(Photo courtesy Speakeasy Sirens)
The audience at the Geek Easy began to cheered and laughed as they watched Chelsea Bobola, stage name Ruana Rae, sensually dance on stage to “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads while dressed as Michael Myers from “Halloween.” Bobola was one of several entertainers who performed Oct. 28 as a part of the Speakeasy Sirens’ first-ever improv show called “Improv Boo-lesque.”
The Speakeasy Sirens, a cosplay and pop culture-themed burlesque troupe, welcome guests with the intent to make every performance special and unique for them. Their mission is to unite people who have a passion within the burlesque arts regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race and body type. Welcoming the stage to everyone.
“As a troupe leader and as the person who made all this,” Jacqueline Kerr, director and creator of the Speakeasy Sirens says, “our mission is to give someone a platform who typically wouldn’t get it. We want to showcase people who have been on the outskirts of the performing community, that has been said to embrace them. That unfortunately we have seen over and over, has not been able to give them that voice that they deserve.”
Kerr, stage name Bulgarian Bonbon, created the Speakeasy Sirens after witnessing performers be rejected due to not fitting the traditional mold of a slim, gender-conforming, sexualized performer. She says the Sirens have been performing for eight years and she hopes to change the burlesque community within Orlando with each show that her troupe performs.
Photos by Madison Pollock.
“I, myself, am an ‘oddity’ within the burlesque community,” Kerr says. “Because I am asexual and a lot of people kind of look at burlesque and they go ‘you are asexual but you’re doing burlesque? That doesn’t add up.’ But to me I see it as an art form.”
The event let audience members take control of the performances as they were given the opportunity to spin the wheel that would select a random song for the performers to dance to. There was also a hat guests could pull from to see what prop the dancer had to use. Dressed as a devil, host Gaymerdee, real name Dan Ostolaza, directed the bids of the night while joking amongst the audience members.
Guests hastily made bids to the auction-like event, hoping for a chance to pick a song and prop for the performers to striptease to. Some of the Halloween classics the dancers dressed as were Pennywise from “IT”, Jigsaw, the puppet from “Saw”; and Ghostface from “Scream.” Ostolaza says the Speakeasy Sirens encompass everything that creates a good burlesque show.
“Variety is the biggest one,” he says. “Variety in body types and performers and props and skills. Cause you can go find anybody’s burlesque show and you will always find certain things like this is ‘key burlesque’ and that’s great, but I feel like having variety body types, genders, just a whole bunch of things can pull off a great thing.”
Photos by Madison Pollock.
For Jacqueline Krause, also known as Valerie Voss, she uses burlesque to create a strong, confident persona. With prior experience with improv, she says she was thrilled with the show. Krause dressed as Dani from “Midsommer” in her first performance, giving the audience a flowery display as she teased them with each article of clothing.
“I want to make people laugh, I don’t try to be adherently sexy or feminine or anything,” Krause says. “My goal when I get on stage is just to make people laugh.”
As the two hour event came to an end, audience members were brought on stage to take a picture with the dancers as they won prizes through a raffle. The night carried on at Geek Easy, with the crowd drinking and talking about the show they just watched. Kerr says the troupe will continue making unique performances that will provide a spotlight for anyone who loves the arts and entertainment industry.
For more information on the Speakeasy Sirens, and to see when and where you can see them next, visit SpeakeasySirens.com.
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