NEWPORT THEATER CAMP!
BURLESQUE! BELLYDANCING! CLOWNING! ...AND MORE!
Newport Theater Camp introduces you to an exciting world of fringe art forms in a safe, low-pressure environment and give you a chance to perform onstage! We offer a variety of 8-week sessions in the heart of Lakeview from professional artists who you know and love - including burlesque, bellydance, clowning, sensuality and fitness. Whether you’re getting your groove back or adding some drama for the first time, you can do it with creativity, self-expression, and confidence! Classes are open to all humans of all identities!
Questions: Write to NewportTheaterCamp@gmail.com
Registration for our
fall/winter season Is open!
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the best level for me?
A: Our levels are based on difficulty/skill rather than 'graduating tiers'. Level 1 is very much for beginners - those with little to no stage/dance experience. Level 2 classes are for those with some background in dance, theater, burlesque, circus, etc. Levels 3 and up are for advanced performers who have taken several classes in the past and already have stage experience.
Q: What is the refund policy?
A: We only offer full monetary refunds through the first week of classes. After that, class credits are awarded if you can't continue a class, which are valid for one full year after the issue date.
Q: What is the attendance policy?
A: We ask students not to miss more than 2 out of 8 classes if they intend to participate in the student showcase. If more than 2 are missed, it is up to the discretion of the instructor as to whether a student is able to perform in the showcase.
Q: Do I have to perform in the showcase? What if I am not available?
A: The student showcases are purely optional! If you'd like to take a class, but aren't ready to get onstage in front of a live audience, or aren't available on the show date, that's okay - we get it! Just be sure to inform your instructor as early as possible.
Saturdays
BURLESQUE
(LEVEL 1)
INSTRuctor: THORNE
(they/THEM)
Saturdays 10:30 am-NOON
Sept 26; Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Do you love burlesque? Have you always wanted to try but you weren't sure how to get started? This class is for you! During our time together, we'll perfect the building blocks of burlesque. Learn the bump, the grind, the shimmy.....then take those basics and put them onstage for the first time. This class is for everybody and all bodies. This class is all-inclusive to all genders and expressions, so that everyone can learn to "take it off" in a fun, safe, environment. This class is intended for beginner's level.
"Manlesque"
(All levels)
Instructor: Dusty Bahls
(he/him)
Saturdays 12:30-2 pm
Sept 26; Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Keep your pants on? Hell, nah! Take ‘em, off! Drop ‘em, rip ’em, slip ‘em, unzip ‘em like a man. Whether you are, you identify, you just wanna play, or you can’t be held down by titles, come dress and undress like a manly man’s man. The man’s meat of the course will be focusing on masculine movement and execution of reveals while we build the group act for the student showcase at the end of the session. Costumes! Mustaches! Jock straps, oh my! We will also watch some examples of historical male burlesque performances through to neo male burlesque currently happening today. Watch and learn, (wo)men (them), and then let’s get physical! By the end of this course, you’ll never keep your pants on again!
BURLESQUE
(LEVEL 1)
INSTRuctor: vivi valens
(she/her)
Saturdays 12:30-2 pm
Sept 26; Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
This beginner-friendly class introduces the fundamentals of burlesque movement, including classic struts, poses, shimmies and simple choreography—all while helping you build confidence and discover your own performance style.
No dance or performance experience is needed. Come ready to move, have fun and embrace a little attitude. Whether you’re curious about performing or simply looking for a fun way to express yourself, Burlesque level 1 is all about feeling confident, celebrating yourself and owning the room.
Sundays
Fosse jazz fusion
(All levels)
INSTRuctor: Missile kid
(ze/it/they)
Sundays 10:30 am-Noon
Sept 27; Oct 4, 11, 18, 25; Nov 1, 8, 15
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Get slinky. Get sultry. Get silly.
Fosse Jazz Fusion thrusts classic Fosse-Verdon style into 2026 as a beginner friendly movement exploration rooted in both foundation & innovation. Students will be guided through fundamental movement vocabulary, repertoire, and creative exercises in order to gain a working toolbox of skills and access points for movement performers of all levels. This class combines Fosse-Verdon style with Vernacular Jazz & Physical Theatre to support your individual dance, burlesque, drag, theatre, and general movement goblin goals. All while actively dismantling "old school" barriers to the artform and reclaiming the Fosse-Verdon style for all identities & bodies.
Developed by Bob Fosse & Gwen Verdon, Fosse-Verdon has become a staple of concert and theatre Jazz performance, including Broadway classics such as "Cabaret," "Damn Yankees," and "Chicago." The style utilizes intricate body isolations, hyper-stylized body shapes, and social dance styles in order to build a versatile blueprint for movement performance. From quirky & comedic dance theatre to the sultry slow burn, Fosse-Verdon Jazz opens the door for authentic expression through the stylized distortion of the human form.
"Creature-lesque"
(Level 3)
Instructor: Karma Carnelian
(they/he)
sundays 10:30 am - Noon
Sept 27; Oct 4, 11, 18, 25; Nov 1, 8, 15
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Femme? Masc? How about… a third secret thing? In Creature-lesque, the goal is to explore, discover and play with movement that lives beyond the binary and resonates on a deeper, somatic level, where sensuality meets ferality. Inspired by studies of creepy crawlies and insects, the class curriculum will use these critters as inspiration to create a metamorphosis onstage full of iridescence, intensity and allure. Find both beauty and power in the grotesque and sinister, just in time for the best season of all.
"Sensualesque"
(Levels 2-3)
Instructor: Mochamocha 2.0
(She/Her)
sundays 12:30-2pm
Sept 27; Oct 4, 11, 18, 25; Nov 1, 8, 15
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Welcome to Sensualesque - the sensual components of tease in burlesque. In this class performers will learn how to gain and maintain the attention of their audience by using tease. The tease is how we communicate and connect - Using clothes as props, creating variations of movements and lines while taking our time to get what we want.
CONGRATULATIONS! To "Best Debut" Runner Up, MochaMocha 2.0 at the Burlesque Hall of Fame!
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Stretch & Flex
Instructor: Hora Babylon
(Any)
sundays 12:30-2:30pm
Sept 27; Oct 4, 11, 18, 25; Nov 1, 8, 15
$160 for an 8-week session
Splits! Backbends! Putting your foot behind your head! This class aims to improve overall flexibility, strength, and knowledge of stretching technique. Rather than sitting in splits till our legs go numb, we will focus on active flexibility and proper muscle activation. This class is also beginner friendly! I will provide necessary materials such as yoga blocks, stretch bands, and mats.
mondays
fan veils
(all levels)
INSTRuctor: Eva La Feva
(She/Her)
Mondays 6:15-7:45pm
Sept 28; Oct 5, 12, 19, 26; Nov 2, 9, 16
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Ready to add something fun and flashy to your burlesque repertoire? This is a playful, expressive burlesque class centered around the art of fan veils! Learn captivating fan movements, elegant poses, and dynamic choreography while exploring musicality, confidence, and performance presence. No experience necessary—just bring your personality and get ready to make a little magic.
See video below for an example of fan veil work.
Rhythm 'n Waist
(All Levels)
Instructor: Nami Flare
(she/her)
Mondays 6:15-7:45pm
Sept 28; Oct 5, 12, 19, 26; Nov 2, 9, 16
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
This movement class is all about how to draw in the crowd with your waistline and musicality. Throughout the class participants will experience a mix of pelvic isolations, choreography, and musical exercises. Come learn and go on a wild journey with Ms. Flare!
BURLESQUE
(LEVEL 1)
Instructor: LADY VE'LUSH
(She/Her)
mondays 8:00-9:30pm
Sept 28; Oct 5, 12, 19, 26; Nov 2, 9, 16
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
This beginner-friendly class introduces the fundamentals of burlesque movement, including classic struts, poses, shimmies and simple choreography—all while helping you build confidence and discover your own performance style. No dance or performance experience is needed. Come ready to move, have fun and embrace a little attitude. Whether you’re curious about performing or simply looking for a fun way to express yourself, Burlesque level 1 is all about feeling confident, celebrating yourself and owning the room.
tuesdays
Clowning fundamentals
INSTRuctor: mackenzie shapiro
(She/Her)
tuesdays 6:15-7:45pm
Sept 29; Oct 6, 13, 20, 27, Nov 3, 10, 17
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Clowning can be described as exploring the human experience through personal connection, physical comedy, and failure but it is also A LOT more than that. It can be childlike wonder, unadulterated joy, and even deep sadness. If you would like to discover who your clown is and how they traverse this wild world, then this class is for you.
Through physical theater exercises, group exploration, and a whole lot of play, this 8-week course will challenge you to be vulnerable and push you to embrace failure all while being truthful along the way. This class is geared towards folks who have never experienced clowning before and would like to learn the basics of the form and discover who their clown is. We hope to create an inclusive and welcoming space that is open to anyone and everyone who is interested. Come play with us!
Rascal's Rock 'N Roll Burlesque
(Levels 2-3)
INSTRuctor: Lilly Rascal
(She/Her)
tuesdays 6:15-7:45pm
Sept 29; Oct 6, 13, 20, 27, Nov 3, 10, 17
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Do you want to add some rock to your roll and some style to your steps? This level 2 class will teach you across-the-floor movement, burlesque technique, floor work and a shimmy shakin' routine with an edge. Lilly loves to bring something different to the stage and enjoys sharing her kick ass style with you.
Burlesque
(Level 2)
INSTRuctor: catty wompass
(She/Her)
tuesdays 8-9:30 pm
Sept 29; Oct 6, 13, 20, 27, Nov 3, 10, 17
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Take your bump, grind, shimmy, and shake to the next level in this fun, inclusive, community-oriented class open to people of all genders and experience levels! Together, we will analyze the structure of striptease, deepen our understanding of our burlesque personas, and start thinking about the relationship between character, costume, and choreography. As we work on our group choreography, we’ll also learn how to dominate the stage, develop a personal movement style, and connect with the audience, all culminating in a group performance at Camp Cabaret!
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art of the absurd 3
INSTRuctor: harley go'lightly
(They/she)
tuesdays 8-9:30 pm
Sept 29; Oct 6, 13, 20, 27, Nov 3, 10, 17
Student Showcase TBD
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
“Art of the Absurd III: Theater of Cruelty and the Fine Practice of Making Them Squirm” is an intensive exploration of discomfort, confrontation, sensory overload, provocation, and audience destabilization as tools of live performance.
Beginning with Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, the course examines artists and theatrical movements that reject the idea that an audience should remain comfortable, passive, or safely separated from what happens onstage. Students will investigate performance practices that overwhelm the senses, violate theatrical expectations, create tension between performer and spectator, and deliberately produce reactions such as anxiety, embarrassment, disgust, confusion, frustration, nervous laughter, and dread.
Importantly, “cruelty” does not simply mean violence. For Artaud, cruelty described an uncompromising theatrical force: performance capable of attacking complacency and reaching an audience physically and emotionally before it could be comfortably intellectualized. Throughout the course, students will ask what that idea can mean for contemporary cabaret, burlesque, drag, clown, experimental theater, and performance art.
Through lectures, readings, discussion, performance analysis, writing exercises, and practical laboratories, students will experiment with techniques including repetition, silence, duration, proximity, interruption, sensory manipulation, anti-climax, withholding, grotesque imagery, social awkwardness, audience implication, and the deliberate disruption of theatrical etiquette.
The class will also interrogate the ethics of provocation. What does an audience consent to simply by buying a ticket? Where does productive discomfort end and coercion begin? What responsibilities does an artist retain when intentionally provoking fear, disgust, embarrassment, anger, or vulnerability? Can an audience be challenged without being endangered? And when does “shocking” an audience become artistically empty?
Rather than treating shock as an artistic achievement in itself, students will learn to identify the dramaturgy of discomfort: understanding what reaction they are attempting to produce, why that reaction matters, and how tension can be constructed, sustained, manipulated, and released.
Students will encounter ideas and practices associated with Antonin Artaud, Grand Guignol, the Living Theatre, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Karen Finley, body art, endurance performance, immersive theater, horror, clown, and confrontational cabaret, while continually considering how these histories can be adapted—or rejected—by contemporary performers.
The course culminates in the creation of an original short performance built around one central question:
What do you want your audience to feel that they would normally prefer not to feel?
wednesdays
Fusion Bellydance
INSTRuctor: dawn xiana moon
(She/Her)
Level 1
Wednesdays 6:15-7:45pm
Level 2
Wednesdays 8:00-9:30pm
Sept 30; Oct 7, 14, 21, 28, Nov 4, 11, 18
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Learn the secrets of shimmies and slink! Choose to have bones only when you want them. Join Raks Geek founder Dawn Xiana Moon for an exploration of a modern, fusion dance style that combines elements from hip hop, flamenco, jazz, classical Indian dance, ballet, and more with a foundation of movements from the Middle East. All genders and bodies encouraged.
LEVEL 1: No dance experience necessary. This class is ideal for complete beginners through the first year of training - we encourage you to stay in this level for multiple sessions as we'll continually work on new movements and combinations.
LEVEL 2: Open to intermediate dancers with at least a year of bellydance training (any style). Dancers in Level 2 may also register for Level 1 concurrently if extra practice is desired.
"Warriors femmeS"
(Burlesque Level 2)
Instructor: Silver siren
(she/her)
Wednesdays 6:15-7:45pm
Sept 30; Oct 7, 14, 21, 28, Nov 4, 11, 18
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Looking to express your femme warrior side? Battle ready with Chinese martial art fighting fans. In this series, we will explore a combination of dance and Tai Chi fighting fan techniques along with the intense seduction of burlesque.
Open to all genders and adapted to any disabilities. No prior martial art experience needed. Warriors will be developed and the choreography will culminate in a group performance at Camp Cabaret!
Fighting fans will be provided for the duration of the class.
BIOGRAPHY
Silver Siren is a 69 year old professional dancer/choreographer. She was lead dancer with the Joel Hall dancers in the 1980s. Silver taught non-dancer adults for 16 years at the Discovery Center in Chicago. She taught and competed in Tai Chi on the National level. For the past 19 years, she was Dance/Drama/Visual Art teacher in CPS. Silver loves to combine props and lighting effects in her choreography. She has found a new home at Newport.
Burlesque Level 2
Instructor: tila von twirl
(they/them)
Wednesdays 8-9:30 PM
Sept 30; Oct 7, 14, 21, 28, Nov 4, 11, 18
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Take your burlesque to the next level with Tila Von Twirl! This all inclusive class features more complex choreography, sophisticated concepts, and faster learning speeds.
Thursdays
Showghoul gothlesque
(Mixed Levels)
INSTRuctor: morteisha addams
(She/Her)
thursdays 6:15-7:45pm
Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; Nov 5, 12, 19
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
Striptease to the decadent sounds of gothic melodies. Over these next few weeks, we will be slipping into something a little dark, a little romantic, and a little whimsical. This beautifully choreographed act will have the special opportunity to debut at the November student showcase. Elements of both classic burlesque and neo-burlesque will be utilized to command enticing stage presence. This class will include how the art of a juicy slowburn, the power of intentional stillness, and the snare of a dark gaze can all come together to deliver a performance that would make Bats all over proud.
We will also be building elements of our own costume for this particular act, so consider it a perk if you truly enjoy crafts and creating with another medium to enhance your art.
"Parody Tonight"
(All Levels)
INSTRuctor: Jamie Olah
(She/her)
thursdays 8:00-9:30pm
Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; Nov 5, 12, 19
Student Showcase - Sunday, November 22
$160 for an 8-week session plus showcase.
From its very inception, burlesque was built to knock high-brow art forms and serious theatrical conventions off their pedestals! Led by award-winning theatre artist and comedy scholar Jamie Olah, this all-levels course teaches you how to master the art of comedic spoofing and construct a hilarious parody act from the ground up. Together with your classmates, you will devise a brand-new group performance and debut it live at the Camp Cabaret Showcase. It’s the ultimate opportunity to level up your comedic chops, push your artistic boundaries, and grow within a vibrant creative community.
winter act development courses
Whether you're creating your very first burlesque solo, or you just need a kick in the pants and a team to hold you accontable, our Act Development courses are just what you need! Newport Theater Camp Act Development courses feature:
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Longer, two-hour long classes
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Limited enrollment for more individualized attention
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A mid-process break for at-home creation
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A shared curriculum focusing on Concept, Movement, Music, and Costuming
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A joint solo showcase following the final class.
Act Development with Eva la Feva
Mondays 6-8pm
November 23, 30; December 7, 14; BREAK; January 4, 11, 18, 25
Solo Salon - Sunday, January 31 at 7pm (with tech from 4-6)
Registration fee - $200 for 10 weeks of creation plus a showcase
Act Development with Bazuka Joe
Mondays 6-8pm
November 23, 30; December 7, 14; BREAK; January 4, 11, 18, 25
Solo Salon - Sunday, January 31 at 7pm (with tech from 4-6)
Registration fee - $200 for 10 weeks of creation plus a showcase
Act Development with Lilly Rascal
Tuesdays 6-8pm
November 24, December 1, 8, 15; BREAK; January 5, 12, 19, 26
Solo Salon - Sunday, February 7 at 7pm (with tech from 4-6)
Registration fee - $200 for 10 weeks of creation plus a showcase
Act Development with Harley Go'Lightly
Tuesdays 6-8pm
November 24, December 1, 8, 15; BREAK; January 5, 12, 19, 26
Solo Salon - Sunday, February 7 at 7pm (with tech from 4-6)
Registration fee - $200 for 10 weeks of creation plus a showcase