Exotic Aussie A'dora Derriere Gives Us A Peek At Sugar Blue Burlesque

Lovers of exotic dance, to bring you evidence that the burlesque revival is a worldwide phenomenon, Body By Burlesque introduces you to the sexy wonders from down under - Sugar Blue Burlesque. These ladies aren't playing dress-up in the garage with great aunt Mabel's party gowns. Professional, crowd pleasing theatricality, elaborate vintage costumes, and a fusion of classic burlesque and retro dance styles combine to create a dazzling production transporting the audience into a higher dimension of sensations.


When the luscious A'dora Derriere says 'walk this way' the earth's axis spins! She cooled her tailfeathers just long enough for a short, yet very revealing interview.

Tell me a bit about the origin of Sugar Blue Burlesque.
Sugar Blue Burlesque has been operating for 4 years. We began as a trio. Miss Bonnie Fox, myself, (A'dora Derriere,) and Scarlet O'Harlot. We now have about 15 performers in the troupe. So, we have grown a lot! The three of us were all from a Swing Dancing (Lindy Hop) background and I am also a trained costume designer, so when we started the troupe in 2007, we based ourselves a vintage dance troupe. We performed 1900s style Burlesque, 1920s Charleston, Lindy Hop, 1960s GoGo and Vintage Chorusline performances.

Adora, I see you are also a costume designer, do you make your own? Have you made anyone else's? how did you come to meet your design idol - Catherine D'Lish?

I make almost all of my own solo costumes and I also make all the troupe costumes when we need multiple costumes for group performances. We have an amazing performer, Sapphire Demure, who is also a fashion designer who also makes solo costumes for many of the girls in the troupe.

I got the opportunity to meet my Catherine D'Lish at the London Burlesque Festival. I was one of the last performers on the night of the closing show and she was sharing a dressing room with me and was performing straight after me. I think she is amazing. Her costumes and wearable art has inspired me even when I was a costume student 10 years ago! 

Tell us about the Burlesque Academy and Vintage Glamour Workshops.

These days we have our own studio in the middle of Perth City called the Burlesque Lounge. We have our graduation shows and run our burlesque academy from there. We run a variety of different classes including Burlesque Bump and Grind casual classes, Burlesque Beginner's Dance, 1920's Charleston, Dance Like a Showgirl Course, Chair Fever, Latin Dancing for Burlesque, 1960's Go-Go Dance and Hoola Hooping. We even made some instructional dvds - Burlesque 1,2 & 3, 1920's Charleston and 1960's Go-Go.

At the Burlesque Lounge, we share the space with a photographer, David Woolley , who has done most of our photography. David is very talented and passionate about his work and vintage style! We are lucky enough to offer a workshop called Vintage Glamour Workshops for students with him. It is a one day workshop, where the students are taught and then assisted to transform themselves into a vintage pin-up, and then photographed by David Woolley. It is so much fun! 

The readers of Body By Burlesque are definitely interested in learning about the Hen Parties offered. What is involved? Are they as popular as I imagine they would be, and have you recruited any new dancers from them? Or do they mainly want to learn for fun and 'private, home shows?"

The Sugar Blue Burlesque Hen's Parties are very popular. They are a two hour session where the guests and the hen learn the art of tease and some burlesque dance moves as well as doing some games. We dont recruit the dancers from the hens party, the lesson is a fun girls night in. The girls that we have recruited along the way have mainly been from our burlesque academy courses.