Queen of the tease!

Toni by day, Amelia — pictured — by night

Toni aims to liberate Oldham women with saucy burlesque
FROM Hollywood dreams to the Oldham scene, a burlesque dancer is aiming to bring the sensual dance phenomenon to the town.

By day, 24-year-old Toni Charlesworth, of Southview Walk, Waterhead, passes on her passion for dance to those with learning difficulties.

But by night she adopts her sexy siren alias Amelia Valentine to liberate women with the fun and creative art of burlesque dancing.

“It’s a real feminist form of theatre,” she said.

“The media has a set perception of what a beautiful woman should look like, burlesque allows all those that don’t quite fit the standard to be true to themselves and express their beauty.”

The confident Oldham Sixth Form College student went on to do a dance degree in Northumbria, but she confesses to hating ballet.

So after completing a burlesque teacher course in Kent it was off to Hollywood for a week’s working holiday to perform alongside some of the legends of the dancing world.

Now she is aiming to bring her expertise to Oldham having already staged several charity nights, shows and has started teaching classes.

She said: “Oldham has a really long tradition of entertainment, theatre and dance halls and it upsets me that this seems to be vanishing.

“This is alternative and it’s providing something positive in the town.”

She also finds that juggling her daytime role and her burlesque passion can throw up some unexpected common ground.

She added: “It’s two different worlds but I love them both and they do have similarities.

“People sometimes have a lower idea of what people with learning difficulties can achieve.

“Dancing gives them confidence just as burlesque can do the same thing for women.”

Toni can be contacted at ameliavalentine@live.co.uk