Burlesque Creativity: A Journey Towards Community & Self

Kat Wondergloom is a burlesque dancer, but even more than that, she is a creative force.  Locally and beyond, Kat is an active participant in the pursuit of creative work that is known for being dynamic and life-challenging.

She has a long history of performance art and creativity.  As a young child playing dress up with her sister, fighting over whose turn it was to wear the red and black tulle dress, and then putting on talent shows for her family, they would sing and dance.  This led to acting in a children's theatre troupe in middle school, opening up for her the love of the stage.  As she ventured into high school, she discovered an interest in the behind the scenes technical aspects of theatre, which included producing, a skill that landed her the "Best Producer" award her senior year.  During her sophomore year of college, Kat was introduced to Burlesque Queen Dita Von Teese which brought her into the world of Burlesque, fueling a hunger for more she launched herself into the study through books, podcasts, and other online articles.  Through all her research, fate, as it were, led her to an advertisement for a local burlesque troupe.  She contacted them and eventually she began performing.  They took her in and helped raise her.  One member, our Darby McCue, even refers to Kat as "her Burlesque daughter".  Through their positive influence, Kat discovered new abilities in herself, new love of and appreciation for her body and who she is, and with their support, produced and performed her own show, the "Rockin Pin Up Revue" in 2011 at a local bar.

What Kat loves best about burlesque is the sense of community she has developed through performing, a community that keeps growing and expanding, most recently with the Eugene, Oregon queer based group, "Unveiled", which has allowed her to explore what she calls her "less than conventional" queer art.  In addition, Kat enjoys the sense of empowerment that comes from performing and from her community.  Mostly she loves how strong and free she feels, realizing the control she has over the audience as she chooses the costume, the song, the choreography to dictate where they need to look, how to react.  Furthermore, she has been inspired by how empowering and life-changing burlesque can be for the audience.  Countless times, she will have people come up to her with gratitude after a performance, saying how her work has inspired them, how amazing it is to see a larger body type unashamed to revel in all its beauty.  This, she says with fondness, has even led some to pursue burlesque as well.

Even so, Kat has experienced some backlash from her art due to a misunderstanding of Burlesque.  She explains that it stems from a lack of understanding that it is truly empowering to the dancer as it gives them the choice and control over what to perform.  Not only does the dancer get to choose the song, the costume, the dance moves, but they can also decide what to take off or keep on.  Its about being comfortable, you get to make every decision in your dance.  Its the dancer's opportunity to detail their opinion, fetish, or caricature in a safe, affirming place.

Kat admits that she, like everyone, has experienced some body issues and negativity in her life.  But, through burlesque, she has discovered and finds magical about it is that it empowers and appreciates all, regardless of gender, race, body type, age, or disability.  For example, the type of dancer referred to as Legends, those that are still performing into an advanced age, are greatly revered within the burlesque community.  In addition, she specifically makes it a point with her production, Love, Lust & Leather, to employ dancers of color, as well as a variety of genders, body types, age, and disabilities.  It's truly about empowerment and helping all to truly love themselves.

A challenge that Kat has faced with her career has been what most artists are continuously battling, that of knowing your worth as a performer and having the confidence to ask for financial compensation.  Generally, society devalues all the hard work that goes into producing quality art, taking it for granted and in a very real sense under-appreciating the dedication of the artist.  It's an uphill battle for any artist to overcome and one of which Kat is doing a beautiful job with her own self-work as well as inspiring other artists to continue to grow and develop their self worth, confidence, and value.

You want more of Kat.  Check out her and other performances at upcoming Love, Lust, & Leather shows:

Saturday, July 13, 2019
Talent Club, Talent, OR
10 pm, 21+
For tickets: lovelustleathertalent.bpt.me

Saturday, August 17, 2019
Labor Temple, Astoria, OR
10 pm, 21+

Take a minute to "like" Love, Lust & Leather on Facebook.  You can also follow Kat on Instagram @katwondergloom and support her on Venmo @katwondergloom.

What 2018 taught me

"Home is where the heart," my character, Romana, from my production company's Doctor Who fan fiction web-series quoted to the Doctor upon re-uniting with him.  Truth be told, this is a long-standing held belief of mine, and no wonder my character said it, I wrote the screenplay. 

However, this year the sentiment has become all the more vivid in the core of my being.  I started this year with the loss of not just a survival job but having a dear friend move away.  A friend whose dogs I had walked, whose house had become a second home dear to me, as I had house-sat there, filmed many a scene there for our modern day Macbeth, Daggers In Men's Smiles.  So, not only was I losing a source of income, but losing a place familiar to my heart and the constant connection of a dear friend. 

Another friend told me about the dog-walking site, Rover.com, and I joined.  Thus, my survival job as a dog-walker/dog sitter grew in leaps and bounds; I have house-sat in many places around the valley this year.   Because of this, I could take you all over the valley, from Ashland to Medford, pointing out various places where I have lived and for a time, a week or more, called home. 

On top of that, my boyfriend and I had to spend a week out of our apartment due to bathroom repairs, thus lived for a bit over a week in a local, lovely, motel called the Manor Inn.  (FYI: the staff was lovely, considerate, kind, and I strongly recommend the place!)  Thus, there is another place I can point to in my travels around town.  '

In April, we were given a no-cause termination notice on our apartment, but were very fortunate enough to move into a lovely three bedroom home outside of Ashland.  Its been a dream come true.

Added to that, there are the places I frequented, the places I once resided, worked at, from years of old that are still homes within my heart.  There have been the frequent travels north, back to Eugene and Portland, where I re-visited the familiar haunts in those places.  Thus, I can truly say that the notion of "home being of the heart", not a mere location, has become an even clearer reality. 

Which leads me to the next lesson of 2018:  Community.  Or as I like to think of it, Common Unity.  In today's world, there appears to be a lack of what is a vital need for our souls.  Thus, if we are not of the religious mindset, we lack a sense of community and without knowing any real place to discover it, to fulfill that need.  What I have discovered this year is that we need to empower ourselves to seek out and design that community for ourselves, looking back at the true meaning of the word, that is, as mentioned above, common unity.  For my part, I have found and reclaimed my own community, common unity, through various means, theatre, film, my own business being able to marry the ideas of work with relationships.  Because, in the end, all of life is just that: relationships.  In these relationships and common unity, I have been able to find the honesty to fully encounter my heart's home, finding peace, strength, and solace within which gives me the bold determination to do the like for my own created community, common unity, relationships.

Lastly, the connection of home within my heart, a state of being, and the true meaning of community has given me the strength to face myself, to stand up to the detrimental effects of hatred and bullying, to those that wish to hinder my way and those of my dearest kindred spirits, and through this empowered new life focus to find the healing release of the wounds of past emotional abuse. 

Through this healing, my own sense of community within the home in my heart has given me a peace that surpasses the external reality of my life, whatever it may be good or bad, with a renewed focus, clearly described and designed, leading me higher and higher into achieving my destiny.

In 2019, I do so hope that not only will I continue to thrive, to heal, to connect more deeply with my center, but I wish the same for you, gentle reader.  Go forth into the world and seek to know, to understand, to truly see and be seen, to connect, and to arrive home within your heart, finally, at peace.

My Heart Your Home

Meet Carla Gehry

I am a single mother raising my biological son, Kevin, who is 5 and my niece, Dareen, who is also 5.  My sister gave up full custody of her daughter to me, as she was unable to care for her, well, she chose a really bad boyfriend over her baby girl.

Taking in Dareen has been more of a challenge that I would have though, not just in additional time and financial constraints but in the emotional memories and reflexes that are brought up from this new life change, that have begun to burden me with reminders of my own past abuse.

With this new found stress of raising a second child on my own, I found myself reverting to instincts of anger passed onto me by my dad, who would react with rage to every minor irritant he assumed we had caused.  Knowing that, like me, Dareen was wounded and damaged from previous years of abuse, I decided to seek help through outside sources to help raise her.

However, throughout the experience in both parenting classes and seeing my very own shrink, Doc Wilson,  I started discovering more about my own self than I would have imagined.  As the layers of pain were peeled off like the skin of an onion, I found healing and wholeness.