We recently connected with Alabaster and have shared our conversation below.

Alabaster, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Burlesque often gets shoved into different boxes that it doesn’t need to exist in. And it happens within the burlesque industry as well as by the wider public. The funny thing is that no one can seem to agree on which mischaracterization it belongs to. There are lots of debates about whether Burlesque is a form of sex work, whether it can be classified as art, whether it is shameful or liberating. Some say that burlesque is not inherently sexual while others swear it can’t exist without sex appeal. There are debates over who can and can’t do burlesque. I have my own opinions on each of these assumptions, but I also think there isn’t a right answer. I know what burlesque means to me and I know what type of community I want to create within the industry. I am pro sex worker. I am pro sex positivity, and I am pro “put the striptease art that makes you feel alive on stage” whatever that means for you. Burlesque takes SO many forms and they all look different.

Unless it’s the 2010 movie Burlesque. That has 1 burlesque number in the whole movie and should have been named something else. Still love watching it, though!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I got into burlesque on accident back in 2014! I was in a Sex and Society class in undergrad and an extra credit field trip took us to a burlesque show. I fell in love with it immediately and signed up for a workshop. I have barely stopped since! I started producing shows in January 2020 (great timing, I know) because I wanted to start creating MORE of the type of shows I wanted to perform in.

For those who aren’t in the know. Burlesque is the art of the strip tease in front of an audience of people. How the performances look can very from witty, comedic, sultry, to downright weird and uncomfortable. I put several shows per month that have different themes or structures, mostly at local dive bars in Denver! My two show babies are Blassphemy (yes, that is spelled correctly), a bi-monthly metal burlesque show at Lion’s Lair, and The Fowl Play Cabaret, a monthly mayhem burlesque show. I’m particularly proud of these because not many shows use long-form burlesque like mine do. Instead of giving a bunch of performers 5ish minutes on stage, I give fewer performers up to 15 minutes on stage so they can really play around with themes and song selection. It’s a WORKOUT but it’s fun and I tend to get really good feedback from audience members and performers alike.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think most non-creatives struggle to understand WHY so many creatives are willing to live paycheck to paycheck (or gig to gig) to do our art. Don’t get me wrong, most of us also have a day job, or string together several projects to make ends meet, but there is something so rewarding about being able to say a thing ONLY YOU could create is helping sustain you. I think the thing to keep in mind is that art isn’t the only passion people suffer for. If you aren’t a creative, it’s possible your passion IS what you’re doing at your job, or maybe your passion is having downtime to invest in your relationships or tv or sleeping or WHATEVER. The good news is that you don’t need to understand it. Creatives will continue doing what we do in hopes it will one day sustain us financially instead of just emotionally no matter what.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

This may sound silly to some, but INVEST IN IT. We need a new Renaissance. Art flourished when wealthy benefactors one-upped each other by investing money in creative people. No matter what type of art it is, people don’t see money in it, and therefore think it isn’t actually worth anything. It’s hard to put a price tag on art because it transcends material needs in a lot of ways, but so much of our world is built on art that people don’t even realize is art! The only creativity that is getting valued are ones that people can easily stick a price tag on. If you can’t afford to financially invest, invest your time and energy. Support your artist friends. Boost their posts. Talk about their work when they aren’t in the room. Get them hired if you can!

Contact Info:

• Website:alabasterburlesque.com
• Instagram: @alabasterbutt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alabaster.stone.372
• Other: linktr.ee/alabasterbutt for all the latest ticket links

Image Credits
Redlite Photos, Dan Roberts, and Anthony Earl