishas dancing along to David Bowie’s China Girl.
After providing material for the next two CVR productions, Burlesque Noir made their first attempt at producing their own burlesque show. Their first production, Winter Wonderlust began with a sold out crowd and a line around the block. It was exhilarating to realize that after eighteen months of hard work; Burlesque Noir was officially off the ground.
By now, Burlesque Noir had recruited choreographer Tony Travis and swelled to fourteen performers. Burlesque Noir evolved, self-producing approximately five hours of original material each year and performing for whichever venues invited us including The Rumblers Car Show, Self Serve, Free Radicals, PRIDE and Alibi bar crawl events. Between 2006 and 2008, BN created over one hundred unique group burlesque acts, solos and duets.
In 2007, Kitty Irreverent invited us to perform at the first ever New Mexico Burlesque Showcase. Now half a decade old and known as the Southwest Burlesque Showcase, BN continues to perform at this annual event for the sold out house. Burlesque Noir continues to use this opportunity to show off their finest solos and group numbers each year at Albuquerque’s historic KiMo Theater. They have had the privilege of performing with national acts Vivienne Vavoom, Coco Lectric, September Smith, Scarlett Letter, Red Snapper, Miss Orchid Mei, Flame Cynders and many more.
Sometime before our five year anniversary, it became clear to us that many people who had never seen our earliest shows were coming to see us for the first time. With so much previous material, we reviewed videos of our older shows and an event appropriately titled called Greatest Tits was born. Holly had more on her mind than simply restaging older numbers for a new audience. She wanted to take Burlesque Noir to another level of performance and this would necessarily involve performing far, far away from Albuquerque.
Holly Rebelle applied Burlesque Noir’s Terminator inspired T-36 DD number to The 2009 Great Boston Burlesque Exposition on a whim. She never expected to be accepted. In spring of 2009, BN met to plan how to get five performers and a fragile setup of blacklights to Boston, Massachusetts; a city none of them had ever visited. Easter Weekend came and Burlesque Noir brought Boston five minutes, eighteen seconds of the Albuquerque burlesque scene. Our quirky hip-hop number blew away the judges and audience and five girls from New Mexico took home a Howard Award; the trophy for Best Duo or Troupe at the 2009 Great Boston Burlesque Exposition.
Since 2009, Burlesque Noir has put more emphasis and effort into national showcases and burlesque conventions. They returned to Boston in 2010 sit on the panel of judges for that year’s showcase. In October, they attended the 8th annual New York Burlesque Festival, performing at the annual Golden Pastie Awards (for which BN was also nominated). Burlesque Noir also drove to Denver in the summer of 2010 for the inaugural Colorado Burlesque Festival earning the nickname “Jabberwockies of Burlesque” in the process.
In addition to national showcases, Burlesque Noir has committed to other travel, making a special trip to perform at Naughty Pierre’s Clocktower Cabaret in Denver. We have also produced higher caliber local shows featuring out of town performers including Santa Fe’s September Smith and Zircus Erotique, Denver’s Clocktower Cabaret, and New York City tour Dangerous Curves Ahead: Burlesque on the Go-Go!.
Burlesque Noir continues to perform locally in Albuquerque but also travels to as many national and international burlesque showcases as we can afford in order to expand our audience. We feel it is important to Albuquerque to keep the art of burlesque alive by creating fresh ideas, networking with national performers and stripteasing for new audiences. We’ve helped put our hometown on the burlesque map and we’re committed to keeping it there.
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