Skip to content

Everybody Wants To Be A Showgirl Until It’s Time To Pick A Location

"Everybody Wants to Be a Showgirl Burlesque Exhibition" - https://shayaulait.com

The Temporary Capital of Burlesque

When you pick a location, you pick power.

Every(body) Wants to Be a Showgirl is not in a ballroom.

It is not in a black box theater with grant money and velvet curtains.
It is not above ground.

It is beneath Washington, DC.

Dupont Underground – a repurposed trolley station with concrete walls that remember trains. Fifteen thousand square feet of industrial tunnel. The kind of place that federal museums would call “raw.”

Raw is accurate.

In February 2026, with the Burlesque Hall of Fame’s physical museum suspended in Las Vegas, something subtle shifts. For one month, the gravitational center of burlesque history moves.

Underground.
Black-led.
Self-funded.

 

Washington becomes the temporary capital of burlesque. During Black History Month.

That is not symbolic. That is strategic.

While the Smithsonians curate official America in marble halls above ground – especially as America 250 approaches – this exhibition curates embodied America beneath it. Not the sanitized narrative. The lived one. The (rhine)stoned one. The one that sweats.

Burlesque has always belonged to working-class rooms. It was built by people parodying wealth, mocking high art, bending the spectacle back onto itself. Burlesque is for the people and by the people.

But here is the part we do not say loudly enough:

“For the people” still requires infrastructure.

  • Access requires infrastructure.
  • Documentation requires infrastructure.
  • Touring requires infrastructure.
  • Wealth requires infrastructure.

And infrastructure is location-dependent….sometimes.

Pick a location, and you decide who sees you.
Pick a location, and you decide who takes you seriously, professionally, credibly, statistically, academically…..what ever the case may be. 
Pick a location, and you decide what kind of history you are writing.

Every(body) Wants to Be a Showgirl chose a city dense with embassies, think tanks, federal museums, lobbyists, and policy writers. That is not accidental.

If Black burlesque is not intentionally documented, named, structured, and institutionally supported, it will be extracted, erased, and financially unsustainable for the very people who built it.

So yes – we can keep performing in nightclubs.
And did. And we will.
 But we can also occupy civic space.

And for those where clarity of nuance would help… There is a difference between selling out and scaling up.

Selling out dilutes.
Scaling up fortifies.

Professional burlesque producers who understand contracts, lighting design, marketing cycles, archival capture, rehearsal standards, and touring logistics are not gatekeeping. They are building durability. And we need more of them. Especially from within. 

Venues that collaborate intentionally with vetted producers gain:

  • Higher audience retention
  • Press legitimacy
  • Grant compatibility
  • Touring eligibility
  • Safer working conditions
  • Clearer revenue projections

Patrons benefit from continuity instead of chaos. Performers gain negotiation leverage instead of desperation. Cities gain cultural tourism that extends beyond one-night novelty.

This is not about validation from marble buildings.
It is about leverage within them.

Burlesque is a political literacy tool. (Which makes me laugh to think about the Philadelphia speakeasy venue that almost banned “political burlesque.” I’m glad the venue owner showed me the draft email before any of you ever and then NEVER saw that initial email. You’re welcome.)

Burlesque trains bodies to read power.
Burlesque trains audiences to decode spectacle.
Burlesque rehearses sovereignty in public.

In a political climate where education is contested and Black erotic expression is policed, placing this archive beneath the capital is an intervention.

A Ten-Year Vision: Building What We Were Never Given

I am not interested in nostalgia.

I am interested in infrastructure.

Over the next ten years, I see what could be of burlesque. And this is the stuff I’m willing to say out loud right now and hope others run with it and collaborate with me on it. (I have a partnership pitch letter, a one-page visionary scope, and a 24-month plan outline for anyone who has serious collaborating inquiries or want to invest.)

I see the development of a Black Burlesque Institute – a research and performance body dedicated to documentation, curriculum, touring, and archival permanence. A place where producers, performers, photographers, DJs, and scholars are trained not only in stagecraft, but in contract literacy, grant writing, intellectual property, and succession planning.

I see a touring Afro-futurist and Afro-surrealistic burlesque performance conservatory that moves between cities and continents. A living laboratory where burlesque merges with fashion houses, sound designers, somatic therapists, and political theatre makers. A space where erotic performance is studied as embodied philosophy and economic engine.

I see a cultural strategy firm specializing in nightlife economies, especially with a focus on burlesque & theatre. Advising cities on how to invest in subcultural districts without displacing the artists who built them. Helping venues implement ethical contracts, revenue transparency, and multi-year creative residencies. Translating underground fluency into civic language without stripping its soul.

I see cooperative-owned performance spaces always intentionally include burlesque. Artist-governed. Profit-sharing. With archival rooms built into the floor plan.

I see a policy advisory body focused on erotic labor and creative economies. Drafting recommendations on funding models, health access, touring visas, and intellectual property protections. Ensuring that performance artists are not just visible, but structurally protected.

And beyond all of that, I see burlesque functioning as civic rehearsal.

A discipline that trains people in sovereignty.
 In presence.
In narrative control.
In financial agency.
In collective organization.

Burlesque is not a marginal culture. It is literacy in spectacle. It is fluency in power.

In ten years, I want funders, universities, nightlife districts, and policy makers to understand that supporting Black burlesque infrastructure is supporting economic development, embodied scholarship, and cultural diplomacy. (Truly, I want them to understand that right now and yesteryear, but one step at a time.)

If you are a researcher, institution, venue owner, brand strategist, or funder reading this and feeling the pulse of what is possible, let’s talk.

The next decade will belong to those who build.

I am building.

Now let’s talk about twenty years from now.

Not politely.

Twenty years from now, burlesque could be:

  • Fully integrated into global fashion weeks through live performance collaborations
  • Commissioned by major music artists as touring narrative directors
  • Embedded in somatic therapy certifications, exploring erotic embodiment and trauma release
  • Structured into international leagues with transparent judging and sponsorships from brands like Red Bull that historically back fringe culture
  • Supported by nightlife-endowment funds that operate like micro arts councils
  • Archived through immersive digital environments, allowing global access
  • Taught in universities not as novelty but as performance theory
  • Operating cooperative-owned venues with profit sharing
  • Contractually unionized for baseline protections
  • Featured in international cultural diplomacy tours

Or what of Burlesque as governance rehearsal?

Not just entertainment. Not just nightlife.

A training ground for public presence, bodily autonomy, financial literacy, marketing fluency, collective organizing, and aesthetic sovereignty.

Burlesque as civic muscle.

When I built and as I continue to build SpeakEasy Noir, when I produce my Black Burlesque Trilogy, when I speak about curriculum, archive, and infrastructure – I am not just building shows or experiences.

I am building cultural operators.

Operators who understand art and contract law.
 Eroticism and economic modeling.
 Performance and policy.

That is bigger than an exhibition. And yet sometimes it starts with an exhibition. 

Every(body) Wants to Be a Showgirl runs all month.

  • Go.
  • Bring someone who makes decisions.
  • Bring someone who writes checks.
  • Bring someone who owns a venue.
  • Bring someone who studies policy.
  • Volunteer.
  • Donate.
  • Share the articles.
  • Follow the artists. BOOK the artists.
  • Ask your city what it is archiving, specifically regarding BLACK BURLESQUE.

For February 2026, Washington, DC is the temporary capital of burlesque. The question is whether we treat that as a moment or a blueprint?

Questions That Need Answers.

When you choose where culture lives, you choose who has access to power.

So let me ask you:

  • Who controls the locations where your art is seen?

  • Who benefits economically when burlesque sells out a room?

  • Who owns the archive of your work? (This question isn’t just for burlesque dancers. This question is for the burlesque artist, including photographers, producers, costumers, directors, choreographers, teachers, designers…)

If your city lost its primary burlesque cultural institutions tomorrow:

  • Where would burlesque history live?

  • Who would protect it?

  • Who would fund it?

If you are a performer:

  • Do you know your booking leverage?

  • Do you document your work like it matters in 30 years?

  • Are you building contracts – or just accepting gigs?

If you are a venue owner:

  • Are you collaborating with trained, experienced, and/or professional producers who understand infrastructure?

  • Or are you programming for novelty and hoping it works out?

  • Or are you always collaborating with your favorites and your friends, hoping the clique will manifest into a collective and a culture? 

If you are a patron:

  • Do you support continuity – or only attend openings?

  • Do you invest in the ecosystems you enjoy?

If you are an institution:

  • Where does Black burlesque appear in your programming calendar?

  • Where does it appear in your budget?

And finally:

If Washington, DC can become the temporary capital of burlesque for one month, what would it take for your city to become one permanently?

What would it take for us to own our stages, our archives, our contracts, our policies?

Who is willing to pick the next location?

"Everybody Wants to Be a Showgirl Burlesque Exhibition" - https://shayaulait.com

RESOURCES

ABOUT SHAY AU LAIT: Shay is an interdisciplinary performance artist, burlesque producer, erotic philosopher, and embodied leadership educator working at the intersection of theater, sensual movement, BDSM, ritual, and systems thinking. With over 20 years in the erotic and performance arts, Shay’s work explores power, presence, identity, and transformation through live performance, immersive experiences, and pedagogy. As the founder of SpeakEasy Noir and Siren Pack, and a co-founder of the Black Kink Network, Shay is known for bridging cabaret, kink, and contemporary performance with intentional culture-building, consent-forward practice, and provocative inquiry. Her writing and teaching reflect a living research practice – one that values nuance, embodiment, and the ongoing evolution of what performance can reveal.

  • SpeakEasy Noir: An erotic wellness and sensual movement practice exploring power, pleasure, and play through immersive experiences and education.

  • Siren Pack: A burlesque production house creating luxury, avant-garde performance experiences rooted in spectacle, presence, and intentional community.

  • PolyAm Dynamics: A research, philosophy, and speaking series by Shay Au Lait exploring polyamory, intimacy design, and the emotional technologies of love.

  • Black Kink Network: A collective of Black and marginalized kink practitioners, houses, and brands centered on liberation, consent culture, and shared values within BDSM, as well as alternative and liberated lifestyles.

  • SuciaKINK: The BDSM/kink education and exploration arm of the SuciaNYC, dedicated to cultivating erotic intelligence, intentional/mindful power exchange, and conscious desire.