The Cheesecake Burlesque Revue might appear to be all sparkles and dazzling seductiveness from afar, but performer Champagne Sparkles says their upcoming HOT PINK! fundraiser event—which contains music, comedy, and dancing—conveys much more powerful messages around body image than what people are used to seeing.
“People are certainly more aware of the mainstream ideals of beauty and how harmful it can be,” she says.
But Sparkles says that there hasn’t been as much change in how people perceive the concept of beauty as she would like to see.
“While people are aware of it, I don’t know that it has changed in a huge way around how people feel. I think there’s definitely movement… primarily on women, but even to men to an extent, and to everyone in between,” she says, adding that there are still unhealthy expectations around vanity within much of society today. “Magazines are still Photoshopping people like crazy.”
For Sparkles, one of the unexpected aspects of doing burlesque shows was giving viewers a broader idea of what it meant to be beautiful.
“Seduction is a part of it, but I wouldn’t say it’s the biggest part,” says Sparkles. “We really focus a lot on body positivity, and the tease, and comedy. There’s a bit of seduction and sexiness thrown in there, but we focus a lot on comedy, and not taking ourselves too seriously, and telling a good story.”
Sparkles says making people laugh and smile while they’re entertained is one rewarding part of being on stage, but the impact goes far deeper than smiles and a good time.
“I think the bigger reward—and what I didn’t know we were doing when we got into it— is the effects that we have as performers on people in the audience,” says Sparkles. “Pretty much after every show, we have somebody come up to us who was so empowered by seeing a range of ages, body sizes, different types of people up on stage and them seeing themselves reflected in that.”
Sparkles hopes that empowerment of body positivity spreads throughout society. She says people have a really strict view of what constitutes beauty in our society, adding that the show makes people feel “sexy in their own skin.”
“That’s what I had got as an audience member before I participated,” says Sparkles, “but I didn’t know that’s what we would be creating as a troop when we started to perform.”
HOT PINK! is a fundraiser for Peers Victoria Resources Society, an organization that supports outreach, services, and harm reduction for sex workers on Vancouver Island.
“I think it’s still important to have these conversations and to give people an opportunity to explore in their own bodies, the way they are now,” says Sparkles. “Every body is a good body.”
HOT PINK!
7 pm Saturday, May 26
$35, Belfry Theatre
belfry.bc.ca