I find what you say interesting to read..
and I am very interested and attracted to burlesque art.
However, I do feel a bit uncomfortable with mingling the history of the dance which is one quintessentially MidEastern dance with American arts history.. while I am sure the performances you are talkin about in the US or Europe were done by great ladies - and I can totally see the admiration for women dancers at the beginning of the last century as great business women in an era where women could do little other than bringing up children if wealthy, or do slavework in industry or other ppl s homes if poor - I am thinkin of great Berlin in the 20ies... or Paris or Vienna at the turn of the last century. must have been such a great era for these arts..
but well I amnot 100% comfortable with mingling the history of the Mideastern women s movement and art with the work of certainly creative and daring women in the European and American lands who knew very little about the culture they were pretending to represent in most cases.. just thinkin of Mata Hari, Indian dance from childhood on, yeah right.. not to say she s not an incredible personality, but this story is representative for so many to me, many women who took little more than their inspiration from the MidEast and are now being referred to as oriental dance history.. which they are actually not, if one is precise. They were variete dancers who were inspired by cultures they perceived as exotic and wild and different..
It s just that I feel a bit of discomfort here, and the need to say "yes, BUT.." :)