“The Miss Exotic World Pageant (officially, the Miss Exotic World Pageant and Striptease Reunion) is an annual neo-burlesque pageant and convention, and is the annual showcase event (and fundraiser for) the Burlesque Hall of Fame (formerly the Exotic World burlesque museum). The pageant, sometimes referred to as the “Miss America of Burlesque”, attracts former burlesque queens from past decades, as well as current participants of the neo-burlesque scene. The pageant consists of burlesque performances spanning a weekend, culminating with the competition to crown a single performer as Miss Exotic World. Because of the significance of the Exotic World Burlesque Museum to the burlesque community, winning the pageant is considered a top honor for a burlesque performer”. – Wikipedia

Here: Stephanie Blake removes a stocking at the Miss Exotic World Pageant at the Exotic World Burlesque Museum on June 7, 2003 in Helendale outside of Barstow, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

In 1949, LIFE magazine sent famed photographer Nina Leen to document the daily life of a sassy troupe of young women who had run off and joined the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Fla. What developed was a portrait of a sisterhood formed over acrobatics that mixed high-flying wire acts with fashionable high-waisted shorts. Sarasota was once considered “the home of the American circus”. Here: an aerialist smoking while rehearsing for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, FL in 1949. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Young South Korean models, with wearable computers, walk the cat walk during the Ubiquitous Fashionable Computer Fashion Show on November 17, 2006 in Goyang, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

“Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian-born, naturalized French, later naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1934 and a naturalized US citizen in 1945. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Composer Igor Stravinsky (right) and impresario Sergei Diaghilev in Seville during their Ballets Russes collaboration. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1921

Shot by Bert Hardy, the black and white images show prisoners carrying out remedial tasks such as untying knots in post office string and sewing mail bags. Other intriguing shots show lags doing their daily one hour outdoor exercise, being frisked for contraband items by officers during a routine “rub down” and serving evening meals. Strangeways was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and cost £170,000 ($207,910) to build. The prison, famed for its prominent ventilation tower and imposing design, has become a local landmark. Here: A prison officer frisking prisoners during the “rub-down” at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, UK on November 1948. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The “Strandbeest” sculpture created by Dutch artist Theo Jansen walks at Federation Square on February 1, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. The 12 metre long, 4 metre high and 2 metre wide structure built of plastic tubes and bottles designed to walk using wind energy will be on display at Federation Square until February 26. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Actors dressed up as zombies walk around while posing for photos with passers-by in New York's Times Square on Friday, October 10, 2014 as a promotion for the season premiere of AMC's “The Walking Dead” this Sunday, October 12, 2014. (Photo by Gordon Donovan)