Burlesque: Fetishism and darkness with Manu de La Roche
Written by Ricardo Du Toit on Creators.co
Literally three seconds after I sat down with Portuguese performer Manu de La Roche, I asked her the one question that I really wanted to know more since last Summer, when burlesque group Lisbon Undergroud Burlesque had an entire month's worth of performances based on film and comic-book characters.
On one hot night in town, Manu, the special guest of the night, performed her version of Batman's favorite thief, Catwoman, and everything we knew about her up to that point had changed.
So, as a comic-book fan myself, I had to ask: Where did that Catwoman peformance come from?
I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton's 'Batman Returns' so when they asked me to pick a character, it only made sense I'd choose Catwoman. It's one of my favorite movies.
From there I had to backtrack and was curious to know more about her journey in the burlesque scene.
My first introduction to burlesque was in 2003/2004, through a Marilyn Manson music video. 'mOBSCENE', where Dita Von Teese makes an appearance. Seeing her bathing herself in a giant Martini glass, I knew it was stripping, but it was different. She was naked. When I researched her, that's when I discovered what burlesque was. It was after reading about her I found out other performers, like Catherine d'Lish, that my interest grew. The fact that it was artistic, captivated me.
