Lyalya Bezhetskaya

Lyalya Bezhetskaya (born Elena Leshchenko in Minsk, 1978) is Russia’s first ever burlesque dancer bringing burlesque to her country for a first time in history.

Dancer biography

Lyalya Bezhetskaya became a dancer at the age of six. In the USSR, it was rather typical for all children to have an out-of-school hobby. Lyalya did Russian folk dancing, ballroom dancing, and gymnastics.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, most junior sport and dance schools closed down. At the same time, nightclubs and show-restaurants were opening all over the country. Lyalya Bezhetskaya joined a show-troupe and got her first job as a dancer in a nightclub when she was only 14.

In 1997, a first strip club opened and Lyalya Bezhetskaya, attracted by the opportunity of a solo dancer career, started working there. Striptease was a rare entertainment at that time. First Lyalya danced very similar to the way she did in the past, simply taking off her clothes at the end. Soon she developed her own unique style and, on a local scale, became a very famous showgirl. She created numbers that were spectacular, erotic and amusing at the same time, and she wore expensive, unusual costumes. Little she knew at that time that her ‘own unique style’ had a name - burlesque.

In 2002 Lyalya Bezhetskaya went to London and witnessed the revival of burlesque. She discovered vintage fashion, music and films, danced at Café de Paris, the Eve Club, and the Windmill Theatre, met with Immodesty Blaize, went to the Whoopee! club burlesque events, shopped for and attended London School of Striptease classes. She still performs in London sometimes. She stayed in London until 2005 and went back home inspired and with a strong intention of bringing burlesque to Russia on a large scale.

Burlesque in Russia

Lyalya Bezhetskaya moved to Moscow in October 2005. To Moscow’s well developed show-business scene, she was just another girl who came to try her luck in a big city. Nobody knew her, and nobody knew the strange word “burlesque” she was mentioning. Those who did, knew of burlesque only as a type of parody used in literature and theatre, which was not inapplicable, but of little help. Lyalya often performed for free to showcase herself.

In November 2007 Lyalya Bezhetskaya formed a theatre called Shkatulka (The Treasure Box) and started doing full burlesque shows featuring chorus girls, dancer numbers, stand-up comedy and her own acts. Her most famous acts include the Diamond in a Gift Box in which she comes out of a giant box wearing over 5000 Swarowski crystals all over, the 1920-s Peacock number and many others.

Step by step Moscow becomes more and more aware of burlesque. As of September 2008, Dita von Teese came to Moscow to perform at three events, the Opera nightclub held a burlesque event in May 2008, the TDK television channel invited Lyalya Bezhetskaya twice for an interview about burlesque. Many corporate events show interest in burlesque acts. At the moment, burlesque in Russia is only represented by Lyalya Bezhetskaya and Shkatulka.

Other biography facts

Lyalya Bezhetskaya grew up in Minsk. She went to a secondary school specialised in foreign languages and in 1995 she got admitted to the Minsk State Linguistic University. She studied English as her first and German as her second foreign language. She also attended classes in French and learnt Spanish independently. Later on she took up Chinese.

In 2000, Lyalya Bezhetskaya graduated from the University a Bachelor of Arts with a so-called “red diploma” - the type of diploma given to remarkable student only. Between 2000 and 2002 she worked as full-time translator for the Interfax news agency in Minsk. In 2002, she started doing a Master’s Degree in international tourism management at London Metropolitan University previously known as the University of North London.

In 2007 Lyalya Bezhetskaya acquired Russian citizenship. As to nationality, she is a mixture of Belarusian and Ukrainian with a drop of Polish, Yugoslavian, Gypsy and Jewish.

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