Burlesque in Paris
Between 2010 and 2015, I immersed myself in the burlesque movement in Paris. What began as simple photographic curiosity soon became a long-term exploration. I met dancers, attended classes, spent evenings backstage, and followed the community as it grew and reinvented itself. I wanted to understand what lay behind this apparent “trend”: the feathers, the glitter, the corsets, the humor.
What I found was not just a style, but a language. I encountered pride, vulnerability, humor, and a powerful need for femininity in all its forms. Many of the women I photographed were reclaiming their bodies, challenging norms and expectations, and finding peace with themselves through performance. For some, burlesque was a stage; for others, it was therapy, community, or a way to rewrite personal narratives with grace and irony.
Burlesque has a long and fascinating history. Emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it mixed satire, theater, dance, and eroticism. It was playful and provocative, constantly blurring the line between parody and seduction. Over time it evolved, declined, and then experienced a revival in the early 2000s, particularly in cities like Paris, London, New York, and Berlin. The contemporary neo-burlesque movement reinterprets tradition: it embraces diversity of bodies, identities, and ages, and shifts the focus from pure spectacle to self-expression and empowerment.
The photographs presented here are part of this journey. They were taken between 2010 and 2015, in theaters, dressing rooms, rehearsal spaces, and private moments of preparation. They show colorful, joyful, sometimes intimate fragments of life within the Parisian burlesque scene. These images do not aim to explain everything, but to share an atmosphere: the laughter before going on stage, the quiet concentration during makeup, the glitter on the floor, and the pride of stepping into the light.
