Each year, VIBF hosts a wonderful workshop series, featuring rare opportunities to learn from our Festival’s headliners as well as some of the many other world-class performers visiting our city. 

​

10:00 AM: Poetry In Motion: Lyrical Jazz Technique for Burlesque with Halena Lou (60 mins)

• Ease into your day gently with this movement-based workshop from Halena Lou! Leaning on Halena's 20+ years of experience in the world of dance, this class focuses on teaching jazz dance technique - with an emphasis on lyrical technique with softness, long lines, smooth movements, and storytelling - as a skillset for burlesque performers. This class will complement other technique classes you may take, such as commercial heels, floorwork, and classic burlesque styles, and will provide another base of movement style and language.

​11:00 AM: Dynamic Movement/Minimal Range with Bee Bee Sanchez (90 mins)

• ​This movement-based dynamic dance workshop from VIBF 2025 Headliner Bee Bee Sanchez will have you flexing your mind as much as your body. Using the creative challenge of limited space and improvisation, performers will work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to make the most of the limited space and each other. From extremities to facial expressions, you'll play with tension, expansion, energy transfer, and vigorous and restrained movements that will unlock a whole new realm of possibilities. 

12:30 PM:  The ABCs of Virtual Burlesque with Fannie Sinclair (60 mins)

• This lecture-based workshop from Fannie Sinclair will explore how beautiful virtual burlesque can be - from how to approach participating in a virtual LIVE performance, to how to utilize virtual burlesque even if there isn't a show for it. Fannie will bring her personal experiences as one of the most prolific virtual burlesque performers on the West Coast. She will share some of the incredible achievements she has witnessed and created in this realm - including for VIBF!

1:30 PM: Constructing Choreography with Vivian Brass (90 mins)

• This movement/lecture hybrid workshop with Vivian Brass will cover how to deliver a story throughout a burlesque number, and creative ways to come up with movements and expressions that work for you and that are cohesive. Vivian Brass will guide you through learning skills and tricks to help you with building burlesque routines that will be sure to captivate your crowd.

3:00 PM: Burn Slow with Queerly Femmetastic (60 mins)

• This movement-based workshop from VIBF 2025 Featured Performer Queerly Femmetastic focuses on the delicious art of the slow-burn.  Discover what it means to make ‘em wait for it.  How do you draw your audience in?  Build tension? Satisfy that tension or leave them thirsting for more?

​

​​​