Jo Weldon

Jo is the Headmistress and Founder of the New York School of Burlesque, and is one of the most recognized burlesque instructors in the world. She is a recipient of the coveted Burlesque Hall of Fame award for Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Burlesque. Her groundbreaking DVD, Honey and Spice, is the best-selling how-to burlesque DVD in the world. She is Co-Director of Education at The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Vice President of Burlycon, and conducts the Master Class in Burlesque at Coney Island USA. She has been interviewed for or mentioned in countless major press articles, films, documentaries, news items, and television shows. Internationally renowned as burlesque personality Jo Boobs, she's rounded her heels on stages from Coney Island to Sydney Harbour. Garo Sparo named her one of the Top Ten Badass Burlesque Babes, and she has been voted one of the top ten Burlesque Performers in the World at 21st Century Burlesque 3 years in a row. She's taught thousands of women (and men!) to twirl tassels, and has conducted performance workshops producing some of the most respected new performers in burlesque. She recently taught burlesque to disabled performers at DaDaFest in Liverpool. She's the winner of such exotic titles as Best Bump N Grinder, Best Teacher and Mentor, and Biggest Cougar in Burlesque! She has worked with performers from Leonard Cohen to Spinal Tap, and has been featured on television shows from CBS Sunday Morning to Gossip Girl. She's taken it off in the grimiest strip clubs and at the most esteemed venues, including being the first burlesquer to ever strip down at The New York Public Library, and has performed and headlined at dozens of festivals all over the world, including The Vancouver Burlesque Festival, the Toronto Burlesque Festival, and the New Zealand Burlesque Festival. She has released three ground-breaking how-to burlesque DVDs (via World Dance New York), and her critically acclaimed book The Burlesque Handbook, with a foreword by Margaret Cho, (HarperCollins/ItBooks) is the first book ever published on how to create burlesque routines. She is also the founder of Pink Light Burlesque, a program that produces free burlesque classes for breast cancer survivors and patients.