A WINK AND A SMILE on the surface is a documentary on modern burlesque. There are performances by modern greats in the field as Miss Indigo Blue and The Shanghi Pearl, but it's so much more than that. You see, Miss Blue teaches a class on burlesque and along the way we get to watch ten women of various ages from their twenties to their fifties, engage in the art of burlesque dancing.

Everything from their stage names to their routines are explored in depth. Along the way we watch various burlesque performers show us that burlesque is less about sex and more about sexuality regardless of what you look like. From an ultra-thin waif of a woman to one of extra curves and Amazonian proportions. Burlesque is there to make a person feel comfortable with what they have been given.

There is no artifice involved here. By the end of a burlesque performer's act there's not many places to hide any of those preconceived "flaws" that people have with their bodies.

And the ten women in the class come from all walks of life. There's the opera singer who, in the end, chickens out of the final performance. We have a taxidermist and a doctor, you name it and it's probably represented, to some extent, by these ten women. I did find it odd that the one woman who actually has previous stage work on her resume is the one to bail at the last moment. It was more from hang-ups and preconceived notions of what people might think than anything else and that was a little sad. It's like she didn't learn anything in her time in class and failed to understand that burlesque is about the sizzle, not the steak.

In the end, nine of the women finish their series of workshops and graduation day is their final performances in front of a live audience. They all do a fine job and battle stage fright and costume malfunctions along the way.
Miss Indigo Blue is a fine teacher and an outspoken advocate of the burlesque form of showmanship.

A WINK AND A SMILE is one of those funny, endearing and entertaining documentaies that deserves to be seen by everyone.