Burlesque Retreat April 2019 – Showgirl Awakening

Your Radiance. Your Expression. Your Show.

Five-Day Immersive Retreat in San Francisco, California April 2 - April 7, 2019

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Create and confidently perform your own SOLO burlesque act in a fully-produced theatre show to a supportive and loving crowd!

Five Women + Five Days of Transformational Retreat Experience with Dance, Movement, Embodied Expression & Glitter!

Dear Friend,

I’m sitting down to type out this longer letter to you about a small-group burlesque solo creation & performance program I call Burlesque…from the Inside Out.

I should warn you: this is a long letter because there’s much to say. Frankly, I recommend printing this off, making yourself a nice hot cup of tea and sitting down at your favourite cafe or kitchen table or comfy living room chair by the fire to read it over slowly.

Burlesque…from the Inside Out is an intimate, semi-private program for five kind, smart, sensitive, soulful women looking to create & perform a burlesque solo that truly comes from inside of them.

It is an opportunity to call home some parts of yourselves that somewhere along the way got edited out of your experience. And not just to call those aspects back home, but to celebrate them, and create directly from them.

A Bit About Burlesque from the Inside Out:

It is designed specifically for women who want to explore a transformative modality that reconnects them to their bodies, their sensuality, and what it means to be an empowered woman.

Experiential

The experience is 90% practical activities, and 10% theory. NO prior experience in dance is necessary, though experienced dancers are welcome.
Intimate

Each program limited to 5 women only, Burlesque from the Inside Out (BIO) is a 5-Day OR 5-Week is a modern-day woman’s rite of passage, done Showgirl Awakening (SGA) style.
Tailored

Every group BIO experience is different. Just like every constellation of stars are unique. Each group dynamic brings something special, and something unique. Kellita facilitates the sessions accordingly, to maximize the benefits that participants receive, and to radiate the light that shines in All.
Performance

By the end of the program, you walk away having created and performed your own SOLO Burlesque Act in a fully-produced theatre show.

This Could Be Perfect For You If You...

Warm to the idea of mind, body & spirit unifying activities, and likely you’ve tried yoga, but you’re seeking a more vivacious way to feel at one with yourself. You’re ready to take the confidence you may have in another part of your life, into your relationship with your body and your ability to take up space.
Know keenly and acutely what it’s like to have something to say that is burning to be said and either you can’t quite put your finger on what it is or you know it and it’s terrifying to consider saying. This could be at work, at home, with a friend, a lover, or with yourself.
Have been holding yourself back from expressing yourself, to a degree that it no longer feels comfortable to be in your skin. It may have been this way for decades.
Are equal parts “I’m excited & ready to create & perform a burlesque solo,” and “The idea of creating & performing a burlesque solo scares the shit out of me!” Both states are perfect!
Are finally stepping out to do something for yourself. Typically, you feel you have dedicated your life and energy to making sure everyone else is okay, but you. And you feel guilty or ashamed about choosing what you want truly, and from the heart.
Are curious to explore powerful experiences to unify mind, body, and soul. This is a form of embodied transformation. Where we use movement, dance, and other modalities to bring forth your radiance.
Wanting to re-connect to your body and sensuality and feel what it is like to have every cell in your body hum!
Love and value community and group experiences, where you can feel safe and supported in being who you authentically are. More importantly, you can benefit from the magical synergy that arises when like-hearted and like-minded women gather to transform their lives.
Desire to make peace with your body, at the very least, and celebrate the shit out of it, at best!
Have an unsettled inner feeling you can’t put your finger on.
Know you can’t do this alone. At least not in a satisfying way! You know you need the kind of help that goes beyond reading a book, a DIY eCourse or even a series of private lessons.

What Awakening Showgirls Are Saying...

Lola Bodylove

“…good golly it’s so interesting to note how far I have come in this burlesque process…I LOVE my performance and the woman I am becoming in the process… the end story is that I love myself dearly and I am patiently and compassionately learning how to love my process no matter what anyone else thinks!!! Oh! Also, it has shown me how much I have been able to channel and express my inner vixen! I have LOVED welcoming her out, and that was a beautiful surprise to me and a beautiful surprise to some of my friends who have never met her!! Haha woohoo!!!! I LOOOOVE who I am becoming and look forward to continuing to discover her and welcome her into my daily life!”

Sunny D’Light

“I am in a calm place and feeling a clear sense of more ‘freedom’ within me, which is very nice.”

Sharon B.

“The welcome mat that is laid out for you just eliminates any feelings of intimidation.”

Zoe Y.

“It creates a kind of confidence and sexuality that I don’t have to fight for, I just get to enjoy. Never in my life have I had the opportunity to celebrate my body in this way, and now I don’t think I’ll ever stop!”

Bella B.

“I danced and performed a lot as a child but stopped suddenly. For years I couldn’t even look at myself in a mirror. It feels so amazing to my body and soul to be dancing and performing again! I’m grateful to you for the part you’ve played in me feeling at home with myself and in my body.”

Nasrin E.

“This is a life experience that will bring out a beauty that you may not have known you possessed.”

Lil Lionheart

“The community of dancers drawn to Kellita are amazing, dynamic, caring, & smart. You will feel surrounded by love and like you are part of a cast of glowing stars.”

Who Is It Not For?

You’re looking for a traditional dance class and primarily want to learn burlesque dance moves or techniques

You’re mostly looking for fun exercise and want to be sure that you sweat each class

You want someone to directly choreograph a solo for you

You wish to get feedback on an existing act (you can schedule an act review with Kellita for that)

You’d like to keep emotions out of your solo creating process

What is Burlesque?

Traditionally, Burlesque was a term used for little acts, comedies, and dances that made fun of the norm. Part of that included the striptease, where women end their act wearing less clothing than they did at the start.
Burlesque at heart is about poking fun at the norm so you can invite the magic and mystery that lay outside its confines. In BIO, you will create and perform your unique expression of Burlesque, which includes music, choreography & costume design.

How does Burlesque from the Inside Out (aka: Showgirl Awakening (SGA) style) differ from other burlesque approaches?

BIO is much more than a performance. BIO is much more than the elaborate dress. It is a rite of passage for the soul. One that develops within the human being, and is radiated through the Showgirl Awakening (SGA) style of burlesque.

The SGA-style of burlesque

is focused on revealing your radiant essence–you stripped down to your radiant essence (pun intended!)–rather than majoring in you mimicking movements of legendary or modern day burlesque stars, Kellita helps you recognize and play up your natural movements, perhaps movements you may not have been aware of as sublime, as breathtakingly captivating.

In SGA, we are keen

to select only the movements and costume pieces that make you come alive, make you feel turned on by the experience you’re having of being you in that moment.

The creation of the solo in BIO

is to create intimacy between you and yourself, and between you and your audience–in just the way you wish to. It’s about creating art, but art on your terms. Art that satisfies you, and the way in which it satisfies you, it can’t help but awe the audience. It’s about creating the most personal, and most universal statement at once–with your body, your song, your costume, the whole of the act.

Your very essence leads the way.

Not sure what your radiant essence feels like or looks like? Not to worry! That’s Kellita’s superpower: to guide you to know how it find it, relish it and craft with it!

In traditional burlesque, it’s typical to begin with pleasing the audience in mind, & the performer may or may not enjoy or even remember what happens during their 3-5 minute solo. They just know they got through it!

In BIO, you begin with pleasing yourself in mind, so that your craft is subject to your pleasure, not the other way around, and you end up delighting yourself and your audience more than you thought possible.

In traditional burlesque, it’s typical to primarily showcase a special physical talent (like doing the splits or hula hooping), or bringing the Funny in a big way (going straight for laughs), or focusing on seducing your audience as your primary goal.

In BIO, any of the above fine elements can be spice in your creation, but the main focus is always intimacy with yourself, and intimacy with your audience on your terms. It’s art on your terms.

In traditional burlesque, it’s about creating and performing an alter ego, stepping into someone else, a fantasy, and then leaving it there on stage.

In BIO, we consciously step more and more into ourselves in our acts, and discover and showcase different elements of pure us that have been dying for air and space and attention. And we take them with us when leave the stage, as extended options on our life’s menu of expression.

“This process has really allowed myself to face some really deep parts of myself that have always remained in the shadows dear Kellita and through this process and joining in beautiful mystical community and befriending and joining in relationship with my own deepest Self and my body as a sacred vessel it feels like I am actually growing and I am blossoming in segments which seem to be coming out through performance and this next one [which will be a third one] will allow me to shine like the diamond I am – polished and buffed with love and appreciation – and I want to share my most vulnerable and honest Being with my loved ones in an authentically ME way.” – Lola Bodylove

“I’m also noticing that after this experience I feel more grounded and connected in general. No matter what happens, I have a re-invigorated deep part of my body that is home and that is immensely comforting.” – Lil Lionheart

“You (Kellita) are an embodiment of inviting… Like you are constantly inviting people into this place of play. One of the things about your stage presence that struck me when I met you and continues to be consistently true of my experience is that you have a youngness about you, which is mixed perfectly with wisdom. So there’s all this wisdom and there’s this youngness, and part of this youngness is I believe you speak your truth all of the time and there’s nothing put on about you. There’s lots of people who do the kind of work that you do, whether it’s teaching or whether it’s dancing who are put on, right, who are make-up…who are make-up. It doesn’t mean they’re not whole people, but we get from them is lot of “la la la la la” or performers or whatever…but I notice about you is that it feels so clean and like the word that I go for when I think about the young part is that there’s this purity that I experience in young people that’s just really clean and honest, you know.” -Martha R.

Vignettes

One woman in her fifties, who has grown children and very limited dance experience and no dance performance experience, is finding her voice, not only on stage, but also at work and with her family and loved ones in a new way through her BIO experience.

One woman who had danced and performed a lot during childhood, but then stopped for decades because of chronic trauma, found her way back to her original joy through SGA and BIO. Her life is now filled with art and dance and performance.

One woman who had been performing burlesque for a decade and had begun to feel stunted and stuck in her performance life, came to Showgirl Awakening for spiritual growth, not for the performance aspect at all, and found a way to reinspire both her burlesque performance life and her whole life, through the soulwork of SGA & BIO. She now performs and lives with renewed vigor.

One woman who mistrusted groups and groups of women in particular, now finds some of her deepest joy and peace in the BIO process with her showgirl sisters. She found the focus sessions especially powerful and transformative. In her words, “The first time I did a focus session I was so nervous! Then I found that it was via the focus sessions that this vital piece in me that I’d been holding back was able to come out. I‘ve never felt more seen and understood.“

Your Facilitator – Kellita Maloof

Kellita Maloof is an international Artist, Dancer, Director, Teacher, Coach and Mentor. For over 20 years, she has performed, designed, and curated shows all over the world: from San Francisco to New Orleans, Hollywood to Montreal, and Paris to Tokyo.

Her achievements include: founding award-winning troupe Hot Pink Feathers, Queen of Carnaval San Francisco 2008, 5 x finalist the Burlesque Hall of Fame, and 1st place in Original World Fusion Dance & Choreography in San Francisco’s Grand Carnaval Festival.

Kellita also integrates into her work, over a decade of practice in transformative modalities, including EFT, Marin-style NLP, Systemic Constellations, Four-Fold way to name a few.

Her mission is to support women in unifying body, mind, heart, spirit & soul, and in expressing the power and beauty that is innate to each and every one.

What's Included?

Costume & Music pre-consultation with Kellita before the program: receive both email and phone guidance needed to select the song to facilitate your unique performance
30+ hours of transformational creation, mentoring, accompaniment and rehearsing including: Reviewing the SGA foundational movements, individual focus sessions in a mastermind setting, explorations of sound and sensuality, song mapping, act crafting tools, costume design, immediately post-show glow dinner, potluck video viewing weeks afterwards and more
Personal Costume Design participation by Costume Design Professional
Professional 2-Camera edited video of your act and the whole show
Professional Digital photo stills of your performance

On the evening of the last day is the cabaret performance.

You will perform your burlesque solo in a black box theatre with professional lighting & sound for your invited friends and family.

“You will select a song with my guidance prior to the course beginning, and, in a beautiful dance studio (or theater itself), with the presence of a compassionate sisterhood, you will be guided by a loving and experienced Showgirl mama (me!) to create an original burlesque solo! All you need to do is show up and be willing. Neither confidence, nor dance experience, nor a particular body type, nor a particular fitness level is required.”

What Your Evenings or Days Will Look Like:

There are 2 ways to take Burlesque…from the Inside Out (BIO):

Five Day Retreat: Intended for those of you who live at a distance - an immersion, which meets 5 days in San Francisco, from April 2nd 7th. The immersion begins on April 2nd, 2019 and meets 4/2, 4/3 + 4/4 from 10-6; 145 from 11-5 and 4/7 from 5-11pm. It’s highly recommended not to schedule much else during the Immersion (besides some luxurious baths!) The potluck video viewing party is TBD (if you travel in join the Immersive Retreat from another city or country, you can join us via live video!)

Five Week Course: is not offered in conjunction with the April 7th cabaret. It is offered in conjunction with the March 2nd and the May 4th Burlesque from the Inside Out cabaret.

Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3

Brief Embodied Intentions
This will be a daily practice to center your awareness, and bring joy and focus to our time creating together.
Warm-Up & Review
of Showgirl Awakening foundational movements.
Individual Focus Sessions
(in a mastermind setting) to help create your unique expression and act (including costume design). Each woman will receive at least one focus session per day. These focus sessions are power packed, and include transformational and coaching modalities.
Exploring Mood and Expression
This is about getting in touch with your embodied experience and emotions, as a bridge to discover the movements which want to come forth. This includes gestures and facial expressions that tell a story.
Guided Dance Improvisations to your song
You will learn to sync your own movements to match your intentions, the song, and mood that are unique to your performance. You will be guided to make choreography decisions that are strong and bring you more into the center of yourself.
Mapping Your Song
You will be guided to create a map of your song, including the structure of the music, the movements you choose, and the intentions behind them. This allows your feminine and fluid sourcing of act content to be held in a masculine and linear container, so your act can feel delicious and support you best!

On Day 2, we will go shopping for your costume. Part of the immersion is going on a field trip to second hand fabric and vintage stores in the neighborhood, purchasing the elements for your costume.

Note: Costume costs are not covered. However, the alterations to be made by the professional costumer will be provided as part of the experience (for the Immersion students only)

Day 4 – Rehearsals!

Technical & Dress Rehearsal. Both BIO programs converge on this day. This is where we stage & set lighting for your act. We set the curtain call and have a full dress rehearsal, with the support of stage manager, stage kitten and lighting and sound technician.

Day 5 – Polishing & Performance!

The Performance. Though you will have a polishing rehearsal during the day, most of today is downtime, or bedazzling time, before the cabaret.

Enjoying the Afterglow of the Show. Together, we will celebrate the performance with a group dinner for; performers, friends, and family.

Joy Ryde

“I’ve been meaning to create and perform a burlesque solo for years, but never followed through with it. Kellita’s ‘Burlesque from the Inside Out’ finally made it possible. I couldn’t have created and performed a burlesque solo without the structure, the feedback and, most importantly, the love that suffused this class. I highly recommend Showgirl Awakening’s ‘Burlesque from the Inside Out’ program.”

How Much Does it Cost?

$1497 or 6 x $269 ; Save $500, as next San Francisco BIO Retreat tuition is $1997

Payment Plan

$269 /month for 6 months

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Single Payment

$1497 best value

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Reasons for signing up now:

You save $150 when you pay in full by February 1st 2019
There is 1 spot left now + this program is offered only 2 more times in 2019

Frequently Asked Questions

Click the heart to read answers.

Do I Need to Have Any Dance or Performance Experience?

No. And if you do, that’s great. It’s designed for both. You also don’t have to have a specific body type, or have a particular fitness level in order to participate.

Is This Appropriate for Someone with Lots of Performance Experience, even a Professional Dancer?

Yup. In fact, I find that professional performers often have learned to so well to perform someone else’s vision, that it can take some unlearning & relearning to trust themselves to hear their own voice. In BIO, it’s all geared for you to hear and trust yourself more.

Is There an Advanced Course?

For the creation of a burlesque solo, nope, there’s not. You can take this course over and over again and create and learn something new each time. There is a greater mentorship, however--called Your Life Is Your Work Of Art (WOAM)--which you can enroll in alongside BIO in which the principles of SGA and BIO are applied across the whole of your life.

I Don’t Live in San Francisco, But I Want to Participate!

At this moment, the full BIO performance program is only offered in San Francisco, but Kellita created the 5-Day Immersion to accommodate women who live in other cities, states or countries. You can fly in and complete the whole program in 5 days!

Will I Strip to Nothing?

Rest assured, you will not. It’s most typical to end in pasties (bejeweled nipple coverings that we magically affix to our breasts) and some sort of sparkly underwear, but the degree to which you disrobe is ultimately up to you!

What Clothing Should I Wear during Class?

Something comfortable you can move in. Ideally form fitting (e.g. gym-wear, tights etc.) so we can see how your body is moving.

Is Food and Drink Included for the Immersion?

No but there will breaks for meal-time and tea and snacks will be provided. There is a delightful bistro right across the street, and many more restaurants within blocks.

I Don’t Want to Go Alone, Can I Bring a Friend?

Sure! This is a group experience. But please note, there is a cap of 5 women only. So the sooner you decide yes (or not), the better.