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Cabaret Decadance started out of a casual conversation about poetry among friends.
“We need to make poetry so it is laughing and dancing in people’s faces,” said Clare McCall, the founder and lyricist of the burlesque troupe in Carbondale, which has been performing around Halloween each year for several years. “It created itself out of nowhere,” McCall said.
“Burlesque” originates from the French word meaning “comic.” This burlesque troop consists of an eccentric group of extroverts who take pleasure in performing musical entertainment styled by the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, with comedic lyrics, laced with sultry dances, ornate costumes and party props.
The troupe comes together to practice their songs and dances for about a month before their annual performance. The show magically pieces itself together to entertain a full house of spectators.
The most common misconception of the term ‘burlesque’ is it is about stripping.
It’s not.
It’s about women being empowered by their sexuality, coordinating elements of humor and parody.
“It’s a way to lighten up a normally serious topic,” Gwen King, saxophonist, said. “It should be a blast; it should be goofy and spunky.”
To enjoy a typical burlesque show, one may need some level of comfort in seeing females dressed scantily. This Cabaret doesn’t do things differently, but the troupe is well aware of the social implications.
“We have two doctors … we are highly educated here,” said McCall. Those two are her husband John McCall, the composer and keyboardist and an associate professor of anthropology at SIUC; and the drummer, SIUC graduate student Ron Coulter.
The McCalls find inspiration from old tunes as well as ones that have already been reused in modern times.
“I took this tune and structure … I turned it into really quite a travesty of a lusty little parody of all the things that could potentially go wrong,” said Clare McCall. “I mocked it, and I parodied it … that is basically the essence of what burlesquing is. To burlesque is to take something and to –– through song, parody, dance, mockery and acting out –– make total fun of something that should be beyond reproach, that should be held as sacred in society,” said McCall. “So I went there.”
Cabaret Decadance can be contacted via their myspace page, myspace.com/cabaretdecadance.
