Spellbound Burlesque Reveals the Art of Striptease at Venues Around Phoenix

At a tiny cluster of tables and seats, dancers strut and swirl while removing satin gloves, stockings, bustiers, feather boas … and more. Patrons sipping sophisticated cocktails whoop, holler, and clap at the sultry sideways glances, jutting hips, and rotating pastie tassels. Some lucky patrons get draped with the performers’ cast-offs.

This spectacle happens on the second Wednesday of each month at the Grey Hen Rx in Century Grand, where Spellbound Burlesque puts on an intimate, cabaret-style show featuring a few local performers that dance for about 20 minutes three times a night. (The next performance is Wednesday, March 8.)

Founded in 2014, Spellbound Burlesque also hosts longer, immersive, curated events with local as well as national and international performers at the Grand Ballroom (formerly Club Palazzo) 10 times a year. These two-and-a-half-hour spectacles are in the round, with seating encircling the performance floor.

It’s part of a grand revival of the art form that began in the late 1990s and early 2000s and has grown to include celebrity performers and regular shows in cities worldwide.

But what exactly is burlesque?

“It is the art of theatrical striptease,” says Maxi Millions, co-founder of Spellbound Burlesque along with Frankie Fillmore. However, she adds, “It’s more than dance.”

Some of the best burlesque performers have no formal dance training, Millions notes. It’s also about setting a mood, presenting a fantasy, and creating a special moment.

“It’s about their connection to their audience and breaking that fourth wall,” Millions says. “Our goal is to really help underscore that feeling of that moment when that performer looks at you and makes eye contact and sucks you in. We feel the magic happens in those moments.”


Spellbound Burlesque’s next Grand Ballroom show on March 25 is titled Throwback: A Strip through the Decades, which will include burlesque, variety, and aerial performances that recall the Summer of Love through Y2K. Tickets are available online.

Millions adds, “You’re going to see burlesque of all ages, body types, sexuality and gender expression.” While the pervasive stereotype of burlesque is a glamorous pinup girl, their shows are more than simply “a hot chick parade,” she states.

Burlesque did, however, begin as entertainment for randy hetero men. Though accounts say it began in the 1860s, the striptease was most popular in the U.S. at “gentleman’s clubs” from about the 1920s to the 1940s. Performers had elaborate costumes and theatrics.

“They had to get up there and they had to entertain a room full of drunk men and do it with a smile on their face,” Millions says. And many were arrested for indecent exposure. “There was a lot of morality policing in that time,” she notes.

Then, as laws later in the century relaxed, nearly nude and nude dancing became common and “the burlesque idea went by the wayside,” Millions says. But it never truly disappeared, and it saw a revival in the late 1990s and early 2000s, particularly thanks to performers like Dita Von Teese, who became known as the “Queen of Burlesque.”

Over the past two decades, the genre has continued to flourish, attracting not just men, but all walks of life to the shows — and on the stage. When hiring contractors, Millions looks for anyone who’s entertaining.


“The last thing most burlesque producers and performers are thinking of is the male gaze,” Millions says. There’s even comedic burlesque and “boylesque,” with a performer presenting as a masculine character.

Millions adds, “How boring it would be to sit for two hours and see the same thing. I get more feedback about how happy [audiences] are to see the different kinds of people on that stage and how much it resonates with them.”

Performing is also not about seducing, she notes. It’s about confidence.

Asked whether it’s “brave” to strip in front of strangers, Millions replies, “I’m not a superhero. None of us are. As women, we’re raised in a culture of constantly being told we need to fix something about ourselves. It brought me face-to-face with that.”

She adds, “It’s a process to unpack all of that. It’s not about being brave enough to be onstage, it’s about understanding and embracing the imperfection. Understanding that you may never feel perfect enough to go onstage and doing it anyway.”

Millions recalls taking up burlesque after a “really horrible breakup.” She had been in theater in high school, and was drawn to the magic and variety of the art.

For anyone wanting to learn more about performing burlesque, Millions recommends Three Fates Revue. The performers teach classes for “people who are looking to spice it up in the bedroom or get on stage and everywhere in between,” says Pepper Mint Schnapps, Three Fates co-owner along with Luna Lovebutton.

Details for Three Fates Revue classes, which start this month, can be found on Instagram. Cost is $15 for drop-ins, and they’re usually held for 12 weeks on Tuesday night at Creators Space in Gilbert. All genders and skill sets are welcome, but it’s for ages 18 and up.

“We teach everything basic movement to how to use props, stage presence, chair choreography, and floor choreography,” Schnapps says.

Three Fates Revue is looking at possibly bringing burlesque shows to the east Valley, but for now, most of the shows by Spellbound and others are in Phoenix and Scottsdale.

No matter what the venue or who the performers are, Millions says personally engaging with the audience and seeing other performers engage with them is one of the most rewarding parts of burlesque.

“What our show does and what we try to aim for is an immersive experience,” Millions says. “We want to make people feel they’re a part of something special.”