Laina Copley has a vision of female sexuality beyond Miley Cyrus.
To hear Laina Copley describe it, starting out in burlesque dance sounds a little bit like being inside a womb.
“I had this experience of just being in this super supportive environment with other women who were all like loving me up, and I wasn’t feeling compared to or competed against, and it was really nurturing to just be surrounded by this really supportive feminine energy,” says the 26-year-old dance instructor, who first experienced the dance form while living in Boulder, Colorado.
After that, she moved to Santa Cruz and founded the Sirens burlesque troupe, which debuted at the 2012 Fringe Festival. Then she began teaching classes, both drop-ins and multi-week “Burlesque Boot Camps” at the Tannery Arts Center. Her first boot camp culminated in a performance this past November, in which participants invited close friends and family to sip from paper cups of wine and provide exuberant catcalls while the women performed solo, self-choreographed routines based on their “shadow sides.”
Shadow sides are the “parts of ourselves that we disown,” explains Melanie Cobb, one of the boot camp’s participants. “My real personality is very accommodating. I want to take care of everyone’s feelings. So my shadow side was just, like, fuck it. ‘Go fuck yourself’—that was my little tagline,” she says.
Burlesque dance gained popularity in America between the late 1800s and the 1930s, when it was a staple in variety shows and cabarets. It is a sort of bawdy, character-driven striptease that today is classified as “vintage”—a lot of the songs, costumes and dance moves evoke turn-of-the-20th-century America. To that end, it’s sexy while still being very playful and humorous.
Throughout the duration of the eight-week course, Copley instructs the participants on the basics of burlesque—how to develop a character, make costumes and do basic dance moves. In addition, she brings a discussion question each week for the group to talk about. In discussions for the last class, they broke down the concept of “sexy,” and thought about how they wanted to define it. They explored the underlying competitiveness in female relationships. (“If you’re prettier than me, then I don’t like you,” as Copley explains it.) And they were encouraged to think about what they want from their relationships with other women, using the class as a “Petri dish” for how to cultivate strong, positive female relationships.
“We have camaraderie, we all support each other. It’s a totally different female environment, to have women not bashing each other, actually supporting each others’ beauty. That’s very different,” says Alanna Williams, who completed the class in November, and says the confidence she gained from it has carried into her everyday life. “Even just walking down the street, with people like looking at you or something, being in social situations, I don’t feel self-conscious as much. It’s pretty incredible,” she says. Cobb, too, says a little bit of her character’s attitude has made its way into the real world.
A curvaceous blonde with the wide grin and bright eyes of a Hollywood starlet, Copley herself got into burlesque after years of struggling with an eating disorder.
“I didn’t want to be in this toxic relationship with my body anymore, and I saw this flier for burlesque auditions for a troupe. I imagined putting myself out there in front of an audience in this state where I felt really uncomfortable in my body, and I was just like, ‘That sounds terrifying. I think I have to do it.’ Because, I mean I’m not that old, but in the experiences that I’ve had, the times when you’re most afraid often times are the times when there’s the most opportunity for growth,” she says.
For Copley, burlesque was a crucial part of learning to accept and love her body. Unlike some other forms of dance, burlesque as an art form tends to celebrate all body types. Of the group of dancers that completed her November boot camp, Copley says, “They’re all different body types and sizes and everything, but nobody’s comparing themselves to anybody else. They’re all just like, ‘Yeah! Go you! That’s so awesome! You’re wearing pasties! Or you’re doing this thing that’s kinda scary!’ And they’re super supportive.”
Laina Copley teaches drop-in burlesque classes every Wednesday from 7-8pm at the Tannery Arts Center, 1040 River St., Santa Cruz. $15 per class. Enrollment is still open for her next 8-week boot camp. Information about classes as well as her one-on-one health coaching can be found at www.juicybodylove.com.
