Love You Burlesque would be nothing without all of the fabulous ladies who come and dance with us. Even more so, without our incredible tutors. Here at LYB, we thought that you’d like to meet our tutors to find out what makes them shimmy, teach and what it is about burlesque that gets them hot under the collar! Today we’d like to introduce you to Miss Queenie Quid…
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Hi Queenie! Can you tell us a little bit about your experience as a burlesque performer?
Why, hello there! Well, my experience as a burlesque performer started with Love You Burlesque a few years ago now, and has since lead me to perform in some very weird and wonderful locations including on a museum balcony overlooking a sea of tuxedos, ball gowns…and a taxidermy giraffe. Truly unforgettable! I’ve also performed at The Fling Festival, LYB’s annual Cabaret show, vintage car shows, the grimy back room of pubs with sticky carpets (to be honest, they’re among my favourite venues!) and vintage fayres, to name a few. My most recent performances have been in London at Behind Burlesque’s Infinitease, which has been an incredible experience!
As a LYB student, tutor and finalist for the 2019 Infinitease Burlesque competition, can you tell us a little bit about what each of these brings to your burlesque life?
My time as a student was incredible. Being amongst a group of awesome, kick ass ladies definitely added hugely to my confidence and ability to perform. Learning and growing together as a group and sharing the same experiences is something I hadn’t really been through since school, and gave me that incredible sense of being part of something. As for being a tutor, everything I already said, plus the cheeky bonus of being able to watch my own choreography be absolutely slayed by my beautiful class!
Being put through to the Infinitease Grand Final in September is unbelievable. I originally performed there just for the experience and the opportunity to perform in London, so to have come this far with it is more than I’d ever hoped for. I perform burlesque for myself, it makes me feel good and that’s all that really matters. But I won’t lie, having the praise of a panel of judges definitely does wonders! That’s the feeling I want to give to my students, to truly help them believe they are sexual goddesses!
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What interested you about the transition from LYB student to tutor?
The main thing that made me want to become a tutor was that I knew first hand how burlesque has changed my life, I joined my first class with no real experience but left feeling on top of the world. The confidence in myself and my body exploded and only grew with each class I attended. Over time I realised that I was actually quite good at it, was coming up with ideas in my head for choreography and I wanted to enable other women to feel the way I did!
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Where did your performer name, Queenie Quid, come from?
Sat on my sofa with my long suffering other half (or Burlesque boyfriend as he refers to himself) and a bottle of wine, throwing ideas around a couple of weeks before my first ever solo performance. I knew my burlesque alter ego was a Victorian wench out to make easy cash, so wanted a nod to that in my name. My dad’s side of the family are proper Cockneys, born and bred, and it got me to thinking about the Pearly Kings and Queens- hence Queenie. Put the two together – tada! Queenie Quid! Although Burlesque BF was pushing for Arthur Penny….
A little moment of serendipity for you, my Nan pointed out to me the other day that our family surname is Kidd, so I guess Quid was meant to be!
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As a LYB tutor and performing your own acts, how do you go about choreographing for your students vs. choreographing for yourself?
I teach and choreograph routines for my students that I would be happy to perform myself, there’s got to be certain qualities to it to keep it in the realm of burlesque.
When I’m performing solo it tends to involve a lot of strip tease (the main thing that burlesque has taught me personally is that I love to get my kit off – who knew!) but obviously that’s not for everyone, and not what the regular weekly classes are about. So when choreographing for my classes, I want to create something that gives the same amount of thrill for the audience and dancer as a striptease would, whilst staying fully-clothed….or mostly at least 😉
The actual process of choreographing mainly involves me looking like a bit of a wombat throwing shapes in front of my dogs in my kitchen. It’s a fine art really.
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Do you have any favourite burlesque performers?
Yes! Felicity Furore! I first saw her perform at the Big Pin Up Social last year and have been obsessed with her ever since.
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What is it about burlesque that you love?
I love burlesque because it is so much fun. Genuinely. It’s so rare as an adult that you do something purely for your own enjoyment that’s full of play and creativity and burlesque is just that! Also, in my day to day life, to friends and colleagues, I’m probably the least sexy person they know haha! But get me in that corset or on that stage and a switch is flipped. I hold myself differently, I move differently, I think differently; my sensuality and sexuality ignites and I own it!
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Is there anything you’d like to try for future routines?
I have several ideas for a duet performance that is most certainly in the pipeline and is very exciting, but I’m not going to give away too much about that just yet! Also, watch this space as I am going to be bringing the heat with fire poi and fire fans to one of my solo acts.
In my classes my students will be learning routines to some Rock’n’Roll numbers – it’s time to make the Stroll sexy!! I think it’s really important to look back at what dance moves were fashionable throughout different eras and do them justice if incorporating them into a routine – they’re invaluable building blocks when choreographing!
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Do you feel that burlesque has impacted your life in any significant way?
Burlesque has had an absolutely incredible impact on my life! As I said before, my confidence, my creativity, my happiness have all exploded since I started dancing and I really feel like I’ve found something that I am supposed to be doing. Moving the body feeds the soul and being in the company of like-minded, strong, INCREDIBLE women can make you feel invincible. I’ve met my best friend through burlesque, I’ve conquered fears, I’ve shocked my family and friends by conquering those fears, and I’ve helped others conquer their fears. I’ve found the bad ass bitch in me. Doesn’t get much better really does it? Oh, there is one downside though, my bank balance. Once you buy one corset, you need to buy 17 more. Obviously.
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Do you have any top tips for any budding burlesque performers out there who want to take their acts to the stage or to competitions?
My one top tip I give to all of my students and would say to anyone wanting to further their burlesque career is to DO IT!!!!!!! I cannot stress that enough. If you want to do it, do it. If you don’t feel you are confident enough, good enough, sexy enough – fake it till you make it. Pretend you are and I can promise that with every performance (be it in class, on stage, or in your bedroom) your experience will grow and one day you’ll realise you stopped faking it ages ago!
