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The League of Exotic Dancers: Legends from American Burlesque

Regehr, Kaitlyn, Matilda, Temperley (2017) The League of Exotic Dancers: Legends from American Burlesque. Legends from American Burlesque . Oxford University Press, Oxford, 328 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-045756-3. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:76241)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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Abstract

Every year in downtown Las Vegas, often called "Old Vegas", The Burlesque Hall of Fame reunion brings together members of the former League of Exotic Dancers, one of the earliest unions for women in exotic entertainment, to perform their half-century-year- old routines. In this annual tradition, performers from the golden age of Las Vegas burlesque rally counter-culture neo-burlesque fans who both keep the tradition alive and add new meaning to it.

Over the past five years, documentarian Kaitlyn Regehr and photographer Matilda Temperley have embedded themselves within this community a group, which like Old Vegas itself, continues to survive and thrive sixty years past its supposed prime. Here, in a smoky, off-strip casino, they found women, at times well into their 80s, subversively bumping and grinding away preconceptions about appropriate behavior for a pensioner.

This collection of interviews and photographs is drawn from the backstage dressing rooms, homes, and lives of this aging burlesque community, as well as the young neo-burlesque community who adore them. Through a range of experiences from discussing struggles for wage equality, to helping stabilize an 85 year old as she steps into a sequined g-string the authors describe the complexity of the lives of these performers and the burlesque history from which they come. Regehr and Temperley present multidimensional portraits of this relatively untold women's history and conclude that they are at their most vital when read with all the nuances, troubles, trials, and triumphs that they formerly and currently experience.

Item Type: Book
Uncontrolled keywords: School of Arts
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Arts
Depositing User: Kaitlyn Regehr
Date Deposited: 06 Sep 2019 11:16 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:07 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/76241 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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