Betty Q

You have a Master’s degree in education. How did you switch over from the field of pedagogy to the world of burlesque? And do these two worlds somehow intersect?

Yes, I graduated with a specialization in socio-cultural animation from the Faculty of Education at the University of Warsaw. I think it was a “safe” choice for me at that time. I didn’t have enough confidence then to pursue artistic studies. I don’t regret it because I truly received a thorough and versatile humanistic education, and in my career, I have often utilized the knowledge and skills gained from the university (e.g. in teaching burlesque or leading a group).

Before my studies, my entire life revolved around the theater, and burlesque was perhaps a return to that world. This symbolic transition occurred when I worked as the director of the education department at the Jewish Agency Sochnut. I worked in the profession and found satisfaction in introducing young people, who often had just learned about their Jewish heritage, to our local Jewish community. However, something drew me back to the theater, and I decided to engage in performance.

Today, organizing events, giving interviews, teaching about burlesque and its history, I feel fulfilled as an animator, performer, artist, and activist. I feel that, as in the title of the play I performed in as a child, “every cloud’s got a silver lining.” There is only synergy.

Let’s go back to 2010 when you broadened the horizons of Polish culture with a completely new form of artistic expression. What were the initial reactions to this kind of performance, and has the reception of burlesque changed in our country since then?

In 2010, I had to teach Poland how to pronounce the word “burlesque,” and today, my main task is to show that it is to my dozens of burlesque events that the audience should go!

Indeed, initially, I faced online hate. People were uncomfortable with the expression of positive sexuality. They couldn’t understand how I could be a feminist and, at the same time, undress. I think that currently, this form of entertainment is popular enough that people have fewer doubts. I am present in the discourse as both a sex worker and a feminist.

You have several thematic projects to your name: Betty Q’s Burlesque Academy, the Home of Burlesque foundation, the La Burlesque events series at La Pose Varsovie. In your opinion, have you managed to create a burlesque community in Poland? Is it now a separate, thriving sector in the artistic industry?

I believe that burlesque (not only in Poland) is still somewhat in the underground. It doesn’t enter the mainstream as easily as, for example, drag, even though they fall under the same semantic category of gender performance. I suspect this is related to the gender of most performers. Therefore, it’s challenging to say that it’s a thriving sector in the artistic or entertainment industry.

However, one thing is certain: over the years, a very diverse burlesque community has been created. I am proud of this because we are beautifully diverse, filling gaps, and each person has their niche, a specific audience for whom they perform. This is undoubtedly a success! 

I hope that my activities and projects have contributed to this. Over 12 years, I taught burlesque, and incredible burlesque personas emerged, now shaping the scene themselves (including Madame Meduse, Nokturna, Harpy Queen). Thanks to the Polish Burlesque Festival in 2015, the Polish audience had the opportunity to see global burlesque. With the Home of Burlesque Foundation, Madame Meduse (who continued MQ after my departure) and I opened Madame Q in 2017, where we could regularly showcase burlesque from Poland and around the world to our audience on our terms. Along the way, there were other projects: Burlesque Open Stage, international festivals, the “Bez Okładek” (Without Covers) project with Marta Konarzewska, burlesque and choreographic episodes in Polish film productions, activities for Sex Work Poland, being part of the “Pożar w Burdelu” (Fire in the brothel) troupe… Now, with smaller projects, through La Pose in my La Burlesque series, I showcase burlesque rooted in queerness and feminism.

You mentioned supporting Sex Work Poland. For some, sex work – including artistic – still remains a taboo topic. What can be done to change this perception?

My coming out as a sex worker, acknowledging that burlesque is sex work, caused quite a stir in the burlesque community itself. I think that’s understandable because not everyone has thought this issue through, and not everyone follows the belief that it is our responsibility, as feminists, to care for the entire community of sex workers. Without classism, a sense of superiority, but with the understanding that feminism is interdisciplinary and cannot exclude any women.

Speaking openly about burlesque as sex work (which it is, because – shockingly! – we undress erotically in front of an audience that pays for it) allows us to show the audience that our work is not better than, for example, the work of escorts, and that every person deserves respect and basic rights. Burlesque seems to be the most “light,” artistic, politically correct (insert your favorite term) form of this type of performance, so why not use this perception to stretch the need for respect and understanding of someone’s choices (isn’t that feminism?) to the entire industry?

Also, the understanding by audience members that they are consumers of sex work may allow them to realize that they cannot judge others in this industry, nor the people working in it. I see many components in burlesque: entertainment, art, sex work, theater, performance, activism… I also want to show my audience that all these aspects are inherent in it. 

If you like what I do, respect it as I call it.

Speaking of educating society: you also act as a feminist activist, speaker at the famous TEDx. When undertaking all these activities, do you think about issues of identity? Feminist, queer, activist, Jewish, Polish? With whom or what do you identify most strongly?

Most often, when undertaking such activities, I think about propagating this phenomenon to the extent that in the future, I will have more work and can sustain myself decently. 😉

But indeed, these threads are very strongly ingrained in my activities. Studying the history of burlesque, I see Jewish emigrants from Poland, non-heteronormative individuals, pioneers of positive sexuality and third-wave feminism who participated in the emergence of burlesque in the USA in the second half of the 20th century.

We cannot detach ourselves from this herstory. It gives me a lot of inspiration, energy, and belief that what I do makes sense not only at the level of my costume, props, stage persona, or the narrative of my act.

I don’t know what I identify with most strongly. I am what I create. And that has many incarnations and components. I am everything at once.