What is the difference between Burlesque and French cancan

I have been really surprised to see the big mistake people make everytime about Burlesque dancing and French can-can.

As ex-ballet dancer, technically for me there is a huge difference between them.

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which itself derives from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery.

Burlesque overlaps in meaning with caricature, parody and travesty, and, in its theatrical sense, with extravaganza, as presented during theVictorian era.

"Burlesque" has been used in English in this literary and theatrical sense since the late 17th century. It has been applied retrospectively to works of Chaucer and Shakespeare and to the Graeco-Roman classics. 

A later use of the term, particularly in the United States, refers to performances in a variety show format. These were popular from the 1860s to the 1940s, often in cabarets and clubs, as well as theatres, and featured bawdy comedy and female striptease. 

The Burlesque has this "French je ne sais quoi" of sexyness....One day go and see the Crazy Horse show and you will understand exactly what I mean....

Dita in the Crazy Horse show .....

French can-can

The can-can (more correctly but less commonly not hyphenated, as in the original French cancan is a high-energy and physically demanding music hall dance, traditionally performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings.

You need to be a ballet dancer to be a can-can girl. That's the basic but not only you need as well to be tall (like a model). This is for this reason the most of the ballet dancers (the tallest one) become a moulin rouge girl or work for the Folies Bergeres because they are too tall for dancing at the Opera (except few of them like Marie Claude Pietragalla or Sylvie Guillem).