When Cassie Maag says she's an introvert, something about the description seems a bit off.
Maybe it's the red-and-black sequined bra and corset or the fishnet stockings she's wearing or the fact that Maag is rehearsing a striptease she'll perform Saturday night in front of dozens of people.
Actually, her exact quote is "I'm more of an introvert" — that is, in comparison with the other members of the burlesque troupe she says has become a giant family for her. A family that routinely gets up on stage wearing next to nothing and then proceeds to take some more of it off.
So, it's a relative thing.
The 25-year-old actually is kinda shy. Two years ago she moved from St. Louis, where she studied dance as a college student, to focus on marketing at International Academy of Design & Technology. Finding it difficult to meet people with shared interests, she turned to everybody's favorite social networking site.
On MySpace, Maag discovered Thee VaudeVillains (www.myspace.com/vaudevillainsfla), a Bay area performance troupe devoted to reviving the early 20th-century practice of burlesque — a combination of dance, comedy and striptease. On Saturday night, when the group gears up for a fresh season of performances, Maag, one of their newest members, will perform publicly with them for the first time.
In a city where strip clubs and windowless "massage therapy centers" outnumber Starbucks, the restrained offerings of burlesque — in which performers rarely strip completely, preferring instead to retain pasties and panties — seem almost prudish by comparison. But Maag and her cohorts prove that nothing is hotter than the tease, especially when delivered by the girl next door.
On the whole, it's less about T&A and more about the art of wielding a long black glove, a feather boa or an ice cube to subtly erotic effect. With roots in vaudeville of the 1800s and a heyday of popularity in the 1920s-'50s, the burlesque genre, distinguished by the prefix neo or new, has enjoyed a recent resurgence around the country, from smoky Brooklyn bars to Los Angeles clubs — essentially anywhere urban hipsters hang out. Though solo performers like Orlando's Minnie Vicious (briefly a member) have built up a reputation in central Florida, larger troupes of performers like Thee VaudeVillains are a rarity in the state.
The year-old troupe is a labor of love for founder and producer Kevin O'Haugherty, 28, who, like everyone in the cast, answers to a stage name; his is Herrgeist, a handsome but shadowy antihero who would be perfectly at home in a film noir scene. With the help of a co-producer and three directors, he leads the 20- to -25-member troupe in performances about once a month around the Bay area, over to Orlando, down to Sarasota and even Ft. Lauderdale. O'Haugherty, whose training as an actor and vocalist began in childhood, puts an emphasis on burlesque's historical and theatrical roots; in addition to striptease, he's stocked the troupe with performers whose abilities include singing, comedy, contortion and fire-twirling. About a third of them are men.
The group's home base, where they rehearse for three hours every Saturday, is Chiq Bar in St. Pete, one of the few Bay area bars that cater to a lesbian clientele.
That alliance suits the group just fine. Unlike strip clubs, Thee VaudeVillains, and neo-burlesque in general, has found broad appeal among an audience as well as performers of all various genders, sexual orientations, body types (skinny, plump, etc.), and demographics. ("The geeks, the freaks, and the chic!" the group's website explains.) Several of the performers are openly gay, and the group includes a drag king, the debonair and velvet-voiced Teddy Wright, aka Johnny Suavo.
Each dancer choreographs his or her own solo performance with help from the group in feedback sessions. They perform as a group for numbers like "You Can Leave Your Hat On," in which the guys are the ones who strip down to boxers.
Saturday's performance features some of the eclectic troupe's newest members, added during December auditions.
Erica Cooksey, 23, aka, Russia Revolver, works as a computer programmer when she's not pursuing a master's degree in mathematics at USF. "Because I'm a computer-math nerd, I wanted something totally different," she explains, adjusting her black-feathered bra before a Charlie Chaplin-inspired striptease. A passion for cabaret lured Shanna Joyner, 27, aka Kitty Kurvicious, a buxom reservations specialist for The Mouse. On Saturday, her "Some Like It Hot" routine will involve the suggestive use of melting ice cubes.
For Maag, who has studied various forms of dance, including ballet and modern, since age 5, excelling at burlesque has meant unlearning some of her traditional training. At the December auditions, she aced tricky tasks like climbing a chair in high heels, but had other performers wondering if she could loosen up and develop a rapport with the audience.
At last weekend's rehearsal, with a week to go, she shows a bit of her routine, a playful tango with a coat rack and a feather boa set to Nina Simone's "Feeling Good." When she asks for suggestions for the choreography, the others jump in. Try hanging more clothes from the coat rack, and try them on for the audience, someone suggests.
They agree that she's ready to take the stage on Saturday as her burlesque alter ego, Kitty West … who is, apparently, not an introvert.
"It's different for me when I'm on stage," Maag says with a smile. I love to perform."
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2007.