Dita Von Teese has been ramping up her career with a European burlesque tour, a line of retro lingerie and a new photography flipbook entitled “Dita: Striptease.” But the burlesque performer and fetish model says that she may not be returning to Los Angeles any time soon, thanks to paparazzi and a more receptive audience overseas.

America may have just lost burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese to Paris. The 37-year-old Michigan-born performer (née Heather Sweet) finished a run at Paris’ Crazy Horse and has purchased an apartment there (it’s also the home of boyfriend Count Louis Marie de Castelbajac). LA’s “mini skirts and UGG boots” style and permanent sunshine are part of what drove Von Teese to take flight, so she can “fall back in love with LA.”

She says she believes Europe gets her and her art in a way that some in her native country don’t. “Some people really think that all I do is wear red lipstick and dress in vintage clothes and cruise around,” said Von Teese while in Beijing, where she recently performed for a GQ China event. “In France and the U.K., they can show what I do on TV. The Jay Lenos of Europe all have me on. In America they’re obsessed with pop stars and maybe they’re a little bit afraid of having me on there because they think what I’m talking about and what I’m doing is too risqué.”

Her other gripe is that too much modern burlesque doesn’t pay tribute to its predecessors. “You see a lot of burlesque-themed nightclubs opening, where there are girls dancing with boas, then the curtains close and that’s it. Burlesque was about striptease, and especially in America, a lot of the mainstream burlesque acts are taking all of the important elements about the history of burlesque out,” Von Teese laments. “I’ve made it my personal mission to stay true to what burlesque was in the ’30s and ’40s and keep striptease in. Maybe that makes me a little bit dangerous for an American audience but it’s more important to me that I stay true to the big stars of burlesque, like Gypsy Rose Lee, Lily St. Cyr, and Sally Rand, the women who took their clothes off in front of an audience.”

Recently, she had a run-in with a photographer at an airport who reportedly called her a “bitch” to get a photo op. “When that was happening to me, I realized this is how they get Kanye West or Sean Penn or somebody beating someone down and just snapping. I thought, ‘This is a test for me, I have to maintain my elegance because all they’re gonna see is the pictures of me being upset.’” (The photographer has since “nicely and kindly and wholeheartedly” apologized, in her words.) “I do a lot of performances and if something breaks or technically goes wrong, what am I gonna do, get mad and storm off? It’s about how you deal with the crisis. People respect you more for dealing with things in an elegant manner instead of having a fit.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Can you imagine Jay Leno having Dita perform on his new 10 o’clock show? It would never happen. I guess you have to go where the work is, regardless of your profession, and burlesque is no exception. I know there are a lot of people who think “burlesque” is just a fancy word for “stripper,” and that’s partially true. But if you visit the average strip club and then compare that to the work of the dancers Dita named in the article, there is a big difference. The end result is pretty much the same, though: naked lady!

The interview also says that Dita is planning to put out another book on beauty and style tips for women who “dare to be different.” I will be interested in that one! I did pick up her flipbook and I must say, it’s beautifully photographed. It looks like it was a lot of fun to do.

Dita Von Teese is shown in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 10/28/09. Credit: WENN.com