Art & about Cape Town

 Paper lanterns drip crimson tassels one on each side of the restaurant's entrance. A hand drawn specials list is loosely presticked to  Doyu's*  front window, while an inviting neon-red  Open  flashes brightly above a small metal gate. Colourful oriental creations hang from hooks on the plaster ceiling above a scratched but clean floor. The air is wet and wisps of steam seem to twist in time to the soft stereo music. I sit at a table facing into the restaurant, joining a pair of ornamental geese, a half used bottle of soy sauce and a plastic lantern, its wick floating in a luminous pink solution. My fingers brush across the table’s surface, rough against my hand. A young waitress approaches. She is wearing a synthetic green top rimmed with crispy gold and a pair of faded Levis jeans; her hair is smoothed off her face into a tight bun. She runs a damp cloth over the fine layer of dust coating my table. The faint smell of cleaning detergent lingers. An aged Chinese m

Burlesque is built on a wink and a smile. It’s the art of theatrical tease, a vintage form of erotic and ironic cabaret, where the emphasis is not on revealing but on concealing skin, while still feeding the audience titbits of fantasy-invoking bare curves. It’s the rare space where a woman can be sexy and funny at the same time, because the most beautiful curve on a woman’s body is her smile.  I'm at the Obs Theatre in Cape Town. It’s 8pm and the show is about to start. I sit in the second row. Audience participation is expected at this type of thing, and I’m shy. Diva-Disa Star, one of the sexy geniuses behind Black Orchid Burlesque, takes to the stage. She takes off one pair of gloves and there’s another pair underneath. She keeps going and going and it’s spectacular. Her moves are fluid, sensual and effortlessly undulating, and we’re all in suspense.             HURLY BURLY: Star, a glamorous and petite Burlesque dancer. What is this lady  like this like at home? She to