Burlesque cabaret is coming to Boulder Arts Week

Boulder Arts Week is all inclusive as 150 events play out all over the city. One of those events is a cabaret called "Shake Your Tailfeather." It's a burlesque variety show put on by Blue Dime Cabaret. 

"Burlesque is the art of the tease, so it is that very fancy theatrical stripping basically, and it's often funny," said Valkyrie Rose, co-producer, casting director, performer, and emcee with Blue Dime Cabaret. 

The show will include drag artists, a stand-up comedian, and singer/musicians, in addition to the striptease acts put on by Blue Dime. 

"It's much more like what you would imagine an old school Vaudeville show would be like," Valkyrie Rose added. 

"One of my favorite acts, I'm a retired professor of mathematics. I have a Ph'D in math education, and I have an act that pays homage to all the dirty things my students ever said to me," said Bella Fire, Shenanigator, co-producer, emcee, and performer with Blue Dime Cabaret. 

Bella Fire, Valkyrie Rose, and Velvet Bee are the glamour behind Blue Dime Cabaret.

"My style is more classic and neoclassic and so my roots are in dance," said Bella Fire. 

"I do this one Valkyrie piece where I bring a sword and shield out and I work with them and I do a lot of humor as well," said Valkyrie Rose. 

"I'm not a dancer. I'm not a singer, and I'm not an actor. I'm a geeky nerd, so I just throw together costumes and flail around the stage every once in a while," Velvet Bee said with a laugh. 

They've been performing together since 2018. Their first show was at Full Cycle, a bicycle shop and bar. 

"We would have to move all the bikes around and put them over in a different space," Bella Fire said of the beginning. 

"Operating a bar is a lot of overhead and the only way to make it economically viable when the bike shop closes is to have a reason for people to come in and fill the space up at night," said Russell Chandler, owner of Full Cycle. 

Chandler added the bar/cafe to Full Cycle when the bike shop didn't seem to be economically viable. Now Full Cycle hosts live entertainment most nights of the week. 

"So creating a community space was kind of our goal," Chandler added. 

There is a new stage at Full Cycle, and Blue Dime is happy to break it in. 

For the women of Blue Dime Cabaret performing is part of their DNA and the answer to some of their life struggles. 

"We all have gone through something in our lives that has maybe been something traumatic or something that made us pause and really reflect. So, burlesque or acting or whatever component of performance that you may be in. We're doing some kind of self preclammation procees. A journey of some kind of growth," Bella Fire said. 

"There's nothing like when you have some weird body issues to walk in front of the stage, take off your clothes, jiggle all the jiggles around and have just the whole crowd go, 'Whoa,'" Valkyrie Rose explained. 

I like to say I strip for strangers and call it therapy," Velvet Bee said with laugh. 

Their therapy is up there on stage for all to see.

LINK: Boulder Arts Week

 Events four Boulder Arts Week continue through Saturday.