- Like it could be horribly embarrassing.
Ahhh.
(laughing)
Or it could be my calling.
(bluesy rock guitar)
Hi, my name is Kristin,
and I am going to be trying burlesque as a plus-size woman.
I am scared.
I have no idea what to expect.
All the people I've ever seen do burlesque
are very thin, and very athletic.
I've never seen a plus-size woman do burlesque before.
So, I thought I should do it.
Just to see, you know, how scary it could be.
'Cause I like doing things that scare me.
- Hi, my name is Natasha V.
I am one of the owners of Hells Belles Burlesque.
I have been a burlesque dancer, professionally,
for about 10 years.
Burlesque, the very simple definition of it,
is it's the art of the tease.
And it's a wonderful platform to be just hyper creative.
- You know, I'm not super comfortable being sexy
in front of an audience.
I think it requires a lot of vulnerability.
I think it's like much easier to just be funny, or smart.
But being sexy means like being proud of your body,
and like being okay with showing it to people.
(sultry saxophone music)
- I think burlesque is super accepting,
and very open to people doing it for their first time.
It's an environment where women feel accepted.
They feel healthy,
they feel beautiful.
They walk out of the studio more confident
than when they walked in.
So, what I'd love to know is what was your vision for this?
Is there things that you really like?
Types of music that you're interested in.
- I'm really into vintage stuff.
- Okay.
- I love like the whole aesthetic.
I love the music. - [Natasha] Okay.
Maybe like kind of a Christmasy,
like a baking kind of thing.
Almost like a dirty housewife.
- Cute.
- With like an apron,
and you're like baking in your kitchen,
and then all of a sudden, it's like oh it's getting
a little sexier, and something.
But almost kind of cutesy.
- That appeals to me.
Coming out of lesson two,
I was feeling really confident,
and then I did lesson three today,
and it was like a little bit more of a dumpster fire.
It was like a delicate dumpster fire.
- And to your chair.
And head, two, three, four.
Chest, six, seven, eight.
Down.
- There were moves that I was nailing at my second lesson,
that at my third lesson,
I was just like, you're on the ground,
but I'm up in the air,
and I can't see because my glasses flew off
30 seconds ago.
When you're dancing, you have to watch yourself
in the mirror so that you know
you're doing it correctly,
and so having to constantly watch myself do something
incorrectly, is sort of slowly wearing down on me.
I am now aware of what all of my bad angles are.
- Okay, so Kristin this is our last rehearsal together.
- I know.
- Can you believe it? What are you feeling right now?
- You know, I'm nervous.
I think that there's not a lot to hide behind
on a stage,
and the idea of making it even easier for people
to look at me and judge me is like
I think hard.
- I think you're gonna be awesome.
- I think, I will do it.
- You're sparkly,
you're cute as hell,
and you've got an awesome routine.
I think you're gonna be great. - [Kristin] All right.
Okay, so I'm here at the club,
and I'm about to go on.
- We have an editor from Buzzfeed
that came, and trained with Hells Belles Burlesque
for 30 days.
(cheering)
And tonight, she is making her burlesque debut.
(cheering)
- You know, before the show I was really worried,
like what if somebody says something really nasty to me
while I'm on stage.
Like this is kind of drunk and belligerent group.
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage,
Miss Cherry on Top.
(cheering)
- I think I did really well.
We accept big boobs, and big butts,
and wide hips,
but we don't really accept big tummies.
I think having a big tummy is just one extra prop
you get to jiggle.
And I think this was really, a great way to see
that like no one cares.
I would 100% do burlesque again.
It was like the most supportive group of people
I've ever been in.
Everyone was cheering.
It was super creative.
It was really fun.
It was great exercise.
I honestly just wanna do this for fun.
One of the great things about burlesque
is that it's so complicated that it actually takes your mind
off of your body, and on to your dancing.
And through that you can make yourself feel better
about your body,
by the amazing dancing you can do.
(lively bass music)