Class Details

Uses of the Erotic: Burlesque as Power 4-Week Series Sundays | February 22 - March 15 | 3:30–4:45 PM Uses of the Erotic: Burlesque as Power is a four-week burlesque class rooted in the writings of Audre Lorde and the embodied wisdom of the erotic as a source of power, clarity, and self-knowledge. Using Lorde’s essay Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power as our anchor text, this class invites participants to explore burlesque not as performance for consumption, but as a practice of radical presence. Together, we ask: What are you revealing, and why? Each week holds space for both collective study and movement exploration, allowing the text to move through the body over time rather than rushing toward product or polish. What to Expect Weeks 1–2: The Reading Room We begin in study. Participants will gather to read Lorde’s essay aloud and engage in facilitated discussion in a casual, unacademic setting. You are invited to arrive as you are. You may lounge, stretch, dance, rest, listen, journal, or simply be present as the words circulate through the room. This is a space for curiosity, reflection, and collective meaning-making. Weeks 3–4: Embodying the Erotic With the text living in us, we turn toward movement. Classes begin with a guided warm-up, followed by facilitated explorations rooted in burlesque, improvisation, and embodied inquiry. We will work with sensation, rhythm, gaze, pacing, and reveal as tools for self-connection. Expect movement that is messy, generative, and tender, with room for play, refusal, and pleasure. This class is an invitation to deepen your relationship to self-love, joy, confidence, and erotic power through time, repetition, and attention. Details • Copies of the text provided • Please bring a journal and writing utensil • All bodies, genders are welcome • Some prior burlesque experience recommended