This year marks Ottawa burlesque troupe Capital Tease’s 10th anniversary. Founded in 2010, the current lineup includes co-founder Koston Kreme, Bella Barecatt, Sassy Muffin, Randi Rouge, Victoria Vermouth, and co-hosts Critical Miss and Retro Joad. Measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have affected Capital Tease’s regular performances, but they quickly moved their performances online through Zoom.
Koston Kreme shared the troupe’s efforts to move their show online: “The moment things shut down I started considering the ways that we would keep something going to reach our audience and put our art out there,” she told me via email. “Almost immediately, people started having Zoom hangouts and a few performers started posting that they would be doing performances on Instagram Live. I immediately took the idea of a live virtual show to the troupe for a vote and here we are preparing for our fifth virtual show!”
Sassy Muffin, Randi Rouge, Bella Barecatt, Retro Joad, Fenix Caprice, Victoria Vermouth, Koston Kreme, and Critical Miss. Photo: Richard Dufault.
With a virtual performance, everyone gets to sit in the front row.
Performing burlesque online is obviously a different experience than performing live and in person, as Koston observed: “Burlesque is inherently a live form of entertainment. As performance artists, we feed off of the audience’s energy. Eye contact is something I used to address on day one of my classes. A perfectly timed smash of the fourth wall is the sign of an expert performer. Burlesque is interactive and that’s what makes it so captivating. Finding different ways to incorporate that into a live stream is a huge challenge, and we’re trying new things in each show to try and bring as much of it to our online shows as possible.”
Koston said the troupe has found some unexpected advantages to doing shows over Zoom. “We’ll never forget a costume piece at home! No time is wasted looking for parking! Our green rooms have never been so comfortable! Some of us are having trouble making the space in our homes to be able to perform at all, but we’re starting to play with the ability to build more intricate custom sets for our acts when we have the space. We’re also able to take advantage of the extra control we have over what the audience can and can’t see… such a tease!”
Having watched almost all of Capital Tease’s online performances, I can confirm that the virtual burlesque show is a unique experience. Having the performers dance their routines in their kitchen or living room adds an unusual element of hyperreality. It reminds us that the performers are real people, also affected by the pandemic, but gifting us with some sense of normalcy and escape through their acts. Every time Bella Barecatt’s dog or Sassy Muffin’s cat makes a spontaneous guest appearance, audience members are delighted and mesmerized–something you would not see at a burlesque show in a bar!
Victoria Vermouth. Photo by Andrew Balfour.
“By far the biggest benefit of moving to a virtual platform has been the accessibility,” Koston said. “We’ve been thrilled to have viewers from all over tuning in to watch our shows. It’s great to see people watching who maybe used to live here in Ottawa and attend our shows and now live too far to see them, as well as new viewers who have found us online and may not have committed to checking out burlesque in person before. Our regular monthly venue, Fatboys Southern Smokehouse, is wheelchair-accessible, but that doesn’t always mean that getting to our shows is accessible to everybody. Now our shows are available to anybody with a decent internet connection!”
There really are unexpected benefits of catching a burlesque show virtually. I’ve seen Capital Tease perform before, but as a homebody who likes to go to bed early, I wasn’t exactly a regular. But watching burlesque from the comfort of your living room is surprisingly convenient. Zoom also allows you to engage with performers and hosts immediately and directly in a way that you might not at an in-person show, providing ongoing live commentary—and all the hooting and cat-calling you want.
Zoom also allows you to engage with performers and hosts immediately and directly in a way that you might not at an in-person show, providing ongoing live commentary—and all the hooting and cat-calling you want.
Capital Tease is grateful to be able to go on with the show with such amazing fan support. “On behalf of Capital Tease, I would love to thank all of the people who have tuned in to our online shows, gotten involved in the chat, which brings so much more intimacy to this weird virtual platform, and those who have been generous enough and in a position to be able to contribute financially by tipping during our shows! As artists, many of us may not be able to go back to work for much longer than with many other professions and this gives us the opportunity to continue to earn a living. It means so very much to us to be welcomed in to your lives through screens and to be shown so much appreciation. Thank you!” said Koston.
Randi Rouge. Photo provided by artist.
The troupe’s performers have taken other aspects of their performance work online as well. Randi Rouge runs Rouge Studio of Dance, which normally offers classes in burlesque and other types of dance. The studio had to close its physical space due to the pandemic, but offers online classes through Facebook Live and Zoom. “They’ve been a lot of fun and very successful,” Randi told me via email. “We are able to work with out-of-town instructors such as Rhapsody Blue from Toronto, and teaching online has allowed students to join us from outside of Ottawa. We plan to continue with some online classes even once our studio reopens. We really appreciate all the students who have joined our online classes and continue to support the studio and all the instructors who jumped on board!”
Meanwhile, Capital Tease still hopes to celebrate its 10-year anniversary in October. For now, you can catch their performance from the comfort of your home this Friday, August 7, with their new show “Circus Circus.” Koston gave me a preview: “We’re taking inspiration from the traveling circuses and variety shows of yesteryear, adapting them to the trends and technologies of today! We’re so excited to feature guest performers from outside of the city and our first out-of-town guest will be Toronto’s Genie Emerald.” I will definitely be there, and luckily, with a virtual performance, everyone gets to sit in the front row.
Check out Capital Tease on Facebook and Instagram and take in the virtual performance of “The Show Must Go On” this Friday, August 7, at 8pm.
