Deep Dive: Burlesque Festival Application Guide [Editor's Desk]
The inside track for submission success from an expert judge.
It’s Burlesque Festival application season, with some acceptance/rejection emails already sent out, so it seems timely to release my full Burlesque Festival & Competition Application Guide (with a second guide on Burlesque Competition Success to follow soon). I hope that anyone processing rejection - be it the first or the latest - can identify possible areas here to work on next time. If you’ve decided to start applying and/or would like to improve your chances of success, you have a checklist at your disposal.
I’ve juried and judged many times over the past two decades, increasingly so as burlesque competitions became a staple attraction for performers and audiences alike in festivals across the world. It’s a role that remains mysterious - even contentious at times - so I take a considered and practical approach to it, knowing what the outcome means to so many of you. Like active listening, active watching is something we should all practise and cultivate over time, and while it may seem like selectors have all the power - you can use the same evaluative skills and diligence to persuade us. You own the before and after.
Above: Miss Exotic World Second Runner Up Violette Coquette in the Tournament of Tease at the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend 2025, by shphotografia
Jurors can be given an individual selection of video submissions to score, a prescreened longlist to work through simultaneously, or sometimes hundreds of unfiltered submissions to watch, usually in a short space of time. Sometimes you’re asked to give an overall mark out of 10, or scores against different criteria. You could be selecting for the competition night only, or be asked to consider festival curation and placement across all shows and events. Typically I get comfortable in front of a large HD monitor with my snacks of choice and work through as many as I can in one consistent, hyperfocused sitting.
Inevitably, I find myself scoring (and sometimes effectively rejecting) friends and respected peers, as well as people I’m seeing for the first time. So in order to treat everyone the same based solely on their submission, the key for me - alongside the benefit of repetition and experience - is centring the art form itself, my universal baseline, and the given criteria at the time.
What can seem clinical and dispassionate is designed to be as fair and consistent as possible; I know, as should you, that one video in a given batch doesn’t speak to your overall talent, experience and worthiness. But if you do receive rejections repeatedly over time, it’s certainly worth considering if you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to shine and stand out.
Any juror worthy of the job takes this responsibility seriously and will always look for ways to apply the criteria, not withhold it. And you should bear in mind that jurors are often influential in other areas impacting your progress - your video might not get a yes here, today - but there could be other opportunities elsewhere, tomorrow.
So if you want to help us help you - and remember you for all the right reasons - here are the most common, recurrent issues I see with submissions.
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