The Ministry of Burlesque are the UK’s premier organisation for professional burlesque theatre. We produce for theatre, cabaret clubs and private events, with over 20 years experience and a legacy of cultural change. Formed in 2002, MoB led the vanguard of the new burlesque resurgence by nurturing and guiding an emerging community toward establishing a sustainable industry.
“MOB was at the forefront of the new wave of burlesque in the UK and facilitated hobbyists to come together and make a real industry – creating jobs for hundreds. Just. Wow. 👏🏻”
– Beau Rocks
Founded by Kirsty Allan (then a psychology student), MoB was born out of a self-experiment to break through into self-acceptance, by performing in outré fashion in front of others. On recognising a collective need for this playful challenge to the status quo, MoB was then developed to:
- encourage authentic self-expression,
- challenge body, beauty and gender ‘norms’,
- nurture confidence in a new era of burlesque.
Over twenty years on, we continue to ‘raise the barre’ of professional production, performance and education. As a catalysing influence on modern burlesque theatre, MoB have been advocating both the genre’s long legacy and modern power as socio-political satire – with many ‘firsts’ and accolades in our own history. With a passion for questioning and provoking the status quo, we value inclusion with the aim of improving our collective wellbeing, through art.
We have enjoyed national sell-out theatre tours, ‘Best Show’ awards, sell out runs and 5 star acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe, guest appearances at London Fashion Week, international peer recognition and many high profile media and press engagements as both an “authority” (BBC R4, BBC2, BBC4, ITV, Ch4, EMI) and as exemplar entertainers. We have also supported the emergence of many UK stars, shaped and influenced best practice, brought burlesque back to the oldest surviving intact Victorian Music Hall (the Britannia Panopticon), created and sold out the first new original Victorian burlesque and contrastingly, we were the first British judges to sit on the panel for the Burlesque Hall of Fame (formerly ‘Miss Exotic World’) contest in Las Vegas (2007).
Adulation for MoB
“…an elegant masquerade of the past and an homage to taste and irony.”
La Repubblica Delle Donne, Italy
“Hilarious. A Wonderful show. I loved it.”
Ben Elton
“An authority on burlesque theatre.”
BBC Radio 4
“Ground breaking”
Time Out London
“Best Show of the Year 2013”
Royal & Derngate Theatre
“Sell Out Success Award”
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008
“Ministry of Burlesque is London’s leading school and social networking portal for aspiring burlesque artists”
The Independent
“For burlesque, you need the Ministry of Burlesque and it’s fearless leader – the fabulous Kittie Klaw”
Time Out
“Founder of the resurgent burlesque movement”
The Evening Times
“Ministry of Burlesque work tirelessly to nurture Britain’s next generation of burly starlets. The MOB is the country’s premier and foremost for information sharing; for all things burlesque, cabaret and vaudeville.”
Immodesty Blaize
Comments are closed.