109889634

I've returned to school to get my Master's in Social Work. You might think this has nothing to do with burlesque, but in fact I am interested in merging my background in performance art and burlesque with developing new theraputic methods as a mental health provider. ************************************************************ *** I love people and I enjoy stimulating and interacting with them. I started out as a painter but it killed me that I couldn't stand by my paintings (or hide inside them) and listen to what people were thinking/saying and respond to them. One of my dreams was to get into the Whitney Biennial and then sit next to my art piece the entire time the show was up so I could talk to (confront) people viewing it. It wasn't long before I was performing eight hour living art installations in elevators. People were trapped in a box with me and I heard and affected it all! I could go on for a while describing my various other life trajectories after that but essentially it is a fairly fluid step from creating performance art pieces naked for art school critiques to performing burlesque pieces in bars in New York. I love the structure and purpose the act of stripping provides for me to hang my ideas upon. I absolutely love being naked and especially in public. It might not be a far stretch to say performance art was in some ways a serious excuse to get naked for other people. My goal as a burlesque performer is to create interesting and titillating pieces that give audience members an experience they haven't had before.