Dita Von Teese Seduces Crowd at MCASD Gala

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s 35th annual Monte Carlo fundraiser was held at their La Jolla location on Saturday with the theme Monte Carlo Goes Burlesque.

The dress code was club chic attire and the big headliner for the evening was Dita Von Teese. Dita is the famous burlesque dancer who is known worldwide as the "Queen of Burlesque."

Dinner patrons arrived early for appetizers and signature ‘Dita’ drinks by Cointreau inside the museum. Corseted and feathery bustled gals from Keyhole Cabaret in San Diego busily sold opportunity drawings. Prizes included a beautiful pair of amethyst and diamond earrings from in La Jolla and a dinner for 10 at Giuseppe’s new restaurant by the Scripps Pier.

Among the crowd were co-chairs David Copley and Valerie Cooper. Also in attendance were Linnea and Frank Arrington, Rusti Bartell and Steven Rosenberg, Susan and Bob Blanchard, MCASD Director Dr. Hugh M. Davies, Lauren and Greg Garbacz, Audrey Geisel and Alex Butterfield, Carolyn Farris, Jake Figi, Abeer and George Hage, Andreas Hronopoulos, Jeanne and Bill Larson, Maryanne and Irwin Pfister, and Liz and Mason Phelps. 

The evening continued outside with a Giuseppe catered dinner including a perfectly served up tender filet mignon.

Dita’s first show was her famous Opium Den.

Dessert followed and so did dancing. Around 10 p.m. the party moved back inside. There was more dancing, "gambling" in the galleries, and Sinatra-esque tunes provided by Rick Ross.

Dita performed a second time at midnight with her famous Martini Glass Dance, much to the delight of a standing room only crowd. She unveiled herself slowly with expert teasing and then splashed about in a martini glass while squeezing the juice out of an over-sized olive resulting in thunderous applause.

And it was all for a great cause.

The annual Monte Carlo gala with varying themes is MCASD’s primary annual fundraiser. Over $5 million has been raised by this annual event thus far enabling crucial funding for the museum’s exhibitions and education programs.

This year’s event was a standout on many positive fronts as noted by co-chair Cooper.

“Monte Carlo Goes Burlesque will go down in Museum history as being one of the most successful fundraisers for MCASD” said Cooper.  “It truly was a team effort of many people working tirelessly to make it such a fun, edgy and rocking party. I think Dita created a buzz in the town for something a little different than a regular black tie event.”

To learn more about MCASD, visit mcasd.org.