Trix of the Trade

She peeks from behind the curtain while he waits to peak into a little something he likely can’t get at home. She makes sure the lace is tied tight and the midriff becomes the arch to the palace of erotic exile while he zips up in anatomy-teasing anticipation before sliding under a blanket of fantasy.

The lights turn red as the curtain slides open and the music pops and out she struts in spiked-heel ecstasy, shakin’ like jelly and gyrating her belly as she mimes his harder-than-Chinese-algebra thoughts. This goes on for a moment before the white light signals the end of the affair, she disappears to put on something a little less comfortable and the smoke from his cigarette dissipates into the obsidian night as he drives home with a girl on his mind—either the one waiting there or the one he just left behind.

It may sound like a simple, noncommittal one-night stand, but the preparation and dedication demanded by the burlesque profession is quite fatiguing; you’d probably never guess it by watching them work. If you’ve already seen, or do see Madame Trixie and her Dolls Burlesque perform in the area, there’s more to their come-hither stage performances than just scanty sashaying and looking pretty.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of practice is actually involved in this,” says Madame Trixie, performer in and founder of the group. “I think a lot of people think we just put on a pretty outfit and go out there and do whatever and it’s hard to appreciate what we do unless you endure the hours of practice we all put in to get ready for our performances.”

Late last winter, Trixie was looking to commit to something that tested her physical fortitude while strolling some benign sexiness. She thought she found her ride when she joined the Assault City Roller Derby, an upstart Syracuse team that has since become a national touring outfit. But after a few hard-knock practices and taking a fall that left a scar/beauty mark, she decided it wasn’t for her. Still, the experience provided her with sensual serendipity.

“When I was doing the roller derby,” continues Trixie, “one of the girls came from Seattle and used to be a burlesque performer and we talked about doing it together here. That never happened because she moved back to Seattle so I decided I was going to put one together on my own.”

Trixie held the first practice for her Dolls Burlesque in May 2008 and the first official show, one month later, featured her and two other performers at Armory Square’s Half Penny Pub. Since then, they’ve performed at several other Syracuse venues including the Lost Horizon, the Palace Theatre and the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, as well as at private cocktail and bachelor parties. Their next scheduled performance is this Friday, May 15, 10 p.m., at Mac’s Bad Art Bar, 1799 Brewerton Road, Mattydale; tickets to the event cost $5.

Currently, the group comprises eight members—four burlesque and four belly dancers—and they insist their public persona is the only name that bears relevance to their story. “When I go out around town I just introduce myself as Trixie,” she elaborates, “and that’s who everyone knows me as and nobody knows my real name anyway unless they actually know me. Like Dita Von Teese {internationally renowned burlesque dancer and former wife of shock-rocker Marilyn Manson}, whenever she’s mentioned, they never use her real name and we want to be our characters in the public eye just the same, which I think makes it more enchanting for people when they think, ‘Who are these people?’”

For the burlesque portion of the show, Madame Trixie, who specializes in “bed o’ nails,” fan dance and fire eating, is joined by Cupcake De’Ville, the magician; Cherry Poppins, the sword spinner; and Maxine De La Obscene, the naughty one. The belly dancers shake and stir the crowd as Sweet and Sassy Steffi, Pammy Sue, Jezzy Belle and Pandora Petite.

Tales of the Tassel

The origins of American burlesque date back to the 1840s with shows featuring comic sketches lampooning the social attitudes of the upper classes, alternated with dance routines. Everything from opera to Shakespearean drama as well as musicals and ballet were mocked and the costuming increasingly diverged into fashion considered unsuitable by “polite” society.

Bred out of the burlesque genre was English expatriate Lydia Thompson and her troupe dubbed “The British Blondes,” who, in the late 1860s, became the talk of the New York town when her show Ixion, a Greek mythological spoof that, in reverse-Bard, had women in seductive attire playing men. By popular demand, the show was moved to Broadway’s most prestigious playhouse at the time, Niblo’s Garden, eventually grossing $370,000 during its first season.

That was in the Victorian age, when “proper” dames went to great lengths to conceal themselves under hoops and frills and the idea of a lady appearing onstage in next-to-nothing was considered sinister. Still, Thompson’s act is considered the first to incorporate the sexual panache of what burlesque spawned. The genre reached its peak of popularity during the Prohibition and Great Depression of the early 20th century, as cash-strapped victims of the economy—kind of like we’re in today—couldn’t afford tickets to lavish Broadway productions and turned to cheap thrills.

Contrary to what one might think, burlesque shows during that time did not operate on a one-track mind; instead, they were similar to Vaudeville, although acts tended to lampoon performers of that milieu. W.C. Fields, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope and Milton Berle all earned their reputation performing in and touring with various burlesque troupes.

Radio and television entertainment dimmed the popularity of burlesque in the 1940s and 1950s, which still holds true today. Henceforth, the dancers became the sole attraction and that’s why erotic dance has become synonymous with the evolving etymology of burlesque.

Pin-up magazines and 8mm films began circulating at that time, acting as a way for burlesque stars such as Bettie Page, Gypsy Rose Lee, Blaze Starr and Tempest Storm to develop cult followings, which those ladies enjoy to this day. If you don’t believe it just visit the Burlesque Hall of Fame next time you’re in Las Vegas or run a Google-image search on any of those names, you pervs. Madame Trixie’s and groups like hers across the country are their direct descendants. 

“We did an awesome tribute to Bettie Page when she died {last December},” remembers Trixie. “We like to blend a little of the old with the new and one of my favorite shows we’ve done so far was a cocktail party in the Grande Ballroom at the historic Hotel Utica in Ithaca. It was for about 250 people with mostly politicians and those types and we did a strictly 1940s theme and it was very classy. We didn’t go down to tassels, just the bras, and they were extremely, extremely into it and they just thought we were the cat’s meow.”

Many people mistakenly categorize burlesque dancing as mere striptease—but they’re wrong. First, the performers do not solicit the audience for dollar bills; second, a burlesque routine involves a general theme that synthesizes song, dress, dance and props into theatrical pantomime, albeit with sexual connotations. The clothes do indeed come off, but Madame Trixie and the gang are forced to conceal the red menaces that have terrorized the country for centuries, with censors being our last hope of survival.   

“You can’t go completely topless anywhere unless you’re at a strip club,” notes Trixie, “and we have to have pasties on at the minimum.” And for all those in the audience hoping for a wardrobe malfunction, well. . .

“There have been accidental nip-slips but people in the crowd don’t really notice,” she continues. “It’s usually one of us onstage or watching from the side that lets the other know and we can either hide it with a prop or make a move in the routine to fix it without anyone really knowing. The lip-slip is when the underwear slides over a little, which is why we have to wear underwear and not thongs.”

But as every single person has their own idea about what part of their body they think is the prettiest, Trixie and the girls tend to expose the epidermis they think will heighten the audience’s flaccid impassivity. “The other girls are good with the tassels and that works for them,” says Cherry Poppins. “But unfortunately a tassel covers up my entire boob, so I just stick to showing off my ass on stage. I’ll get down to a corset and lace, which looks sexy, but really covers up more than you think and that’s part of the tease aspect of it.”

And while one might think that a person willing to strip on stage would be a freewheeling spirit incapable of embarrassment when a situation causes a rush in their change of atmosphere, the Dolls still experience the fight-or-flight wave of fear of a hair-raised pussy. . . cat. 

“At the first show I did, I lost all focus,” recalls Cherry about the bachelor party she performed as a duet with Trixie. “I remember being very nervous at the beginning and aware of the people but they were really into it and I was fine with it by the end because they were making it so comfortable and if they weren’t I probably would have passed out. I still get deathly scared before we go on, but once I get on stage I just forget everything and pretend that I’m in my room and I’m the only one there.”

A fine vintage: Although they incorporate many elements into their show, Trixie and Cherry, as well as the rest of the Dolls’ main muse is the aura of 1940s-era burlesque; but the timeless art of seduction, on display during one of their shows, is forever bound to set hearts on fire.

Pasty Decisions

When Trixie decided to turn her cheek from roller derby to burlesque, she also tried to recruit fellow skaters into the group. A few of them willingly obliged, but had second thoughts once they actually realized they’d appear on stage au natural. “Originally, some of the roller derby girls wanted to be involved but chickened out,” says Trixie. “The whole get-naked thing is difficult for some people, and even if they were keeping their clothes on they were worried about getting stage fright.”

But the main reason many of them refrained was the same apprehension that plagues most relationships: fear of commitment. “A lot of people liked the idea of being involved with the group because it’s different,” says Trixie. “But I think people don’t realize that practice is involved and they think they’re just going to put on a pretty outfit and go out there and it’s not like that at all. That was a big turn-off for a lot of ladies when they realized they had to practice; it was immediately, ‘Yeah, I can’t do it.’”

One aspect that’s helped Trixie’s core dancers remain engaged is that most of them have formal training. Raven-haired pale-skinned Trixie, who at 35, appears onstage looking like a shadow cast from early Bettie Page, studied ballet throughout her childhood, which she says was “five days a week for hours and hours.” Red-headed Cherry, 30, performed in Irish dancing troupes throughout Syracuse until she was 20. But after you’re legally able to buy Playboy, unless you dance professionally, the opportunity to do it in front of an audience becomes extremely limited.

“I had stopped dancing for eight years,” says Cherry, “and I was good friends with Maxine De La Obscene and she mentioned to me she was doing it and I went and checked out one of the shows. She kept telling me I should do it and I really wanted to because I really felt like I was missing something, and I did, and it worked out.” But even though prior experience helps, it doesn’t always translate into burlesque.

“I tried to get Cherry to dress up as an Irish schoolgirl and do an Irish dance thing while taking it off to the Dropkick Murphys for St. Patrick’s Day,” says Trixie jestingly. “But I couldn’t convince her to do it.”

While serendipity at the roller derby convinced Trixie to venture forth, another stroke of happenstance made it possible for her to expand the show. “I really wanted to incorporate belly dance with the burlesque because it’s always been hand-in-hand throughout the history of it,” she says. “So I started classes for it {in her home studio in Camillus} in the fall and and we ended up incorporating belly dancers at one of our shows last November and now they’re a permanent fixture as well.”

While Trixie’s name is synonymous with the group, it’s the commingling of individual personalities that gives the Dolls a uniform identity as they operate in total democracy when coming up with ideas for dance routines. “When I started the group,” says Trixie, “everyone was like, ‘OK, how do we do this?’ And I would say go on the Internet or Youtube and get ideas, but obviously don’t copy.’”

For solo routines, the gals pick their own songs and work on ideas for dance movements at home before bringing them to the group. “I pick a song and then decide what really cool outfit I want to take off to it,” says Trixie. “Then I decide how to choreograph it.”

“I only use songs that I’ve always been attached to or songs that I’ve always imagined coming up with a dance for,” chimes in Cherry. “Mine are not always completely choreographed, which I like, because I don’t have to follow a strict guideline, which leaves me free to improvise. The solos for me are easier because it lets you be in the moment and it doesn’t look the same every time. It’s a very artistic release for me.”

As mentioned, the Dolls aren’t in this for the money. They do it, as Trixie says, because they’re all passionate about performing, but also because they want to leave a lasting impression on audiences with something a little off the beaten path—even if they do mark their territory with feathers, boas, whips, tassels, pasties, whipped cream and other delights accentuating their nearly naked bodies.

“There is something for everybody in the show because there’s such a variety with different girls to look at and different music to listen to,” continues Trixie. “The response from men is usually what you’d expect, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised that the females have responded even better than the males! We’ve got more compliments from ladies, mostly giving us credit for being brave and on how they love the costumes and props. It’s really made me very happy to be able to please both male and female audiences.”

And despite the fact that some people may not approve of what the group does, Trixie says she’s never experienced any criticism. “Honestly, I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative because I refuse to listen to it."

Sweet emotions: The Dolls can have just as much fun onstage as the people they’re performing for, evidenced by the climax of their routine set to Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” but they also know how to cast a carnal spell over the audience when the mood strikes.

After the show at Mac’s this Friday, the Dolls are scheduled to perform Thursday, May 21, at 10 p.m. at Opus, 218 Walton St.; Sunday, May 24, at 10 p.m. at Trexx, 323 N. Clinton St.; Saturday, June 13, at 9 p.m. at the Gear Factory, corner of South Geddes and Fayette streets; Friday, June 20, at 10 p.m. at The Haunt, 702 Willow Ave., Ithaca; and Friday, June 26, at 10 p.m. at Suzy’s Tavern, 346 W. Genesee St., Auburn. Check www.myspace.com/madametrixieandherdolls for performance updates including in Albany and the New York City Burlesque Festival this fall. For inquiries on booking the Dolls for private or public affairs or benefits, contact misstrixiedoll@hotmail.com.