Jo Weldon

G-Strings Forever!

This website and all content copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Jo Weldon/Fluid Media Productions.
No portion, text, image or media, in whole or in part, of this website may be used without written permission from the author.

Welcome!
...
Jo_boobs

Mouse over the fans to make them move!

Jo Boobs graphic courtesy Little Brooklyn.

I will be on tour with the Sex Workers' Art Show until March 3, 2007, teaching tassel-twirling and discussing stripping my way through college.
Click here for more information.

Genius Strippers
Burlesque
What is Burlesque?
Photos, Of Me and By Me
Photos Of Me on Flickr
Upcoming Performances
School of Burlesque
Activism
Read Me, Baby
Bio and Press Kit
My Online Journal (Blog)
My Photos on Flickr
FAQ
Video of Me Doing a Fan Dance
Video of Me Doing Godzilla

Inquiries,
Contact and Booking

Getting Started in Striptease!
Books, Films, and Music

Workshops and Classes--Learn the Art and Craft of Burlesque!
Learn to Make Pasties and Twirl Tassels
With My Original Pastie-Making Kits!
OR
Learn to Make Pasties and Twirl Tassels
With My Original Pastie-Making Booklet!
Enter your email address below to join my yahoo group and get information about my burlesque workshops and updates to this page!
Subscribe to gstringsforever
Powered by groups.yahoo.com

More Information

This Workshop in the News

About Burlesque Teacher Jo Weldon:

Winner of the 2005 New York Burlesque Festival Award for
"Best All-Around Bump N Grinder"

Described in the Village Voice as
"Legendary" and "a Class Act"

Described on Nerve.com as
"One of the lights of the burlesque revival"

Let her be your guide to stylish misbehavior!

More About Jo

Click here for information about booking a private workshop for yourself or for a party!

Genius Strippers?
You'll see!

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from Jo Weldon tagged with burlesque. Make your own badge here.



I'm featured in the new book about Burlesque by Michelle Baldwin! Click below to find out more and buy the book!

My essay about being a feature dancer is in:

I'm also featured in Marilyn Suriani Futterman's phodocumentary about strippers:

I am quoted in:

One of my papers is published in this book:

I've been interviewed for articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Black Table, The Village Voice, The Washington Times , The Phoenix New Times, Time Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly.

...

Burlesque Class and Workshop Information

Lap Dance Class December 19


Above: Your Hostess, Jo "Boobs" Weldon

"Jo Weldon...one of the lights of the burlesque revival"
Nerve.com

"This girl is a legend in the burlesque world" New York Cool

"Class act Jo Boobs does a classic strip"
The Village Voice

"Jo Weldon runs a fabulous website"
Lily Burana

"A longtime burlesque historian and fan"
The Washington Times

"I couldn't think of a better person to teach Burlesque 101"
Angie Pontani

"Jo Boobs gives it to ya old school, with some of the most skilled tassel spinning around"
Eros-NY

"You can't talk about the neo-burlesque movement without mentioning Jo Boobs (AKA essayist, activist, and photographer Jo Weldon)."
Java, Of "Java's Bachelor Pad"

Winner, New York Burlesque Festival Awards for
"Best Bump N Grinder" 2005
"Best Burlesque Teacher and Mentor" 2006

I was a stripper in the early 1980s and 1990s, with a few two-week forays in between jobs since then. I performed my first table dance in 1981, and my first fan dance in 1990.

In the new millenium, more than two decades after my debut into exotic dance, I've performed hundreds of times in cabaret venues and theatre productions. I won the New York Burlesque Festival Award for "Best Bump n Grinder," and my burlesque workshop was profiled in the New York Daily News and in Pop Trash. I lectured at NYU about the relationship between historical burlesque and modern strip joints. My photographs of live burlesque performances were featured in exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Most recently, I appeared on The Learning Channel demonstrating my burlesque technique to Karen Duffy, and you can see me in Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" video with U2. For more info about what I've been up to, click on my bio and press kit link to the left.

Nobody is more surprised about all of this than I am. I only meant to dance my way through college!

Most of this site is actually not about me, but about my obsession, which is burlesque, striptease, and exotic dance. I started the site because people who hadn't known me when I was stripping for a living often made disparaging generalizations about strippers, and it annoyed me. Even though dancing was hardly an ideal job, it had its advantages, and I respected and admired many of the women (and men) I worked with for over ten years. The "Genius Strippers" section of this site, about the ways strippers interpret and utilize stripping in their lives, was the first page. The burlesque sections came about over time as a result of my involvment in and my passion for theatrical striptease. Originally I didn't mean to put the burlesque here at all, because so many people have attempted to explain to me why burlesque is better than strip joints, and vice versa. I think that both varieties of exotic dance are good enough to stand on their own merits, good enough that it's not necessary to insult one genre at the expense of the other. To me, saying that one is better than the other indicates a lack of faith in the ability to impress of the one you're attempting to defend.


Photo by Dale Harris

Due to the kindness of both strangers and friends, I've enjoyed the privelege of performing at Tease-O-Rama in San Francisco and Los Angeles, The Chamber in Atlanta, and The New York Burlesque Festival (in New York, of course). I've performed at Galapagos Art Space, the Gramercy Park Center for the Performing Arts, the Slipper Room, Burlesque at the Beach (Coney Island Sideshows by the Seashore), The Blue Angel, Le Scandal, Dollhaus, Chashama, The Bowery Poetry Club, and other esteemed venues on and off the burlesque circuit. I've even performed with Spinal Tap!
I've also lectured about burlesque and stripping at NYU, The New School, the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Conference, and other academic venues, have lobbied at the UN, and have published dozens of articles, essays, and poems on the subjects of performative gender and sexual identity.
I also produce my own shows, such as: Hubba Hubba Hey!--A Burlesque Salute to the Ramones; Paperback Burlesque--Dirty Book Art Brought to Life; and The Follies Fromage, a show of burlesque acts based on cheese. And there's oh so much more, if I could only remember it all. I've been fortunate to live out almost all my burlesque fantasies!

Under less auspicious (and better-paying) circumstances, I've also worked in almost every type of commercial strip joint, from high-end celebrity hangouts to hardcore biker bars. I've been a big-deal feature traveling the continent with several trunks of props and costumes, and an anonymous peep-show girl stuck in a cubicle with a packet of baby wipes. I was elegant sometimes and vulgar at other times, usually both within the same eight hour shift. I've done tedious table dances, fabulous fan dances, and lewd lap dances.

Some people like only one kind of stripper. Some think that upscale places are the only strip joints worth being seen in, and others prefer cozy dives where they'll never be seen. Some hate artsy burlesque, and some hate erotic table dancing. Some like only acrobatic pole dancers, some like only sensuous lap dancers, and some like only feature dancers with years of dance training. Everybody with a preference can explain to you why they have the best taste.

But not me. I have EVERY taste. I like them all.

Some Things I've Done

Performing, plus lots of great Exotic World pix


Me Onstage

 

The Fabulous and Unique Exotic World Burlesque Museum is struggling. Please click to find out more and to support the museum:
Exotic World Support


Micro G-Strings and Bullet Bras!