If you’re a prude, don’t go to the Yukon Arts Centre on Halloween. “Just so you know, there’s gonna be titties,” says Chérie Coquette, one of the founders of Babes in the Bush, the Yukon burlesque troupe that’s performing as part of the Boolesque showcase at YAC on October 31.
Coquette, who has a dance degree from Concordia University, has always wanted to perform onstage at YAC. At this point, she’s performed almost everywhere else—the Grand Hall in Haines Junction; the 98 and the Old Fire Hall in Whitehorse; the Palace Grand in Dawson; and the Keno City Music Festival where her troupe was founded in 2002. At the time, Coquette wanted to inject some glam femme energy into what she saw as the Yukon’s stereotypically masculine environment.
Since then, she says it’s been amazing to watch the way burlesque has become such a big part of the cultural scene in the Yukon, and one that’s so easily accepted by audiences. When Coquette was a student at Concordia University in Montreal, her professors laughed at the idea of burlesque. But she was motivated to explore the medium after seeing a performer with a body like hers onstage—and she hopes others feel represented by the diversity of performers she programs in her shows. She doesn’t explicitly mean for it to be political, but she’s aware that anytime you put a woman onstage (especially if she doesn’t conform to classic, cliche ideals of beauty), it is. So the show at YAC?
“It’s a way to take back the theatre,” says Coquette. “To have this really underground form of art that’s usually in bars and bring it to the big stage.”
As part of Boolesque, Coquette will perform alongside a slate of local and Outside performers in a variety show that mixes dance, music and circus arts.
There will be music from Ula La, a drag performance by artist Big Will.e, a hula hoop act from artist AJ and a trapeze routine from Twinkletoes. Burlesque dancers include Coquette; Bettie Bombshell; Scarlet Delirium, Halena Lou and Zella Bones from Vancouver; Miss Wicked Wick from Fairbanks; and the Yukon’s own Lady Pisces and Tessa Lation. The evening will be hosted by Claire Ness.
It’s a way to take back the theatre. To have this really underground form of art that’s usually in bars and bring it to the big stage.”
Coquette gushes over everyone as she talks about their acts. Delirium is a powerhouse, she says. A performer and designer who makes her own costumes, Delirium is of Kwakiutl and Irish/Scottish descent, and performs as part of a number of B.C. groups, including Virago Nation, a collective of all-Indigenous burlesque performers.
Bombshell is funny and theatrical. “It would be worth coming just to see Bettie,” says Coquette of Bombshell, who was named Miss Burlesque Australia in 2019. “She’s one of the best entertainers I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
Some performers were juried into the show by way of an application process, while others were invited. Bombshell, for example, is someone Coquette met while the two were performing in Prague. Coquette says she and Bombshell hit it off as soon as they met. They kept in touch over the years, hoping to plan something in the Yukon if Bombshell ever came this way.
As it happened, Bombshell told Coquette this past March that she was coming to Vancouver in the fall. From there, they developed the idea for the Halloween show, which Coquette says will be a good time, with a witchy vibe. Audiences should expect the unexpected, she says. For example, Coquette herself is doing a routine set to classical music.
“I’m so excited,” she says of the performance, which she developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, so very few have seen it.
Tickets are $45 and the show begins at 8 p.m.
