About Shay Au Lait

“Your power is palpable.”

- Queen Glow Job,
Gender-fluid Drag Performer and Activist

"Commanding. Powerful. Raw. Vulnerable."

Equal parts playfully innocent and dangerously kinky, Shay Au Lait is a provocative, intoxicating Sorcerer hailing from the Windy City. (Chicago, IL) Shay is a Producer, Performer, and Instructor specializing in burlesque, cabaret, pole dance, go-go, BDSM, and theater through immersive & transformative experiences and healing art rituals.

"Mesmerizing. Magical. Enchanting."

Visceral and electric, the Typhoon of Temptation is a force to be reckoned with known for spiraling erotic energy into breathtaking ceremonies on stage.

"black burlesque dancer" - https://shayaulait.com

“Full sensorial, full-spectrum sphere of movement expression. It goes beyond dance and into an invitation to experience. You took me to my edges.”

- JWoww
Urban Bliss Shaman

Shay Au Lait Quick Faqs

PERFORMANCE STYLE: Erotic-Noir, Primal Force of Nature
PRONOUNS: N/A (Please say my name, "Shay" in place of pronouns.)
ETHNICITY: Black American
ANCESTRY: Cameroon, Nigeria and Benin & Togo
GENDER IDENTITY: GenderQueer AFAB (*Assigned Female At Birth)
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Queer Greysexual & Pansexual
LOVESTYLE: Polyamorous (High Protocol & Hierarchical)
BDSM: Kinky Siren Switchress - (Primal, Experimentalist, Sadomasochist.)

ROCK, METAL, BURLESQUE, BDSM, & GOGO

Shay's Troupes & Memberships

Shay is an active participant in performance art and lifestyle groups within Burlesque, BDSM, Pole Dance, LGBTQIA2S, Healing Arts and Sensual Movement. Shay also participates as a member of several dance companies, organizations, and production companies:

Siren Pack – Executive Producer, Troupe Member & Performer
The Pleasure Journey with Tatiana Carrera – Erotic Sex Moderator & Panelist
A Pack of Queers – CoFounder, Producer & Facilitator
Burlesque of the Oppressed – Founder
The Villain’s Sanctuary (L5) – BDSM Moderator & Panelist
DanceMaking – Founding Member, Dancer & Facilitator
Femme! – Licensed Instructor with The Emotional Institute
100% Queer – Troupe Member & Dancer
The School of Mythopoetics – Guest Instructor & Performer
SlutChurch – Former Troupe Member & Dancer
Blissful Risings: Queer Moderator & Panelist
Touch & Play Festival – Former Intensive & Workshop Teacher, Inclusivity Team Lead, Festival Organizer & Photographer
The Sweet Spot/BurrowsInk – Former Resident Burlesque Dancer & Director of Marketing
Pole Speak – Former Founding Company Member & Dancer
Pole Dancing Bloggers Association – Former Co-President & Editor in Chief
High Heeled Hotties – Founding Member
Pole Flight Club – Founding Member, Dancer and Stage Manager

Dance Studios

Shay has studied pole and sensual movement for over 20 years. Select featured studios include:

The Fit Factory (New York)
Pole Dance Factory (Barcelona)
Incredipole (New York)
Dancing Shiva, Queer Tantric Monastery (North Carolina)
Movement Lab – closed (Baltimore)
Sheila Kelley S Factor (New York)

Teachers & Mentors

In addition to being taught and mentored by many incredible people, some listed below, Shay has also studied under and/or attended workshops & intensives by:

Aerial Amy – Pole Dance Instructor
Bentley Rebel – Creator of Flowology
Bernadette Pleasant – Creator of Femme! & The Emotional Institute
Carmine Black – Queen of Low Flow
Christopher Mankowski – Teacher of Body Ritual Movement & Butoh
Dana Manno – Artistic Director of Passing Ancestral Knowledge Along Dance Theatre Company
Doris Arnold – Founder/Director of Le Studio Françoise
Frank Maugeri – Cabinet of Curiosities
Isabel Angela – Aerial Yoga Instructor
Krystle Montalvo – Owner of The Fit Factory
Mark Lewis – Arena Theatre
Matt Mitler – Dzieci Theatre
Michael Stauffer – Educator, Director and Scenographer
Perle Noire – Black Burlesque Queen
Thompson Barton – Accountable Consciousness
Zahava Griss – Embody More Love

Interviews & Features

“Kinky Boots the House Down” – Queer Nightlife Production and Performance in Philadelphia via Citywide Queery podcast
“Spirit & Sex: From Cult to Kink with Shay Au Lait” via Kitchen Table podcast
“Inclusion: Language Erasure or Expansion Does Inclusion” via What It Is We Do
“Multiple Ways to Have Multiple Partners” via Philadelphia Weekly
“Sensing Race” via Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism
“Blood and Sex with Shay Au Lait” via Uncensored podcast
“Sensing Race: A Conversation with Chris Galanis & Shay Au Lait” via The Mythic Masculine
“Threesomes and Temptations with Shay Au Lait” via The Boonie Breakdown podcast
“Baltimore Pride Makes a Fierce Return” via Baltimore Magazine
“Exploring Primal Erotic Embodiment for Men” via The Mythic Masculine
“Siren Pack: Pleasure Hunters” via 95 Killers podcast
“31 Days of Sensuality: Emotion through Motion” via Madame Noire
“Challenging the Frame of White Fragility [LIVE ROUNDTABLE]” via The Mythic Masculine

"I thought you were perfection."

- Perle Noire
Creative Director of House of Noire Gems and The Noire Pageant

Visceral. Electric. A Whole Vibe.

With over 15+ years of professional experience in theatre, dance and performance, Shay Au Lait has erotically consecrated the stages for production companies, showcases, festivals, burlesque shows, drag events, fetish parties, and nightlife both nationally and internationally for private & public events. Select favorite venues include The Howard Theatre, House of Blues New Orleans, Union Transfer Philadelphia, Headliners Music Hall, Santos Party House, Madame X, House of Yes, and Baltimore Soundstage.

With 12 years of pole dance and striptease experience, 12 years of Fetish and BDSM exploration, and 20+ years of event and stage production, Shay is a powerful and seductive force to be reckoned with. She considers herself a fellow siren of the same bloodlines of Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt, and Pearl Bailey.