Eroticism and decadence: the decline of the Burlesque era

Burlesque is an erotic show in which half-naked girls dance on stage to music. This analogue of modern striptease appeared in the middle of the XIX century in Europe and had an unprecedented success with the then public-burlesque died in the United States exactly a hundred years later, when morals became more frivolous, and something more was expected from graceful seductresses than banal dances.

Some of the girls went into striptease, some-into prostitutes, well, for some there was nothing else left but to continue to build themselves mysterious "sweets with a Dance Pigalle". They were getting old and were needed only as long as they could lift their legs and awkwardly expose themselves in front of a crowd. Photographer Robert Adler captured the life of these dancers in the seventies — now we can also look behind the scenes to see the decline, despondency and strange melancholy of burlesque, this once cheerful action.

Attention: the photos are spicy, so you should not look at them at work or in the presence of children.

Today, burlesque shows are sometimes revived — in the form of one-time and more or less decent entertainment, as a kind of tribute to the cabaret era.