I had seen Jo Weldon’s posts about Pink Light Burlesque (Jo Weldon is the headmistress of the New York School of Burlesque) so many times on Facebook and had thought at the time “Wow, that’s such a great idea”, and yet it never occurred to me until yesterday to follow the example. This I find quite odd now because I still carry the scar on my left breast where I had a fibroadenoma cut out (a fibrous cyst) when I was aged 19, and still clearly remember the fear that it might be something much worse when I found a lump.

How did it hit me in the face so quickly when it should have been so obvious? Yesterday I wrote my blog on Burlesque being an alternative therapy for restoring positive body image and confidence after seeing a post saying Burlesque wasn’t the place to work out these issues. Afterwards I visited the house of one of my previous students who I happened to write about in the blog, and her sister-in-law was there. This amazing woman has recently been told that she was terminal after fighting breast cancer. We got talking about the alternative therapy treatments she has been trying (and appearing to be working), and the blog, and like a motorboat out of no where, it hit me with a pleasant suffocation… why not bring Pink Light Burlesque to New Zealand?  Now must be the right time.

Pink Light Burlesque was set up by Jo to help spread some of that confidence and positive body image that burlesque gives to so many women across the world, to those who may need that confidence so much more than the rest of us… those who have suffered from, or are patients still of, breast cancer. Today she told me stories of her experience as part of Pink Light I was in tears of sadness and inspiration. Miss Indigo Blue offers the free lessons in Seattle as well and I am so honored that I am now allowed to raise the Pink Light Burlesque flag in New Zealand.