Top Things To Strip— Guess what? They aren’t costume pieces!
Photography by MXT Visuals
Before I start this article, I want to clarify something right off the bat. Burlesque artists are strippers. Often, you will hear ignorant patrons describe the art of burlesque as “strippers but classy”, a very detrimental way of perceiving the artform and disregarding issues such as classism, ableism, and racism. As a stripper that performs in a theater, in a strip club, in rhinestones, in pleasers, sliding on a pole, floorwork in a bar, we all are cut from the same fabric (sure, we have different histories) and WE ALL FALL UNDER THE CATEGORY OF SEX WORKERS. Sex work is work and it is VALID work.
From a performer standpoint, we often think that burlesque entails having a persona, an act, costume pieces, maybe some dance choreography… all with the goal to make magic happen on stage and leave the stage a lot more naked than how we started. We spend countless hours polishing our look/act and rhinestoning our costumes. We perform and want to entertain our audience. That’s showbiz, right?
From the perspective of someone who is witnessing burlesque for the first time, the mind is hypnotized by the spell casting costumes but the heart also wonders “Wow, they must be so brave. I could never strip in public.”
However, the irony is this. The performer and the newly baptized spectator aren’t so different behind closed doors. Behind closed doors, it is possible to find ourselves closed in by the walls of self doubt. Both asking the same question of “Am I ___________ enough?” Am I GOOD enough? Am I WORTHY enough? Am I SEXY enough? Am I CONFIDENT enough?
Which leads me to this point— What if the biggest transformation you can gain from burlesque lies in the way that you perceive yourself?
Here are 2 things that you can strip that are not costume pieces: feeling guilty & self-sabotaging thoughts.
Feeling Guilty
Take a moment and think of your position in this world. What identities do you hold? What messages have you internalized as you navigate the world, holding these specific identities? Guilt is complex and hard to shake for multiple reasons. Maybe it’s hard to shake due to how we were conditioned to stand on the outskirts and allow space for others to shine. Maybe we think about those that came before us and we feel like we owe them our best selves which means that we disregard our own happiness in order to make others happy. Maybe we start to feel an inkling of pleasure and then shy away because it is taboo to indulge in anything that is too good to be true. The overarching theme is evident. We are centering the pleasure and joy of others before we center ourselves. Now imagine this… What if we walked into rooms/stages for ourselves? What if we centered our pleasure in our performances or in the choices we make? What is the point of trying to entertain and make an audience happy if we cannot find joy in the art that we are creating? We are showcasing sensuality and pleasure onstage but is this being experienced internally?
Self-sabotaging Thoughts
Not too long ago, I found myself spiraling. I was preparing to perform at a festival and found myself in the middle of a nervous breakdown. This wasn’t the first time that this happened. It also happened the festival before that. The previous experience was a similar deal but it took me a lot longer to recover from the feeling of nervousness and feeling like an imposter. On the day of that particular performance, I was literally anxious all morning up until 2pm… I was performing at 7pm. Luckily, I brought my journal and had an outlet for these thoughts. For some reason, something clicked before my performance. It could have been the podcast episode from Jay Shetty about imposter syndrome. Who knows. Something clicked and I finally started to feel settled before performing that evening. The morning/afternoon looked like a wreck but I made it onto that stage and performed my heart out and had fun. Well, back to the initial festival experience that I was talking about, this time around I did not find myself spiraling up until the day of my performance. I was able to catch myself and pivot a lot sooner. I still had a great time at the festival and felt great about my performance. You know what I realized? I spent so much energy ruminating over my negative, self-sabotaging thoughts that the loudness was pulling me away from being present and enjoying the opportunity that I was about to experience. Someone with 30+ years of dance experience could feel this way?! YES. This was me and it wasn’t cute. If you resonate with this, I am telling you now that the thoughts can be loud. I think it is normal to have these thoughts accompanied with adrenaline because we want to perform well. However, burlesque is also a live theater event. Like life, anything can happen in burlesque and we need to adapt as we go. We can plan as much as we want for a perfect performance. Self-sabotaging thoughts creates unnecessary stress. Be gentle with yourselves.
So here I am… Finally understanding that these 2 things are the thieves of joy. The most honest, vulnerable, and greatest act is stripping away guilt and self-sabotage.
I leave you with this: Don’t ever take the backseat when it comes to your own joy. You are enough. You are unique. You are what makes you YOU. CENTER YOU. PUT YOURSELF IN THAT SPOTLIGHT AND DO IT UNAPOLOGETICALLY.
