When it comes to her glamorously elaborate stage show, there isn’t a single detail that gets by internationally famous burlesque star and fashion icon Dita Von Teese.
Her hands-on approach, innovative stage, prop and costume designs, sensual choreography and tenacious work ethic have led to her now decades long career as a top burlesque performer, known for her stripped down and splash around “Martini Glass” act, that continues to sell out shows around the world. Though in the spotlight she’s virtually flawless, a picture of pin-up perfection shrouded in thousands of shimmering Swarovski crystals, she’s not afraid to get a little dirt under her polished nails.
“There’s nothing that I’m getting help doing now that I haven’t done myself,” the 44-year-old said during a recent phone interview. “My friend Catherine, who helped create most of these numbers with me, we used to load up our martini and champagne glasses into her van and cruise around doing show after show. I’m a do-it-yourself girl, but I’ve learned to delegate, which is hard.”
Von Teese is about to embark on the West Coast leg of her latest North American tour with her new variety show, “The Art of the Teese.” The short jaunt includes numerous local stops and kicks off at House of Blues in San Diego on Wednesday, July 5 and Thursday, July 6. It will be at House of Blues Anaheim on Saturday, July 8, and Sunday, July 30, the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside on Wednesday, July 26 and the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday, July 28.
“The Art of the Teese” will showcase four of Von Teese’s most popular performances including an updated version of “Martini Glass,” featuring a brand-new routine with an oversized champagne glass, which will be covered with more than 250,000 Swarovski crystals. She’s also added new costuming and, for the first time ever, male dancers, to her revitalized and rhinestone-covered “Cowgirl” act. She’s also bringing “Lazy,” an act she created specifically for the legendary Crazy Horse saloon in Paris, and an all-new ballet-themed act dubbed “Swan Lake Stripteese” out on this tour.
The show will also feature performances by fellow burlesque dancers Ginger Valentine and Dirty Martini, who will be recreating a couple of Von Teese’s older bits including her red, iron sparkling heart routine and a her famous “The Carousel Horse.”
“I’m really excited to see their interpretations of some of my numbers,” she said, adding that it was fun for her to watch other burlesque stars put their own unique spin on some of her acts.
“I’ve certainly seen people imitate me, but I like to see someone who has their own sense of self and their own personality,” she continued. “That’s what’s so wonderful about burlesque and makes for compelling burlesque performances, it’s really about watching someone’s own personality shine through. I really don’t like watching someone doing an imitation of me because it always looks more like a mockery. Everyone that’s in my cast has a really strong stage presence and is their own person in the show and they were all chosen for that reason.”
Von Teese currently lives in Los Angeles, but was born Heather Renée Sweet and raised in West Branch, Michigan, before her family moved to Southern California where she attended University High School in Irvine. Back then, the natural blonde began to experiment with vintage fashion and makeup and got a part-time job working in the lingerie department at Robinsons-May at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and Main Place Mall in Santa Ana.
She started burlesque dancing in 1992 and has never looked back. On top of becoming a self-made star, Von Teese has served as a muse for several high-end fashion designers, walked the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier, has been featured in numerous high fashion ad campaigns, authored a couple of strip tease and beauty books and created her own line of perfumes and lingerie, inspired by her own collection of vintage lingerie.
She said she’s going to have some fun now with the fresh acts in “The Art of the Teese,” including showing off some of her ballet skills in “Swan Lake Stripteese.”
“Some of my very first shows were all danced on pointe or were ballet-themed,” she said. “I’m a failed ballerina. I always wanted to be a ballerina and I still have such a love of ballet and I created this number several years ago, but I hardly did it because I didn’t think people would get it. When I added the male dancers to it, it took on a whole new feeling and you have that magic of humor and playful sensuality and it’s a lot of fun to do. I felt very risky about it because I’m not that great of a ballet dancer, but you know what makes it kind of funny is that I can do the minimum there while the male backup dancers strip tease out of their classical ballet tunics.”
In the past, Von Teese had always used female backup dancers and stage kittens to usher off the articles of clothing she leaves behind on stage. For the new show, however, she saw about 800 male dancers in an L.A. audition and narrowed it down to just two.
“It has changed the whole feeling of the show,” she said. “Their mannerisms are really so lovely and elegant and that’s part of what makes it great. Sometimes when you see male strip tease it can be a bit aggressive, but what I love is that I’ve really been able to work closely with these guys and kind of make them into the perfect kind of male dancers and really like some of the guys you’d dream about. It’s a lot of fun and I’m proud of it. I think when people think about burlesque they think about a group of pin-up girls stripping, but that’s not what this show is about. It’s about diversity, beauty, gender fluidity and it’s about fantasy, spectacle and really changing people’s minds about what burlesque is.”
Dita Von Teese in ‘The Art of the Teese’
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 8 and Sunday, July 30
Where: House of Blues Anaheim, 400 W. Disney Way Suite 337, Anaheim
Tickets: $45-$105
Information: 800-745-3000 or Livenation.com
Also: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, and Thursday, July 6, at House of Blues San Diego, 1055 W, 5th Ave., San Diego, $45-$105 800-745-3000 or Livenation.com; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26 at Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside; $55-$175 at 800-745-3000 or Livenation.com. 8:30 p.m. Friday, July 28 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel, 929 S. Broadway, Los Angeles; $45-$125 at 888-929-7849 or AXS.com.
