Want a Bit o’ Fun? Try a bit o’ Burlesque!
By Melanie Dellas

a bit o’ Burlesque is a modern-day, traditional burlesque dance company that delivers sassy, saucy, humorous entertainment to its audiences in San Diego and beyond through private parties and classes, promotions, stage productions, and much more. They have over 10 different styles of dance to offer, and they sing and act, too! With this much talent on one stage, it’s no wonder that their shows and classes attract so much attention.

The group’s founders, Nikki Haritatos and Laura Maravilla, have dance in their blood. Originally from South Africa, Nikki’s entire family moved to San Diego so she could attend college. She wanted to study aerospace engineering, so she went to UCSD and earned her degree.

Dancing since she was four, she began in ballet and, at the age of 11, was convinced by the owner of the ballet studio she was dancing in to give Spanish dancing and jazz a try. “She said, ‘you’re going to try it for three months free of charge, and if you don’t like it you don’t have to keep on going.’ Well, three months turned into quite a few years,” Nikki said. “Spanish dancing in South Africa consists of flamenco, classical and regional Spanish dancing. I totally fell in love with everything Latin and jazz. When I was 14, I gave up ballet. When I was 16 I retired from jazz.” (To read the entire article, please see the May/June 2008 issue of Dance San Diego!)

The Multi-Ethnic Male Dancer
By Peter Kalivas

Imagine carrying multiple ethnic identities in and on your body. Now imagine attempting to enter a world where you are neither “in” nor “out” due to this potential. In thinking of dance and a multi-ethnic body in search of movement as a way to reveal itself, it is interesting perhaps to look not only at the view in which this body describes itself, but the effort in presenting itself clearly and distinctively in performance. If we think of the ways in which men work at presenting themselves in dance; subverting and challenging stereotypes, claiming a real and active presence, then the same is true for the dancing male (and female) multi-ethnic body who wishes to be seen as whole rather than merely the sum of their parts.

Justin Viernes is a young and vibrant Filipino, Japanese, Caucasian (French, Portuguese) and Chinese dancer born and raised in Hawai’i now living on the “Mainland” in San Diego the last seven years. This past February he was presented as one of the newest members of The PGK Project (A Contemporary Dance Company). Started 14 years ago in Munich, Germany, now based bi-coastally between New York and San Diego, the company is composed of eight dancers of diverse ethnicities alongside Justin, fulfilling a major component of the company’s mission. (To read the entire article, please see the May/June 2008 issue of Dance San Diego!)