Talk about an intoxicating performance!
A new show will combine beer, ballet, and burlesque into a heady brew that satisfies all your senses. “Brooklyn Beerlesque,” pouring into the Brooklyn Brewery on April 8, will pair provocative performances of music and dance with compatible local lagers, ales, and stouts, said the show’s creator.
“We take the beer and we’ll come up with a dance piece closely linked with the history and the quality of the beer,” said David Slone, who lives Williamsburg. “For example, we’ll take a Russian stout and put on a Russian-themed performance.”
Each ticket to the hour-long show includes a flight of beers that correspond to the show’s six song-and-dance numbers, along with a free full-sized pour. Slone, who is a licensed beer expert, will also introduce each of the intimate numbers.
“We’ll have five performers — me as the emcee of the event, three dancers, and a surprise guest,” he teased.
Together they will present an alluring ale-powered show for up 150 guests in the brewery’s taproom, which was recently remodeled to allow a more
intimate feel, said Slone.
“Brooklyn Brewery has revamped their tasting room, which allows us to make the performance more immersive,” he said. “We can talk about the history and style of the beer, talk about the performance, and guests can ask questions.”
The performers are part of Slone’s theatrical dance company the Love Show, which often performs across the river in Manhattan, as well as at Bushwick’s House of Yes. If the debut performance at the Williamsburg brewery goes well, the group hopes to make it a monthly event.
Slone first planned the boozy burlesque spectacle for 2012, but it was shelved when the brewery realized that it would violate the city’s archaic cabaret laws, which were passed during Prohibition. Those laws were repealed in 2017, and Slone is ready to give it another shot.
“Up until recently, you couldn’t have more than one person moving rhythmically in a place that didn’t have a cabaret licence. It was basically used by the city to shut down dance clubs,” he said. “Now that those laws are gone, we’re back!”
“Brooklyn Beerlesque” at the Brooklyn Brewery. [79 N. 11th St. between Wythe Avenue and Berry Street in Williamsburg, (718) 486–7422, www.brook
