Beauty will come in all shapes and sizes this week as members of the New Paltz Burlesque Troupe, Alpha Psi Ecdysia, bear it all in the name of classic films and literature.
“Fully Remasturbated,” with performances held Thursday, Oct. 24 and Friday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. in Parker Theatre, will pay tribute to fan favorites of the screen and page.
“For us, burlesque is about having the freedom to express yourself in a powerful, body, mind and soul kind of way,” Robin Epes, a fourth-year theater performance major and president of the Burlesque Troupe, said.
Epes said burlesque dancers create a burlesque name and persona as a vehicle for performers to become more comfortable with themselves onstage and off.
Epes’ burlesque persona is Avian Rush, a character who she has grown into, allowing her to “shed all inhibitions” when she becomes her.
Epes is excited for the upcoming performance, and said she is “not only excited, but impressed” at the amount of initiative each performer has taken to work cohesively.
The night’s routines, approximately 20 in all, will feature tributes from such iconic movies as “Psycho” and “Snow White,” and will debut several burlesque dancers for their first appearance onstage.
Sam Demonte, a fourth-year sculpture major, will be paying tribute to the notorious shower scene in “Psycho,” a more polished and comfortable rendition of her first ever performance on the burlesque stage.
Demonte, whose burlesque persona is named Sweet Samantha Jane, an exaggerated version of herself, said this performance is bittersweet and nostalgic because it will be one of her last with the troupe.
However, she felt it was necessary to perform her first routine for the last time, since the show is centered around recreation.
“All the acts in the upcoming show are tribute acts,” she said. “You want to know the acts you’re recreating so well that you don’t do it disrespect. As performers, we had to know these acts so well that we do it justice. The shower scene in ‘Psycho’ is one of the most famous cinematic scenes and I wouldn’t want to watch somebody destroy it.”
Two iconic themes that will also be recreated during the show link Snow White with Eve from the Bible in an all-out lust for a bite of the infamous apple.
Lydia Hogart, a third-year psychology major, will begin her performance in a princess dress, shedding her clothes in an effort to eat the apple she so desperately desires.
Once she has bared it all, she will have transformed into Eve, linking two simultaneously different and similar characters into one performance.
“My performance is narrative burlesque, where I tell a story with my routine,” Hogart, whose burlesque persona is named D Cupcakes, a childish, silly character, said.
“I’m going to have to keep the aesthetic of the character while putting my own personality into it,” she said.
The performance will feature tribute in the form of art, one that Epes argues is one of the most empowering she’s ever discovered.
“When you get naked onstage for the first time, you start to love yourself,” Epes said. “Burlesque is about appreciating your body here and now.”