The Seattle Erotic Art Festival facilitates many unique platforms for performance art, from grand mainstage performances to smaller, more intimate showcases which blend seamlessly into their surroundings. From unique main stage productions to gloriously unexpected roaming characters, attendees who come to the Festival see and experience performance art they wouldn’t normally access in Seattle.
2016 Performance Commodore, Jesse Belle-Jones
Jesse Belle-Jones, “The Modern Sexual Intellectual,” is one bluestocking bettie whose edgy antics and sultry grace will leave audiences scratching their heads and panting for more. With her strong dance background and academic approach, Jesse tours as a headliner and produces critically acclaimed burlesque shows across the globe. Her whipsmart acts are packed with tantalizing food for thought served up in a sharp, scintillating style that is guaranteed to keep her on your mind.
Maven of Ambient Magic, Lesley Carmichael
Erotic art is all around you at the Festival… on the stage, on podiums and walls and screens… even right there behind you! Our anonymous troupe will delight you with tiny, surprising performances all around the Festival floor. We are here to share moments with you: hyper-local experiences of love and lust, of beauty, of intensity and consent and connection, of passion and humor. We’ll be just around that corner over there…
Sound and Music Director, Raymond Forbes
Featured photo of cellist Jesse Parce and dancer Rose Riley.
Our 2016 Performance Selections
The complete list of performance offerings can be found within the Festival Schedule.
Apollo Vidra
Apollo is the result of a failed(?) genetic experiment attempting to combine the DNA of a Greek goddess and an otter. Witty, mischievous, and insatiably curious, he attempts to use performance art to understand more fully what it means to be human. Apollo hopes to continue blending and blurring lines between art forms to make the whole community a more glitter-infested place!
Tennessee Tease
Created by Fosse Jack and Sailor St. Claire, The Tennessee Tease brings together Tennessee Williams’ plays, memoirs, and original burlesque to explore the life and works of this gay American icon. The festival version of this production features Al Lykya, Olatsa Assassin, Jesus La Pinga, Hisam Goueli, and Apollo Vidra.
Maggie Mc Mufifn
Maggie started burlesquing in 2010 and headed for Seattle in 2013. Drawing inspiration from past and present pop culture, Maggie combines comedic flair with the gritty dance moves of 1970’s strip clubs. Known as The Pelvis of Justice, she’s here to hip-thrust her way into your heart.
Man Johnson
Man Johnson has has been lucky enough to perform at some of Seattle’s most well know burlesque halls including The Rendezvous, The Rebar and Columbia City Theater, working with established performers and producers.. He has performed at The Texas Burlesque Festival and The Oregon Portland Festival many times. He was thrilled to be part of Miss Indigo Blues step-down number at 2012’s Burlesque Hall of Fame. In 2015 performed at the 1st Annual Seattle Boylesque Festival in June. And won most innovative at the Souther Texas Burlesque Revival in October. He describes his burlesque as Absurd-lesque: slightly demented, perverted and always silly. He likes to start with one concept and completely turn it on its head.
Miz Melancholy
The Mistress of Melodrama, Miz Melancholy revels in making people slightly uncomfortable…in a profoundly titillating way. She has demonstrated an affinity for the gothic and the macabre through her precision crafted performances. Her newest endeavor is Miz Mel’s Cabaret a burlesque and cabaret performance company focused.
Stella D’Letto
Stella D’Letto is the Gemini. Duality is the name of the game for the fair Italiana who is known for her devastatingly sensual streak. Performing & producing for the better part of 2 decades, Stella was introduced to burlesque in 2009, she is a founding member of Stripped Screw Burlesque, and co-owner of Seattle’s non-profit media company Stell®Films.
Olatsa Assassin
Olatsa Assassin is a burlesque dancer, singer and actress from the city of Seattle, WA. She transitioned to burlesque in 2011 and now performs regularly in the PNW and beyond. A veteran of the performing arts, Olatsa holds a BA in Music and Theater from WWU, and has over the years performed in musicals, plays, choral works and Opera.
The Lady B
The Lady B is Seattle’s Première TransFabulous, Femtastic, Draglesquing, Sass-Mouthing Negro. She is also a visceral story-teller, performance artist, activist, Twerkshop facilitator, and Middlebury College graduate. The Lady investigates how politics are projected onto and performed through the physical body through the lenses of race, sexuality, orientation, gender, and ability – responding through the mediums of burlesque, original choreography, Drag, and spoken word.
Violet Tendencies
Founding member of Stripped Screw Burlesque, Violet Tendencies is a classically trained ballerina cum burlesque performer. Unpredictable and uninhibited, Violet’s performances are edgy with a touch of refinement. She has performed in local Seattle venues since 2008 as well as at The Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender and regional festivals.
Gale Force
Gale Force is a performance artist that is nourished by the absurd. For the last decade she has been cultivating her brand of weirdness in Seattle by way of burlesque, acting, clowning, aerial artistry, and stilt dancing. She is a creature you can’t keep on the ground. Always rising. Ever-evolving. A true force to be reckoned with.
Solange Corbeau
Solange Corbeau earned a B.A. in Theatre and Dance from The University of Texas where she began her love affair with performance art and feminist themes expressed through art. She brings personal vulnerability to her work, utilizing the healing power of art to inspire personal, social, and political change.
Crystal Tassels
Crystal Tassels brings old-time Manhattan glamour to the wild, wild (North)west. Ms. Tassels made her burlesque debut while living in South Korea as a member of what was, at the time, the country’s only burlesque troupe. She is delighted to return to SEAF again this year.
Sailor St. Claire & Fosse Jack
Sailor St Claire brings sass and a firm (but kind) hand to the stage as the Mistress of Seattle Show Pup, Fosse Jack, as they imagine the sexploraiton of a couple of 1950s sweet hearts. You’ll be stuck on the Showgirl Scholar and this Waggish Whelp as they dance to the music of The King.
Usurping Gander
Usurping Gander is a rebel, a clown, a priestess. She is a little bit awkward but ever so sincere, as she employs multi-media performance to cut through the capitalistic, patriarchal bullshit in search of the essence of Eros.
Sinner Saint Burlesque
Sinner Saint Burlesque is an internationally performing and teaching theatrical striptease dance company. Their mission is to celebrate the human experience through smart, sexy entertainment. Founded in 2006, Sinner Saint Burlesque not only performs in their home city Seattle, WA, but has also crossed state lines, international borders, and the high seas to bring their glamour, theatricality, wit, and humor to the masses.
Al Lykya
Al Lykya is Seattle’s dreamy, dimpled drag king stripper. Utilizing his background in dance, theater & the art of drag, Al Lykya strives to challenge your ideas about gender & stretch your definition of masculinity. With dimples that will bring a flush to your cheek and a tightness to your pants, this trans-masculine sweetheart can be seen hosting and performing regularly throughout Seattle. The Douchebag with a Heart of Gold specializes in drag, boi-lesque, & nerdlesque. Al Lykya, not just a name, it’s a promise
EmpeROAR Fabulous!!!
EmpeROAR Fabulous!!! is an award winning vocalist, songwriter, burlesque performer, and emcee from Seattle. The Exposing Composer has performed all the above at festivals in Boston, Charleston, Calgary, Vancouver, Rome, and Seattle, and is thrilled to be competing for Best Boylesque at The Burlesque Hall Of Fame Weekend in June.
spICE!
spICE! hails from South Los Angeles. She has studied dance and performed professionally for over 14 years. Blending various theatrical and dance styles, spICE! has unleashed a performance aesthetic that is a balance of explosive and sensual movement. She is the bougie, banji dynamic cameleon…
Lady Drew Blood
photo by Heather Schofner
Lady Drew Blood is “Seattle’s Burlesque ASSet” and “Hostess with the most-ASS”. She has been making her subjects feel all kinds of things in all kinds of places on the Northwest’s stages since 2005. She came to burlesque from roller derby, thrives on kicking ass, is a true lover of all things nerdy and dirty, and has the resume to back it up. She’s gotten her geeky, fierce, storytelling art on in many productions including Disney After Dark, Pretty Haute Machine, Whedonesque Burlesque, Burlesque Behind the Pink Door, Star Trek: The Sexed Generation, Tuesday Tease, The Burl-X-Files and The Oregon Burlesque festival, and most recently the New York Nerdlesque Festival! Add to all that, her love of music and the hardcore and you get one talented bad ass performer.
She has joined forces with IvaFiero Productions for TWO runs of Pretty Haute Machine, is a former member of Stripped Screw Burlesque, and has many saucy projects on the horizon!! Lady Drew Blood will steal your heart, your breath AND your wallet, so you better pay close attention!
JazzPantz & William, darling
Jazz Goldman & William, darling are a hilarious and educational acoustic, singing duo. With tightly structured harmonies and sharp lyrics, their songs center around sex positivity & open communication. Previous headlining appearances include The Can Can, Bawdy Storytelling and Kinky Salon. You can find their original music and videos at https://soundcloud.com/jazzandwilliam.