Vancouver’s La Dame Derrière has been performing burlesque for over eight years, “snatching crowns and stealing girlfriends.” Said crowns include Miss Viva Las Vegas (2024), Monarch of Pacific Northwest Burlesque Festival (2024), Queen of Oregon Burlesque Festival (2022), and she’s a repeat competitor at Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend across multiple categories. An established teacher who is passionate about training the next generation of burlesque performers, Dame’s performance background expands well beyond burlesque, with a Bachelor’s degree in opera, strong foundations in partner dance, and a love of “drag and gender fuckery.”
Here’s her 21.
1. How would you define yourself in three words?
Driven, dreamy, warm.
2. Who would play you in a movie about your life?
Emma Darcy – love to see some NB representation!
3. What is your biggest strength?
I don’t have much of an ego! It keeps me humble, grounded, and really grateful for every show I get to be in – big or small.
4. What is your biggest weakness?
Despite becoming a self-proclaimed menace onstage, offstage I really am quite shy! It does make it challenging to network and build connections in an industry based on relationships, but even though you will rarely catch me at an afterparty I am always open to quieter, one-on-one moments.
5. When are you most happy and inspired?
I’m happiest in a small, intimate floor show when I can flirt and create little moments of magic with an audience member. I’m most inspired when I am well rested, hydrated, and in a large body of water naked.
6. What is your favourite on-screen burlesque moment from film or TV?
Not quite burlesque, but as a musical theatre kid the Cell Block Tango in Chicago changed my brain chemistry. I wanted to be Velma Kelly so badly, and I think her femme fatale vibes were a very early influence for me!
7. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
‘Just have fun’ – I know, this advice is way overused, but I genuinely think the sentiment behind it is honest. If you’re not having fun or finding the joy of what you’re doing on stage, why do you want to be up there?
8. If you could switch lives with one person for a day, who would it be?
I would absolutely switch with one of the tech-bro billionaires out there (Musk, Bezos, whoever) so that I could give away all of their money to support social programs, systems change, and artists. Oh, and change their passwords so they couldn’t stop it!
9. What’s the biggest myth or misconception about burlesque?
I think the biggest misconception about burlesque is that we’re all straight ladies performing for male attention. Most of the performers I know are queer, and most of our audiences are women! As a queer person, I think there’s something special about taking society’s idea of ‘womanhood’, dragging it up to create a caricature of femininity, and making money off of that.
10. If you could only perform to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Oh that is TOUGH, I love music too much to pick just one song! So I’ll cheat and say I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen but performed by a live band so it’s different every time.
11. What surprisingly useful things do you have in your show case?
Pepto Bismol tablets – the hottest babe you know always has tummy troubles!
12. Do you have a backstage ritual?
I like to pick one thing in my act that I want to really nail, whether it’s a certain move, a smooth reveal, or just finding a moment of audience connection. This keeps me focused and present when I’m onstage, and it’s fun to find something different to work on every time I get on stage.
13. What advice would you give to new performers starting out today?
Enjoy the process. Don’t be in such a rush to ‘make it’. Learning is such a gift, and I think there’s a lot of joy in the discovery process of growing your skills. Comparison is the thief of joy, so try to tune out the endless accomplishment reels on social media and focus on your own journey.
14. What is your proudest achievement?
Competing for MEW at BHoF this year was huge, and a goal that I did not think I would achieve this early on in my career. But I think I’m most proud of my process to get to that stage – I felt really grounded through the whole experience, leaned hard on my community to help get ready, and felt so joyful throughout!
15. What is your biggest regret?
I regret not taking the time to celebrate my accomplishments. I had a wild run in 2024 where I won three big crowns in three months, and I didn’t know how to process it or recognize what a huge accomplishment it was, so I often downplayed it and had a hard time accepting praise. I wish I could go back and tell myself that it’s okay to take up space!
16. What is the biggest challenge facing today’s burlesque scene?
The biggest challenge facing the burlesque community is capitalism, and all that’s tied up in our modern world (rising facism, white supremacy culture, fatphobia, etc). It forces artists to create from a place of scarcity, and creates structures where only the most privileged and conventionally palatable get opportunities.
Despite the ‘starving artist’ trope, I really think that most artists thrive when they are resourced, supported by community, and have a place where they are able to experiment. Homogeny is boring. I want to see innovative, weird, interesting work created by performers who aren’t afraid that they’ll lose gigs if their work doesn’t fit into a certain box.
17. If you could go back and tell yourself one thing when you started out in burlesque, what would it be?
I would tell baby Dame to try and enjoy the ride more than focusing on the next big thing. You’ll remember the friends you made and the experiences you had together much more than how many shows you managed to cram into a month.
18. What is a cause or issue that’s very important to you?
I want to see more fat performers get their flowers! As someone who doesn’t really consider myself plus sized (I don’t face any systemic discrimination based on my size), I have often been the largest person in the lineup, and that just sucks. There’s this idea that fat performers aren’t going to be palatable to mainstream audiences, and I think that’s wrong. Audiences are swimming in the same soup of societal fatphobia that we are, and one way to start breaking down those biases is to show them that fat bodies are hot and deserve respect.
19. What are you currently reading, watching, and listening to?
I love podcasts! I’m currently re-listening through Maintenance Phase, a fun podcast that debunks the junk science behind the health myths fueling our societal fatphobia. For reading, I’m a huge fantasy nerd, especially if it’s a bit smutty!
20. If you could share a dressing room with one performer for the rest of your career, who would it be?
My backstage bestie is Gia Sangria! She’s the sweetest human, has the best snacks, and stays grounded no matter what she’s doing (producing, performing, or being one of the best hosts in town).
21. What would you like your life and career to look like in 10 years time?
I’m perpetually trying (and failing) to find a healthy life balance. In my dreams, I would like to find it somehow – a balance of creating art I’m passionate about, getting stable, well-paying gigs that allow me to travel, and enough down time to not have to hustle as hard so that I can spend time at home with my love and my pets.
Follow La Dame Derrière on Instagram.