Shira Leon

What my show actually looks like

I am 176 centimetres and the heels add twelve more. That means the room knows when I walk in. I use that: my show is built on presence and slowness rather than acrobatics.

The core of my burlesque is one long satin glove that takes ninety seconds to come off. It sounds like nothing until you see it — ninety seconds in which nothing else happens, and the room goes silent.

I never rush. If I am booked for an hour, the show fills an hour rather than forty minutes with a pause. That is the difference between a premium show and an ordinary one, and to me it is the whole difference.

Who I suit

Premium events. Five star hotels, large villas and cabins, halls with columns, yachts. Evenings where the guests are properly dressed.

A closed company event, particularly with a mixed audience. My style is elegant enough that nobody feels uncomfortable.

And a birthday for someone who has seen everything and wants something that looks expensive rather than loud.

Where it works

A large space with height. I need distance to read — in a small living room my height turns from an advantage into a problem, and I look like a statue someone carried into a nursery.

Much of my work is in Herzliya and in seafront hotels. A hotel suite is probably my perfect setting.

What I do not do

I do not rush and I do not cut it short. Anyone who wanted half an hour and done does not need me, and that is entirely fine.

No touching unless I invite it, no filming. And the show ends when it ends, with no afterwards.

How I got into this

I was a runway model for six years. At twenty six I understood the runway was finished for me — it happens early in that industry — and that I did not want to move backstage.

Burlesque was the one place where my height and my slowness were an advantage rather than a problem. The runway teaches you to walk and not to look; burlesque needs exactly the opposite, and it took me a year to break the habit.

Three years doing private work. Fewer evenings than the others, mostly weekends and mostly in large spaces.

What I bring and what I need from you

A long evening gown, satin gloves, a corset, twelve centimetre heels and my music — jazz, soul and orchestral.

From you: room. Height and at least three metres of clear floor. In heels I am close to one metre ninety, and under a low ceiling it simply does not read.

And a side room for ten minutes. A long gown and gloves do not go on in a hurry.

Mistakes people make when they book me

Booking me into a two room flat. I will perform and it will be beautiful, but you get half of what I can do. Tell me the room size in the message.

Asking to cut it to forty minutes. With me the slowness is the content. Cut it and what remains is fast burlesque, which is the least interesting thing in the world.

Playing their own music. The show is built to the tracks. You can request a change in advance, but not halfway through.

Not checking the ceiling. It sounds odd until you watch someone close to one metre ninety raise an arm and touch the light fitting.

What I ask before I confirm

With me one question matters more than the rest, and then three others.

The size of the space and the ceiling height. In heels I am close to one metre ninety. In a two room flat with a low ceiling I look too big for the room, and that is better known in advance.

How much time you have set aside. If the answer is forty minutes and then we move on, somebody else suits you better. With me the slowness is the content.

Who the guests are and how they are dressed. It sounds like an odd question and it is really the question of whether my show fits the evening.

Whether there is somewhere to change. A long gown and gloves need ten minutes in a side room, not a corner behind a door.

Booking me

Name, hour, address, number of guests and the size of the space. I always ask about the space, and with me it is the detail that matters most.

Standard price, no deposit. Closest to me: Yasmin Coral in classic burlesque and Dina Klein on the vintage line. The gallery is here.