A BROMSGROVE burlesque dancer welcomes his second sold out show to Birmingham on Friday, writes Kirsty Card.
Founder, Danny Phillips set up his Burlesque dance company, House of Allure over a year ago sold out his first show at Eden Bar in Birmingham Gay Village in October 2018 and has sold out once again for his movie themed performance on March 2.
The dancer also hosts classes at Robanna Studios on Wednesday evenings, welcoming over 18-year-olds of any background and ability to learn a variety of styles and techniques including originally choreographed heels, burlesque and Latin routines.
Phillips said: “I founded House of Allure as a direct result of the success I had in founding the Birmingham City University Burlesque Society.
“The society was hugely successful putting on performances as a range of Birmingham venues.
“We’ve have had many successful shows like at Birmingham Pride Parade, The O2 Institute, The O2 Academy and various others’
“I realised after the success of the society, both commercially and intimately, that this was the direction I wanted my life to go.
“I wanted to help and teach others about sexuality, empowerment and give individuals the opportunity to express their art, beauty, self-expression within Birmingham.”
He discovered the impact he was having on people while teaching for the society. Members didn’t judge each other on their mental health, disability, race, gender or beauty standards. Instead everyone started to celebrate their individuality.
“Students would often lack confidence such as throwing up before class and wanting to leave university, but later went on to dance in front of thousands at Birmingham Pride happy, secure and healthy. To me this change is so important.
“My goal is to set up a strong presence that helps people engage in this art form to celebrate our differences, and inject more energy and positivity into the world.”
The performance group consists of founder Dominus Von Vexo, Cocoa Kink, Locques La Roux, Lioness, Petite, Mama Mamba and Penny Dreadful.
The array of talent explores different elements through dance, striptease, drag, issue based performance, aesthetic and open mic.
The group has received lots of feedback, selling out their performance and health and wellbeing classes within the first six months of promoting them. The success shows no sign of stopping.
Danny added: “We are still within our first year of classes and shows.
“Next year is going to be a real adventure for everyone involved, staff, performers, venues, audiences, students… which is truly exciting!
“We aim to continue our dance classes which have recently been rebranded to bring out the optimal empowerment in our students, focusing on technique, musicality, energy and performance.
“House of Allure’s biggest success was our last show An Eve of Burlesque on October 5 at Eden Bar. A sell-out event ending with a standing ovation.
“It was an explosion of fun, glamour and pure fabulousness. This was close to House of Allure’s heart as this was our first show and to receive the overwhelming response, was more than we could have ever imagined.”
Phillips sold out his debut show ‘A Eve of Burlesque’ with other talented performers by September and had sold out the VIP tickets for his next show, ‘A Night at the Movies’ before the first had ended.
When asked about the next show, he added: “We chose movies as our next show, because as part of the House of Allure Presents and An Eve of Burlesque brand, we wanted to explore interesting themes.
“Each of our dancers are incredibly skilled and versatile in the what they can offer, so we like to challenge ourselves and use different themes to explore our art form further.
“The silver screen is notorious for visual brilliance, glamour, action, adventure, politics and we can’t wait to share our love through fascinating acts with our audience. We have a hell of a lot of tricks up our sleeves for this show!
“As a group we never expect anything! We all work extremely hard to ensure our shows, classes and performances are creative, professional, exciting and sexy as hell! The last show was a massive success and before that show was over.
“So it is certainly heading in a very positive direction and we hope that we get another sell out!
“We are all producing new acts, which means amazing visuals, tantalising costumes, stunning and statement group numbers and a good ol’ laugh!
“On a personal note, I am always gobsmacked at the raw imagination of our current performers and it is hard for me not to cry with pride whenever I see them all on stage’
“Having heard their ideas… everyone involved is going to be very lucky to watch what they have to offer. So I suppose the one thing I do expect is that the House of Allure performers will work magic!”
Danny also has a show on May 3. Details can be found here – https://www.fatsoma.com/aneveofburlesque/fijtpahf/house-of-allure-presents-the-retro-ritz
To enquire about future shows visit https://www.facebook.com/houseofalluredance/
