Welcome to burlesque: Festival to feature over 40 acts of ‘quirky, fun, chaotic art’

They’re going to show you how to burlesque.

The sixth annual New Mexico Burlesque Festival is coming to the KiMo Theatre for three nights, from Thursday, Feb. 12, to Saturday, Feb. 14.

Kristen Kerber is the festival’s producer and she performs under the stage name Frisky Business. Kerber said burlesque is the art of the striptease plus more.

“One of the most amazing things about burlesque is that it is very accessible and inclusive,” Kerber said. “So you’ll hear people say that burlesque is for everybody, and that really is true.”

“We try to bring together performers of all different cultural and racial and gender and economic (groups),” Kerber said. “All the different facets of humanity, and just kind of get those on stage.”

She said the best part of burlesque is the audience seeing themselves represented and celebrating that diversity.

“I think that it’s really empowering for people to see themselves on stage and to see quirky, fun, chaotic art,” Kerber said. “You know, it’s not always super clean and tidy. There’s a little bit of silliness and poking fun at ourselves.”

There are over-the-top costumes, including giant feather fans, she said, all in the name of self-expression.

“There’s also a lot of history in burlesque of it being parody and kind of poking fun at expectations of femininity and what society thinks we should be doing,” Kerber said. “There are political and societal roots in those things.”

The festival will feature over 40 burlesque acts.

“We have a little bit of everything,” Kerber said. “We have some silly, campy, cheesy stuff. We have some more deep, emotional, powerful acts. We have the very, very glam showgirl. All facets of burlesque.”

Some performers were highlighted in other burlesque festivals and won spots in the New Mexico Burlesque Festival.

“So we’re really bringing together award-winning, global talent to entertain our community and for our community to be inspired by and learn from,” Kerber said.

Alongside the acts, the festival hosts several workshops during the day for an additional $20 fee each, including “Floorwerk for Plus Sized Bodies with Ginger Snaps,” “Power Stances and Posing with Chola Magnolia,” “Discover Your Local Burlesque History presented by Dustin Wax” and more.

“There’s a big emphasis on education and community building that goes along with the burlesque festival culture,” Kerber said.

Kerber said she finds the festival provides performers and audiences an outlet for a fun, healthy community connection. She said she has seen audience members be inspired and want to pursue burlesque themselves.

“For me, it’s really cool to see people find something that lights their fire …,” Kerber said. “I love those moments where you think it might just be a one-time passing connection, then it turns into a lasting connection.”

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.