ABOUT - The Follies Girls: Knoxville's Unique Showgirls and Dance Troupe offering A Creative Space for Artistic Exploration

 
Where women who dance and sing find on-going artistic exploration in variety arts and entertainment. 

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THE FOLLIES GIRLS MISSION
The Follies Girls is a 501c3 non-profit, dance-based performance and variety arts organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering women of all ages, body types, and walks of life to explore performing arts as an option for personal growth, ongoing development, advocacy, and modeling for younger generations to confront stereotypes of women.

We believe in helping and educating women to find their place in the performing and variety arts no matter when they begin their journey and believe that all women should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams of performing or being involved within these artistic outlets.
We believe that beauty, personal growth and ability is not defined by age or a particular body type, and that all women with a heart, mind and dedication to develop within the performing arts should have the opportunity to explore the various pathways to performance or behind the scenes endeavors for productions.
We pursue these missions, values and beliefs within the model of variety entertainment bringing the historical artforms of dance, song, vaudeville and burlesque entertainment to the public as we work to assure ongoing preservation and evolution of these formats into a modern sensibility.
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HERSTORY OF THE FOLLIES GIRLS
January 1, 2012 :
The Follies Girls were Created in Knoxville, TN
Anna Maria Terlinden Rogers aka Nipsy Tussle decided to spread her wings and create a dream that she’s had since she was 5 years old. It all began the first time she saw The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. As a life-long dancer who began to become a bigger-bodied dancer during puberty she knew she’d never be able to squeeze into the beautiful costumes of the dance troupe her dreams thought maybe one day she could audition for she often thought. Why can’t there be a chorus line of very unique and very different dancers of all sizes.
February 27, 2012 :
The Follies Girls first show “A Night at the Cheese Shop”
After seeing a production of the show Cabaret at age 13 at the State Theatre, where she first started dancing at age 4, I loved that each of the Cabaret / Kit Cat Club girls were very different women, of all different sizes and ways of life who performed together and the seed was planted. After starting her own dance concept SIZEMOLOGY in 2008, attending Salome Cabaret Burlesque Academy soon after, and having a very modestly fun time as a solo burlesque performer, the desire to have what I dreamed of all along kept tapping me on the shoulder.
A group of unique, women of all ages, sizes, walks of life dancing together like the Cabaret Girls or a less perfect version of The Rockettes.
September 12, 2015:
The Follies Girls changes….
We started out simply and boldly and then it got a bit large and fabulous, but a little unruly at times and prone to divisions that was never my intentions. After some heartache and restarts, we evolved into three groups, The Follies Girls, The Goddesses and The Muses all under one umbrella with different leadership but one goal. We produced some incredible shows but the vision and mission that I had set at the beginning of this journey had by then lost it’s way and I felt as if the organization had become too focused on burlesque striptease and not nearly as focused on dance and dance technique/training. The last show produced under Anna Maria Terlinden Rogers’ hand was on September 12th, 2015 before I handed it off to two good friends who maintained the name until the year’s end at which time they rebranded and began their own journey.

After that Anna went on to produce shows as Noir et Blanc with her significant other Erik David McFarlane including The Ooh Ooh Revue, LUXE and The Black Pants Dancers.
2020 through today…
The pandemic brought everything to a standstill in our worlds, and Anna gave up teaching and felt that she would probably never produce or dance again. Tragically the sudden and unexpected death of her partner Erik in May of 2023 sent her into a deep depression due to grief and she wrestled with her place in the world. Inevitably the words of Erik would keep whispering in her ears, “You know you’re not done with this yet right?”

So in 2024, Anna is bringing back her original dream and concept for The Follies Girls, a group of 9 unique women showgirls and 3 understudies, who will embody sass, class, sexiness, kindness, and goodwill. They will show Knoxville through artistry that all bodies are beautiful and strong, and that they are always visible and vibrant no matter what age they decide to set foot on a dancefloor or a stage. Knoxville’s Unique Showgirls are back and will be stronger than ever…and it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there as we are always beautiful works in progress.