Without burlesque, I would never have felt like I could explore using drag to be pretty in a different way.
In August of 2017, I attended my first burlesque show: Final Frontease: A Burlesque Tribute to Star Trek. The show was an amazing experience, with performers bringing the sexuality of Star Trek to the stage in ways that were nerdy fun for everyone. Prior to this show, I had no experience of burlesque; I had not even a real idea what it might include. As an audience member, my takeaways were focused on how much fun the cast + crew had, and how amazing it was to see such a fun, supportive environment around a type of sexual performance that is so often stigmatized.
Cast Photo of Final Frontease. Photo credit Hans Wendland.
Looking at the show as a lifelong performer of various stripes, I came away with a number of different impressions. First and foremost, it was one of the first times I’d experienced the combination of a gender-diverse cast combined explicitly with anything overtly sexual. While I’ve had experience with friends, coworkers and family who identify as trans or non-binary, these day to day relationships have not been sexual. Burlesque brings sexual performance to the front and center, and having that from folks who identified as non-binary, or performing a different gender on stage than they do in day to day life, was an experience that made me re-think the ways that I considered public performance. Without that experience and inspiration, the idea of trying to give myself a more femme look – explicitly trying out a different performance persona for myself – would likely have seemed off limits to me.
In addition to the more varied gender roles demonstrated by the cast of the Final Frontease, the idea of sexual performance as anything other than a pornographic act was a new thing to me as well. In my prior experience, all sexual performance was pornographic: whether it be video or photos, spaces like strip clubs, or personal encounters, almost anything overtly sexual had been with the primary goal of sexual arousal. Contrary to those experiences, burlesque was a performance that acknowledged sexuality, but had a goal of sharing that performed sexuality targeting entertainment, not intimacy. Burlesque performances set rules of engagement – some explicit, some implicit – that make it clear that this isn’t porn: Instead, it is sharing a performance experience with everyone at the show. The takeaway here was simple: presenting sexuality in performance doesn’t have to be about sex.
Another element of burlesque that drew my attention was the technical aspect of costumery. Each performer crafts a layered outfit that was typically designed to move from modesty to sexually performative throughout the act, and it is clear that the performers have to invest a ton of effort into interpreting their source material and creating something that fits those needs.
Using the Star Trek performance as an example, crafting a compelling sexy outfit can be a challenge. Despite the overall high level of sexual references in Star Trek, putting together a Star Fleet inspired outfit appropriate for a burlesque performance takes some work! I saw the amount of effort that performers put forward – both in creating something that fit the needs of the performance, but also seeking to maximize the authenticity to the original media. Performers lamented the lack of full body shots in source material, doing their best to interpret and obtain something that gave the same experience. Like any cosplay, the level of attention to detail and creative effort in crafting costumes that allowed for presentation of that sexuality and authenticity was awesome.
Sherman, in the refined Ferengi look from Deep Space Fine
As a result of a review that I wrote for Final Frontease, I ended up making social connections with a number of the performers in the show. These connections meant that I kept track of these performers as they performed at other shows, across a variety of themes. What I found is unsurprising: the burlesque performers each had a thorough devotion to their craft that was constantly demonstrated. Whether it was finding the right costumes, crafting the right act, selecting the right music or practicing technical skills, these performers were all extremely dedicated, and constantly working to refine their skills.
The term “nerdlesque” is sometimes used to describe the combination of burlesque with more traditional nerdy topics – Star Wars or Star Trek, comic books or Harry Potter – but what I found is that those I followed had that same defining characteristic of nerdiness no matter what kind of theme they were going for: passion for their craft. They simply wanted to create amazing, authentic, enjoyable performances.
Final Frontease wasn’t the only burlesque show that inspired me to engage in drag along my own attempts to look pretty. Shortly before I started my adventure into drag, I got a chance to attend a different kind of show: Smoke and Shadows, a monthly variety show combining burlesque performances with comedy and musical acts. The show – with a decidedly retro bent, leaning towards more sequins and corsetry than the nerdlesque stylings of Star Trek – was another eye opening experience. Once again, I saw sexuality on display, but this time with more glitz and glam. Whether it was a floor length cocktail dress or a sparkling corset, the bright, flashy styles associated with this performance showed me another side of the art, while still having the same basic shape: combining a love of performance and a willingness to share that sexuality with a crowd.
I think that my willingness to wear a rainbow corset, and share pictures of myself doing so publicly, was directly inspired by seeing performers at Smoke and Shadows.
Promotional image for Smoke and Shadows, featuring producer Elsa Riot
Every time I go to one of these shows, I have had the same two thoughts: “Oh my god, these people are amazing, I would never be able to do that”… and “Oh my god, these people are amazing, I want to do that.”
Now, I’ve said before: I started out the path of exploring wearing drag because I want to be pretty, and I just didn’t feel I could do that in the way I wanted to with a masculine look. This desire to look pretty has always, at heart, been part of a desire to perform – not necessarily perform on stage, but to create a space in which I can do something different, and share that with others. In hindsight, there’s no question in my mind that the only reason that I felt like I could explore this path at all was because of the performers I saw at shows like Final Frontease and Smoke and Shadows. The performers at these shows showed me that you can be different, you can be unique, you can be sexy, and you can be beautiful – even if you look a different way than you do in your day to day life.
I didn’t think about it consciously when I started experimenting with drag, but now that I have, I realize that I owe my willingness to play with looking more femme to the performers and producers who I’ve seen demonstrating that there was room in the world for that. My thanks go out to them.
Final Frontease was produced by Sake Toomey, and Smoke and Shadows is produced monthly by Boston-area producer Elsa Riot. My thanks go out to them for producing great shows that inspired me to explore doing something different I’ve really enjoyed over the past year.
