Over five years ago, our heroine, Lacy Knickers, ventured to take a class on Burlesque Dancing. This was after seeing a Burlesque performance previously where she loved how inclusive it was as well as incorporated the facets of being truly sex positive and body positive, including being truly theatrical and artistically creative. As a writer, her thinking for taking the class was that she would write about her experience taking the class and how it shaped her self perspective. With humor, Lacy says this venture might have been seen as a mid-life crisis as having just turned 41 at the time and having only just begin exploring long-hidden aspects of her sexuality.
This class led her to her first performance which led to more, she says she performs several times a month non-stop since then. This art form has become her true passion and has led her to incorporate burlesque into other creative and artistic avenues.
Lacy first ventured into life as a producer when her friend and writer friend, Amber Keyser, approached her to help co-produce a burlesque show that would help launch Keyser's upcoming book, The V-Word: True Stories of First Time Sex. The show was designed as a mix between reading aloud a short story from the anthology with burlesque acts between it that highlighted the emotional intensity of the piece. Riding on the success of that show, Lacy was led to start the Booklover's Burlesque, which has now become an extremely successful show to be seen four times a year in Portland, Oregon. Furthermore, Lacy is extremely excited to announce that Booklover's Burlesque will be having their second show in Seattle, Washington bringing the city their very special "Shakespeare Edition" on September 7th. She is thrilled that these two aspects of art have taken flight as she herself loves both writing and burlesque.
Lacy has enjoyed the aspect of expressing herself, her sexuality, and her identity through the art form of burlesque/draglesque, which includes writing scripts and producing shows, shows that inspire viewers on a visceral, emotional and physical levels to awaken to their own value and need for self growth and healing. Making art in this way, she says, is a dream come true for her. She goes on to explain that although intensely rewarding, it has also been the scariest and hardest job she has ever done in her life.
Part of this comes from the backlash she has faced from both family and society based on this career choice. Most external sources in the overall society are not apt to discuss or talk about this life-style endeavor, choosing to remain in a state of fear, misunderstanding and ignorance. This saddens Lacy as she desires always to talk about such a favorite aspect of her life, one that has brought so much joy and love into her being. However knowing how repressive society can be and how uncomfortable it is to discuss this type of thing, she never forces anyone to engage in a conversation. However, she happily reports, many of her neighbors have attended her shows and have been not only very supportive but found them very entertaining and enlightening.
Sadly, due to extreme mental abuse, she has not had an open and satisfying relationship with her parents in a long time. Consequently, she has not been able to share this new facet of her life and career with them, in addition to having any sort of familial ongoing connection. She recalls in her younger days her mother chastising her to 'suck' in her stomach, reminding her that she was only attractive when she 'cleaned herself up' yet the rest of the time ugly, and informed Lacy regularly that her teeth and smile were unattractive. At times she may suffer from the results of this abuse, she has found immense healing through burlesque and now draglesque, which has helped her to find the freedom to see herself as beautiful and sexy, in her own way of expressing herself, regardless if it fits society's or her mother's definitions. Her value and her voice matters no matter how she looks, even if she isn't "cleaned up".
Even so, she very often deals with push back from society based on her career, saying it is like taking two steps forward only to have to take one step backwards. She finds society's prudish views on sexuality (women, POC, the LBGTQ community, those over 30, and those with disabilities) the norms of the patriarchy, and even burlesque performers who do not like her particular brand of performance to be the most frequent enemies of her artistic endeavors. Although this comes from a place of those who are afraid of change, Lacy believes it is her personal life mission to bring down that wall and usher in the realm of body positive and sex positive freedom.
It is a source of celebration for her to announce that after a five years, she has been able to 'come out' to her brother in law and sister in law about her life style and career choice. Their support and loving presence has helped her to finally begin healing from the pain that the absence of family connection has left in her heart and has allowed her to truly feel seen by a family member.
Find out more about Lacy by following her on Instagram @lacyknickers123.
You can find out more about upcoming performances at either: https://www.facebook.com/bookloversburlesque/ or on the soon to be released website: www.bookloversburlesque.com. In addition, Lacy Knickers has a facebook page with detailed information about other performances she produces: https://www.facebook.com/lacyproductions/.
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