If you want to be a burlesque dancer, there are a few things you should know. First, invest in a hot-glue gun; it's an essential tool for crafting pasties and affixing feathers to headdresses. Your gloves should be removed slowly, one finger at a time, preferably with your teeth. If you're dancing the twist, it's all in the windup. Need cheap but fabulous vintage costumes? Check ebay. And never, ever work for free-unless it's a benefit.

Participants got hip to this and more at Tease-O-Rama 2002, the second annual national convention devoted to reviving burlesque, go-go dancing, and vaudeville. Thirty-six acts performed to a sold-out house the last weekend of September 2002 in San Francisco. Working performers and the curious flocked to daytime workshops and evening shows.

After two consecutive five-hour nights of burlesque, the performers who offered more than standard striptease stood out. San Francisco's fourteen-member DevilEttes delivered snappy combinations of go-go steps. New York's World Famous Pontani Sisters, able tappers did a Fosse styled bit with bowler hats.

The Pontani Sisters sounded a wakeup call Saturday morning with "Go-Go Aerobics" leading their charges (some still coated in a fine film of glitter) through a lively number called "The California Sun." The Pontanis began their dance training around preschool; first tap, then ballet, jazz and breakdancing. They've managed to parlay burlesque into a full-time career, teaching, touring, and appearing on talk shows. According to Angie Pontani, the sisters' dancing childhood inspired their act, "It's a continuation of the dance recital with big costumes," she said.

Performers who hoped to follow the Pontanis' lead got plenty of practical instruction, including costume and pastie-making workshops and the panel discussion "How to Be a Burlesque Star for Fun and Profit."