Imogen Kelly - Great Barrier Reef

Imogen Kelly - 2019 Icons & All-Stars Showcase from Burlesque Hall of Fame on Vimeo.

I've been attending burlesque shows for a few minutes now, and, admittedly, I get certain notions in my head and make generalizations from time to time. When I attended BHoF Weekend 2019, that thing was "costumes don't really matter so much, it's just about THE PERFORMANCE!"  While I'd still rather see a dynamite act with an OK costume than a mindblowing costume with little action to support it, sometimes, the costume is so inherent to the act that they cannot be separated.

Simply put, I've never seen more thought and consideration go into a costume than in Imogen Kelly's tribute to the disappearing Great Barrier Reef in her native Australia. Of course, it requires a profound amount of skill to conceive, construct, and then manipulate this Russian Doll of a costume throughout its many incarnations, which is why the costume and the act are in many ways one and the same. Imogen, who won the Miss Exotic World title in 2012 when I first attended BHoF Weekend, is a genuine visionary, and obviously unintimidated by the sheer amount of work that went into making this feat of engineering and creativity a reality. And, obviously, the whole act is a thing of beauty.

I'm glad to have my ideas challenged and outright proven incorrect from time to time. Keep me honest, please.

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