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Burlesque

sNSFW PICS: SuicideGirls Brings Modern Burlesque to House of Blues

If you find the Burlesque revival a little too quaint, the Blackheart Burlesque Tour might be just for you. The production, put on by early-Internet alt-softcore-porn site SuicideGirls will take place November 2 at House of Blues and promises to offer tease-tastic performances with a decidedly modern twist, according to SuicideGirls founder Missy Suicide.

The tour marks a return to the stage after a six-year hiatus, Suicide (whose real name is Selena Mooney) says. This iteration features choreography by Manwe Sauls-Addison, who has worked with Beyonce, JLo and Lady Gaga, and Steampunk-y costumes designed by Junker. Suicide also said the dancers have more than 50 years collective dance experience.

"We did a tour like this from 2003 to 2006 that was a much smaller scale," she said. "We were kind of the only group doing modern burlesque at the time. But we also had other things going on, so we went on haitus. In the time in between, burlesque got a lot more mainstream, even with artists like Lady Gaga on tour. We knew if we were going to go on tour again we'd have to up our game."

Suicide said the Blackheart tour is different from the traditional burlesque currently enjoying a revival.

"In traditional burlesque the core of it is about the tease and the reveal, so we kept that," she said. "But in traditional burlesque there's a lot of pantomime and not a lot of choreography. Ours is set to modern music with very intense, exciting dancing. I'm pretty proud of the soundrack. It;s a lot of infectious music. And the costumes -- Junker tends to do things that are post-apocalyptic couture."

"We also have a lot of modern pop culture references," she said, citing a number inspired by The Big Lebowski, and her favorite, an aping of Planet of the Apes.

In addition to the 45-date burlesque tour, which includes stops in San Antonio, Dallas and Austin as well, SuicideGirls.com is also going through a bit of rebranding.

The site first launched in 2001, before social media was a "thing." Until this fall, it hadn't been redesigned in all those 12 years.

"When we launched the site, it was really before its time in a lot of ways," Suicide said. "At the time it was all Gap models, Pam Anderson, waifs -- there wasn't any place where girls with tattoos and piercings could be celebrated as beautiful. Our mission from the beginning was we wanted to showcase women in the way the girls themselves felt most beautiful."

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Shey is an experienced blogger, social media expert and traveler. She studied journalism at Oklahoma State University before working as a full-time reporter for Houston Community Newspapers in 2005. She lived in South Korea for three years, where she worked as a freelancer.
Contact: Brittanie Shey