Lisa Learns a New Way to Show All

Almost a full year after graduation from her graduate program, Lisa had still not been able to find work as a Psychologist; she had been to many interviews, but none of the hospitals, clinics, and agencies she'd met with had offered her a job. A few months ago she thought she was close to getting hired, having been through three rounds of interviews at two places and been told at both that she was one of the last two candidates for the position. Just as she felt like she was finally about to get her career started, New York was hit hard with Coronavirus, putting all hiring on hold at the places where she had almost been hired.

Lisa knew that even with her career going nowhere she was luckier than many people. Her husband's career had taken off beyond their expectations; having enough income to get by was one problem they didn't have. Their choice of a relatively modest apartment in a less than fashionable part of Queens, along with Rob's growing income kept her continued lack of employment from being a problem, at least financially.

At the end of the year, Rob had received what then seemed like a huge bonus and raise from the investment bank he worked for, but a month later that seemed meager once he'd been recruited to join a private capital firm one of his supervisors was starting. The financial upside to his new position was undeniable, but his having to travel three or four days a week to visit the various companies his new employer was considering buying worried Lisa. She didn't like him traveling with the virus spreading as it was; with no friends in their new home, she felt fairly isolated and just plain lonely.

Since going out to museums, movies, plays, restaurants, libraries and pretty much any other place she might go to fill her days was out of the question, Lisa decided that rather than just sitting around their apartment feeling sorry for herself she'd get some kind of short term job, preferably one doing something useful but not putting herself in too much risk of contracting Covid. She found what she was looking for in one of the few employers hiring large numbers of people. She was happy to be hired, after just one quick interview, as a new Contact Tracer for the city Health Department.

The work was fairly simple, at least when the people she called were cooperative, and while it wasn't likely to advance her career, she enjoyed being out in the working world. The office was a former call center, but in its new incarnation about two-thirds of the cubicles were taped shut; even with its occupancy reduced there were almost 100 tracers sharing the space. With breaks and lunches carefully scheduled in shifts to keep the employee lounge and kitchen from being crowded, Lisa never actually met most of her co-workers, but from what she could see and hear they were a fairly diverse group, a mix of ages, shapes, and sizes. Judging by the voices she could hear most of the staff was female, largely from the immediate area with a handful of accents from other countries. She didn't hear any other people with an accent like hers, a sign of her life spent in Alabama until a few months ago.

One day during her lunch break, Lisa had a call from Rob on her cell. She noticed one of her co-workers smiling as she wrapped up her conversation; once the call was over the woman said, "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I was just noticing your accent. A few of us in row D have been trying to figure out who the southerner somewhere in row B or C was. We've just been calling you Dixie."

Though startled at first, Lisa was glad to make contact with someone other than over a phone, replying, "It's Lisa, actually. I guess I do stand out a bit in this crowd; and you are?"

"I'm Angela, but most people call me Angie", Lisa's new acquaintance replied, "How did you end up in the City?"

With only a few minutes left on their lunch break, Lisa gave Angie a brief summary of how she'd ended up where she was. In the following days they had many more conversations, with Angie eventually introducing Lisa to a couple of other co-workers, Pam and Beth. It occurred to Lisa that if not for this job she'd probably never have met this group; they were a mixed bag, ranging from her age, 24, up to Pam's 44, with Beth and Angie both in their early thirties. They varied widely in body type as well; Like Lisa, Angie clearly spent some time in the gym, while Pam was a little bit plump and Beth was, as she put it, "comfortable with my size", and didn't appear to believe in exercise.

A few weeks after meeting her new friends, Lisa was asked by Angie if she'd be interested in joining a dance class she and a couple of their group had been going to, "Since it isn't a regular gym, it hasn't been shut down," she explained, "it's run by a free-lance instructor who's managed to rent space in a church basement to teach classes in. Our class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"I'm more of a spinning class and treadmill type, but sure, it's not like I have anything else going on those nights. Why not!" Lisa replied, more interested in the social aspect than whatever fitness benefit she might get from the class. The next day was a Thursday, so Lisa packed some leggings, a sports bra and a tank top along with her normal gear as she got ready for work. She was fairly excited to have something to do after work for a change, and even more excited to have some friends to do it with!

Lisa found the church event hall easily enough and went in to sign up for class; she was greeted by a woman she guessed to be in her mid-forties, but clearly a very fit mid-forties, "Hi, I'm Yolanda, are you here to join the dance class?

Yes, Angie told me you had room for a newcomer." Lisa replied.

"Sure, you're welcome to jump in, but there are only two weeks left in this class. I won't charge anything for your first night, and if you come back next week I'll charge you for the one-third of the class that's left. If you're interested, I'll be starting a new section after this class, with one week off in between. You can change in the Girls locker room, the door is right over there." Yolanda said, pointing towards a door in the corner of the room.

"Sounds fine, thanks!" Lisa replied, then left to change. By the time she had changed most of her new classmates had already staked out their space; Lisa noticed for the first time strips of tape marking out a space for each member of the class. She found an open spot and went to it, waving at Angie and Pam, who had apparently changed at home or the office.

Lisa was a little surprised that the class seemed to be a basic aerobics class with a tiny bit of specific dance move practice, but even wearing a mask it felt so good to be working up a sweat for the first time in quite a while; she had no complaints. By the time the 90-minute class was over she was smiling and knew she'd be back next Tuesday. She never missed a minute of class in the next two weeks, feeling like she was just beginning to get her body back to the way she liked to feel. She knew she was still a long, long way from the college junior she'd been, who'd run a few 10K races and had thought about trying to do a marathon, but felt good to at least be moving in the right direction for the first time in a long time.

At the end of the final class, Yolanda passed around a clipboard for anyone interested in signing up for the next class section. Lisa signed up as soon as the sign-up sheet made it around to her; she definitely wanted to continue getting back in shape. She wished there wasn't a week off, but looked forward to getting started with the next section. She wrote Yolanda a check for the next section's fee before leaving.

Lisa was so early to class on the first Tuesday she had to wait outside for Yolanda to arrive and unlock the door. She took her usual place as the rest of the class arrived, noticing her co-workers hadn't signed up; every space was taken, but Angie and Pam were not there.

The class started like all the previous classes she'd been to, a solid hour of cardio work, followed by a short break. Yolanda called for everyone to gather (remotely) to go over the focus of this section and discuss her plans for what they would be learning. This was when Lisa first realized that in her eagerness to sign up for the next section after enjoying her first few classes, she had inadvertently signed up for a Beginners Burlesque class! As Yolanda listed some of the topics the class would cover, Lisa thought to herself, "Glove peel? Slow burn? Chair moves? Fans? Feather boas? Pasties? This is NOT what I signed up for!" Except, technically it was.

She decided to wait until the end of class to tell Yolanda she'd be bowing out of the current series. She listened to Yolanda's spiel about how much confidence learning how to put all these techniques to work would give them, even if only in the privacy of their homes for an audience of one. The rest of the class was devoted to following Yolanda's lead in an exaggerated, swivel-hipped type of walking and trying out a couple of techniques for removing gloves.

By the end of the class, Lisa was undecided about whether she should quit or go on with the next few weeks of what still seemed to her to be a glorified course in how to be a stripper. She would miss the cardio workouts and getting out socializing, and thought maybe some of the skills Yolanda was describing might be worth trying out on Rob. She realized she hadn't paid enough attention to the sign-up sheet or she'd have seen what the new class was about. The class being all female meant that even if she tried out all the topics, her level of exposure would still be lower than sharing a locker room with a dozen women. The absence of her co-workers was one more factor which might allow her to go ahead with the class; she could, maybe, imagine herself performing the kind of routine Yolanda was describing in front of a class full of women she didn't really know, but had a hard time seeing herself doing it in front of people she had to see every day at work! She decided to continue, at least for a while.

Despite her initial misgivings, Lisa found herself enjoying the class sessions over the next few weeks. She still thought some of the classic burlesque moves were kind of silly, thinking, "Who ever would make such a big deal about taking gloves off, and who even wears gloves like this anyway?" as she tried to follow Yolanda's lead by using her teeth to make removing an opera-length glove sexy.

The way the class was heading, the basic gym outfit she'd been wearing somehow didn't seem quite right anymore, especially considering the way her cardio workouts and some yoga she had begun to do at home were toning her body. All things considered, she thought she had a great excuse to order some less than practical new lingerie for use in class, and eventually for Rob's benefit as well!

By week 5 Lisa was feeling pretty good about the routine Yolanda had her developing, the way she moved and even, to her surprise, the graceful way she was learning to get out of her clothing while being watched. For the last couple of weeks, everyone in the class had taken a turn at the front of the room going through however much of a routine they'd worked out. At first most of the women simply strutted around before taking one or at most two pieces of clothing off; Lisa was no exception, going no further than taking off her blouse her first two times in front of the class. On her third time up, the cheering, whistling, and encouragement being yelled by her classmates helped her get her skirt off!

Ever the hard-working student, she'd been dancing around her apartment on nights Rob was away, gradually becoming adept at undoing the buttons on her skirt smoothly with only one hand; being more and more confident about both her fitness and her new skill at dealing with all sorts of buttons, hooks and zippers combined to help keep her almost comfortable in front of her classmates as she got down to wearing only a bra, panties and some thigh-high stockings! By the end of her routine she was breathing a little harder than she would normally expect after that level of exertion, but after all, she thought, "what I just did isn't exactly normal."

Lisa's heart rate went up again on her way back to her spot in the middle of the class as she heard Yolanda say, "Great job, Lisa, you're almost halfway there!"

Lisa wasn't sure she shared Yolanda's faith that she'd eventually progress to taking off much more than she already had. That night as soon as she got home she watched herself in a full-length mirror as she took her stockings off; by the time she'd put them back on seven or eight more times to figure out the sexiest way of removing them, she began to feel confident about at least going that far. Since there wasn't a class the next night, Lisa worked on her routine as far as she'd developed it. Though she still was undecided about going topless, she spent a solid half-hour practicing several ways of getting her bra off, reasoning, "If I do end up taking it off in class next week, I at least want to do it well." She eventually decided the sexiest method was to tease the shoulder straps partway down her arms before unhooking the back, then hold the bra tight to her chest while sliding the straps the rest of the way off, finally pulling the bra completely off and tossing it away.

The following week, number 6 of the 8 week class, Lisa was debating whether she ought to show the class her new skill in sultry bra removal when her turn in front of the group came around. Yolanda announced a change from the usual schedule; she had selected a playlist of music she thought would be good to perform to and played a minute or so of ten or twelve tracks for each member of the class to choose from and to try doing their routine to. Being the first time most of the class had heard most of these songs, nobody matched up their dance perfectly to the music, but even the beginnings of working their routines with the accompaniment made a big difference. What had seemed to Lisa like a bunch of tantalizing but unrelated ways to remove various bits of clothing could become connected, becoming more than the sum of its parts.

When her turn came, Lisa picked a song none of her classmates had chosen, "Park Avenue Beat", which she'd never heard before. Yolanda told her the old Perry Mason TV show had used a little of it as an opening theme, then told her this version was a little over 4 minutes long, but not to worry about timing the first time she danced to it. She loved the dramatic, noirish mood it created, alternating between brass and piano with a quieter more lyrical section in the middle. She wasn't sure exactly how to match her stripping to the music, but thought it had potential.

Lisa downloaded a copy of her chosen music and practiced for almost 2 hours on Wednesday night to be ready for Thursday's class, only stopping when Rob called from Denver for their nightly Facetime session. Lisa was tempted to try out her routine on Rob over the phone, but held back, wanting to polish her act and looking forward to the kind of feedback only possible in person.

Yolanda was impressed Thursday by how far Lisa had progressed in only two days in making her movements and the music work together. The whole class was impressed that she'd managed to time her tossing away her bra to coincide with a dramatic point near the end of the song, especially since she'd never gone topless in class before that night! Lisa felt her face warm with a deep blush as she faced the class with both arms raised high as the music ended. Despite being seriously embarrassed standing in front of everyone wearing nothing but some lacy panties, the raucous cheering from her classmates confirmed her suspicion that her act was coming along nicely. "Maybe nicely isn't exactly the word for it," she thought as she enjoyed the applause.

With four days until her next class, Lisa continued working on her routine and spent some time shopping for items to wear over her lingerie, at least temporarily, to fit the feel of her music. She was pleasantly surprised when her purchases were delivered on Monday, allowing her to test them out during Tuesday's class. Yolanda embarrassed her almost as much as her first time being nearly naked in front of the class had, by singling her new outfit for praise. "Look at how well the outfit fits the mood created by the music," Yolanda said.

"Thanks for the compliments," Lisa said to Yolanda as the class was ending.

"You've clearly been working on things in between classes," Yolanda replied," it's always fun to see someone really get into it. Especially considering how doubtful you were the first week!"

"Yeah, I didn't expect it to be as much fun as it's been. Scary at times, but fun."

"It's been fun watching you push yourself to be a little more daring week by week. I do have some suggestions if you're open to making a few changes,"

"Sure, I might not take the advice, but constructive criticism is always welcome!" Lisa replied, "I was already thinking of making a change, adding a little bit of narration to the beginning and end of my act, to make it more of a story. I can give you a copy of my music with the additions; I'd also need someone else to play a small part at the end, nothing racy, the other person would be fully dressed.

"I'd be glad to help; odds are I've already got something in my closet which could work. As for your current act, I have two comments. I think black lingerie would be a better match for the mood you've created and go well with the rest of your outfit, and maybe a style of panties showing a little more cheek. Anyone with an ass as nice as yours should be sure their outfit shows it off. My other comment is more about timing, but might be solved by a wardrobe adjustment. I think things drag just a little before you take off your bra; I think you could eliminate the lag if you moved the bra removal back a little and took off your panties first!"

"My panties? Ohhh, no, I don't think so! Taking them off was never part of my plan, I had a hard enough time flashing my boobs to you all!" Lisa replied, shaking her head.

Yolanda laughed, then said, "I'm sorry, I 'm not laughing at you; I should have explained myself better. I meant you should take off your panties but wear a g-string underneath! Several of your classmates are going that way; they like being able to stretch their teasing a little longer by including the panty removal. Personally, I always feel any step which brings me closer to actually being nude in front of the audience is pretty exciting. For what it's worth, I've never suggested it, but almost every class ends up with one or two ladies going all the way!"

"You mean they get completely naked?" Lisa asked.

"A few do, some just to try it out, and some simply get carried away and don't stop where they had planned to."

"I'll think about your G-string idea, but I don't think you'll be seeing any more of me than that!" Lisa laughed as she was leaving.

Rob had arrived home while she was out at her class, but had crashed on the couch before she made it home, freeing Lisa to browse online for some new black lingerie. Having never owned a G-string, Lisa was intrigued to see what was available, tuning out her husband's snoring as she browsed some truly amazing lingerie. "Who knew this stuff even existed," she thought, "and who buys it?" She didn't think she'd have the nerve to wear it to class, might not ever wear it at all, but one tiny triangle of lace with impossibly thin strings attached caught her eye. It cost less than $8, so she thought since she wouldn't be wasting much money, why not at least try it on and see what she thought. A few minutes later she had at least some idea about who would buy such a thing, shaking her head and laughing at herself even as she was entering her credit card and mailing address.