CHICAGO (August 26, 2009)—In the Depression-era days of Gypsy Rose Lee, burlesque dancing was about as naughty, and as nude, as it got in public.

The emphasis was on the tease more than the strip.

Now burlesque is back with festivals and club performances and it’s generating some debate over whether it’s performance art or a very thinly veiled excuse to strip in public, even if most performers end a routine in pasties and G-strings.

Katie Laird, a burlesque fan in Houston, says true burlesque is what she calls "more of a kitschy
Vaudeville act than anything else."

She says "performance" is the key word.