Now celebrating its third year, annual World Burlesque Day is gearing up to unite the Burlesque and Drag worlds with the launch of its new #QueenoftheScene challenge.
Taking place on 26th April 2022, World Burlesque Day is a collective effort by burlesque performers and enthusiasts across the world, who will come together to host interviews, dance tutorials and challenges in a bid to raise awareness of the artform and its benefits. With an extravagant array of sparkles and feathers adorning the global online stage, the hope is to encourage more people to try burlesque for themselves and see how inspiring and uplifting it can be.
World Burlesque Day was founded by burlesque performer and singer/songwriter Sapphira, who has been a passionate mental health advocate for many years. Her own story of finding burlesque and how it helped her to overcome her own mental health challenges is documented in her 2018 book ‘Burlesque or Bust’ (Welbeck Publishing).
“Burlesque provides a true platform for inclusivity and diversity, and is a creative form of celebration of one’s personality and body. There is no competition in World Burlesque Day, it’s all about the coming together of like minded individuals who want to empower themselves and others through the art of Burlesque,” explains Sapphira.
Since its inception, World Burlesque Day has been celebrated in over 57 countries, gained over 200,000 views of last years Tik Tok challenge #boogieinbootschallenge and has also featured an exclusive Q&A webinar with Erik Lee Preminger, son of Burlesque icon Gypsy Rose Lee.
This year the World Burlesque Day stage is set to be even bigger and brighter, with an extra sprinkling of sass and sparkle! Sapphira and the World Burlesque Day team are inviting those from burlesque to drag and everywhere in between to become their very own ‘Queen of the Scene’.
The #queenofthescene Tik Tok challenge, accompanied by its own catchy anthem ‘Queen of the Scene’ by Sapphira and Doc Moody, will invite people to upload their own Queen of the Scene Tik Tok transformations to mark World Burlesque Day. Throughout April the World Burlesque Day team will be going live on Instagram with giveaways including books, costume items and free burlesque classes.
People can learn more about the challenge by downloading the World Burlesque Academy App and accessing the free ‘Queen of the Scene’ module.
“Queen Of The Scene is a song of celebration and a declaration about claiming one’s power,” says Sapphira. “Everyone can claim their inner-queen and I wanted to create a challenge that captured the momentum of the previous dance challenges we have had. It is my hope we will unite even more people in a spirit of uplifting happiness. The past few years have been extremely difficult and dancing is a way to heal and escape. I wanted to show how diverse burlesque is and we choose performers for the video of all body types, ages and abilities.”
How to take part in World Burlesque Day 2022:
- Register here: www.worldburlesqueday.com
- Access the World Burlesque Academy App here: www.worldburlesqueacademy.com
- Follow the Instagram Live programme here: www.instagram.com/worldburlesqueday
- Follow the hashtag #WorldBurlesqueDay.
