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The Art of the Tease

Burlesque enjoys a revival in Washington with three new shows that range in style from vaudeville to cabaret to performance art.

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" I think Divine," cackles Staxx as she pulls a bulgy jockstrap over a baseball-patterned G-string, the eventual centerpiece of her Americana performance during the monthly Dutch Oven burlesque show. (This must be mentioned: Staxx's first public performance was to music from the opera "Carmen." She choreographed a routine in which she twirled her tassels while dying. She continued twirling even as she lay on the ground, expired.)

The scene in Washington is still emerging; most dancers have been at it for only a year and a half or so. Sable and Staxx attended Trixie Little's burlesque boot camp, and L'il Dutch started the Palace of Wonders show in March after being inspired by the Pontani Sisters at the Birchmere's semiannual burlesque shows.

Now there are enough area dancers to supply a monthly show with a rotating cast. And so backstage, some last-minute preparations:

Spritz some hair spray on the wigs.

Jiggle a bit to check the security of the pasties.

Kiss toward the mirror and then head out onto the teeny stage, surrounded by a barful of people and vaudevillian knickknacks lining the walls. L'il Dutch teases with the hokeypokey and performs with Harry the Horrible. Sable, in a Bettie Page wig, lays out a beach towel and bumps a beach ball into the audience. Priscilla Jerez, the Palace of Wonders' general manager, who performs as Prissy Pistol, storms around the stage to "Livin' in America." Shortstaxx spits into a baseball glove and fields imaginary balls. All of this is done to music and emceed by the curly-mustached Gary Gutter (who happens to be L'il Dutch's husband). Articles of clothing are expertly removed and discarded, leading to the big reveal (or big tease, depending on how you look at it).

Here's the thing: Whether they're rapt or befuddled, everyone in the audience is paying attention. Even the drunk ones. Twenty people watch the closed-circuit video of the stage from the bar's second floor. Fifty more are squished together below, whooping or gaping. Smiles creep onto boyfriends' faces as they realize what they've been dragged to by their girlfriends.

More shows: The Palace of Wonders features burlesque every week, regularly hosting Gilded Lily from Baltimore and the Hellcat Girls from Philadelphia. The quarterly Evil Come Evil Go-Go Show returns Aug. 9 at 10 p.m. and Oct. 31 (for a Halloween spectacular). Priscilla Jerez's Wild West-themed show, Bang Bang Burlesque, debuts in October.

The Dutch Oven burlesque show. Once a month, resuming Sept. 13. Palace of Wonders, 1210 H St. NE. 202-398-7469. http://www.myspace.com/lildutchburlesque or http://www.palaceofwonders.com. $10.

A Time Warp at the Golden Triangle Cabaret

Duck into the side entrance of Ozio, the glossy cigar and martini lounge on the 1800 block of M Street NW. Walk past the door girl wearing a green nightie ("Hiya," she squeaks) and up two flights of stairs, and you'll find yourself in the 1920s. Or '40s. Or maybe '50s. Whatever it is, it's a stab at vintage: The hosts of the Golden Triangle Cabaret wear three-piece suits, the bartendresses wear corsets and a cigar girl is in mid-sentence as Louis Prima swings over the sound system.

"We were barflies at the same bar," says the red-haired cigar girl, Baltimore resident Chelsea Thompson, 25, her aura a sweet cloud of clove smoke. She's talking about Kitty Victorian, the resident dancer at Golden Triangle and a professor at the District's Burlesque University ( http://www.burlesqueuniversity.com), who drafted Thompson to work for the two-month-old Golden Triangle Cabaret on an upstairs floor of Ozio.

"How are ya?" Thompson says to a suspendered older man who brushes against her at the bar. Then she sells a pair of pasties to D.C. resident Pascaline Sangosse, 31, who brought her boyfriend. Does he like it so far?