We can see your faces
What it’s like to dance in a theatrical burlesque show
Next week will mark my three hundredth performance with “The Empire Strips Back,” a Star Wars-themed, comedic, burlesque parody show. While this isn’t the first, and there are numerous more talking points I am confident I will eventually publish regarding this experience, today, I found myself wondering if our audiences know how clearly we can see their smiles, their laughs and their snickers. When we smile at you, looking directly into the iris’ of your eyes, do you process our humanity?
While I am sure some people do, I have found that many don’t and I cannot necessarily blame or look down upon them for this. We are caked in stage makeup, wearing silly costumes you would never see in the real world, propped up on a stage, framed by a curtain, under expensive, highly saturated, airbrushing, colorful lights. It is as if you’re peering into a television screen showcasing a glimpse of some different world. I understand this. I have watched my coworkers from the house in some instances where a light track or an injury allotted free time. We truly, really, do not look real.
We are beautiful, young women who have trained in the art of dance our entire lives to appear super human. Honestly, I would be insulted if, while performing, people saw us as the same species as…
