If you’ve ever seen the 2010 film “Burlesque” starring Christina Aguilera and Cher, chances are you have a pretty narrow viewpoint into what the art of burlesque dancing is truly all about.
The film mainly depicts dancers who fit the mold at the time: skinny but curvy white women who flawlessly dance and lip-sync to iconic pop ballads. The scene can still be seen today in major burlesque locations including Los Angeles and New York, but taking a trip to western Massachusetts can help one discover how distinctive and diverse burlesque actually can be.
One person involved in the western Massachusetts burlesque scene is Faolain “Fae” Bobersky, better known as Dr. Pepper, M.D. For as long as she can remember, Bobersky has always been enamored with all aspects of performing arts.
“I think that my tastes have always kind of tended more towards kind of showgirl-esque, even with the music I liked and pop stars,” Bobersky said. “I was very into Madonna, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, all of these performance-heavy singers. It’s not just about the vocals. It was also about this kind of level of performance that they would give.”
Bobersky added, “I think that’s a huge part of the pop aesthetic as well as the queer aesthetic and there’s so much crossover between pop music and queer culture. I feel like I was kind of raised at the intersection of that for sure.”
Bobersky’s family had a strong influence on her growing up, being raised by two gay couples. This opened her eyes to many aspects of creative outlets and excursions at a young age, including attending pride parades, going to Provincetown and obsessing over the beauty of drag queens.
“[Drag queens] kind of walk around on the streets [of Provincetown] promoting their shows for the night,” Bobersky said. “We would go [and] we’d be in town during the day. We called them the Barbies. We’d always run around looking for the Barbies. So that kind of very gaudy over-the-top spectacle is very burnt into my core memory. I feel like ‘spectacle’ is the best word. They were always so kind and so funny and outgoing. I just loved that energy.”
Bobersky’s radiant energy is nearly impossible to ignore. She brings that same energy into what she does on and off stage. As a show producer, Bobersky always tries to make sure that performers can unleash their creativity with different themes at every single show she does.
Two of her latest shows included tributes to Lady Gaga (called “Dance or Die”) and “The Lord of the Rings” film series (called “Tiddies & Tolkien”), featuring dancers of all different races and genders.
“It feels important because every body is a burlesque body in the sense that everybody deserves to be seen as desirable. If you’re only putting certain people and bodies on stage, you’re creating a narrative about what is desirable and it can very quickly become a small box,” Bobersky said.
Along with prioritizing the importance of showcasing everyone who wants to and should be involved in burlesque, Bobersky has also wanted to feature live bands playing live music, something that has been a core part of burlesque since its inception in the 17th century.
Gina Tonic, another local burlesque performer, says that live band burlesque shows “allow the dancer the opportunity to have peace with their number. It allows it to include a level of improvisation that, of course, you have with tracks, but there’s more fluidity in it. You can take a little longer with a moment, because you know that the band has you and they can fill that space before moving on to the next section of the song.”
Bobersky was Tonic’s teaching assistant in a stage movement class at the University of Massachusetts in 2021. They have remained close friends since meeting.
“[Bobersky] is one of the most hard working and giving people I know, and if you have the fortune of calling her a friend, you know how lucky you are,” Tonic said. “I still see Fae as a mentor; she is the first person I talk to before I create anything. No question I ask is ever stupid and meets my anxiety with necessary reality checks that help me … She’s never afraid to ask the hard questions or speak up for what she believes in. I admire her endlessly.”
Another person involved in the local burlesque community is Lex Grotesque, who co-runs the House of Grotesque, a queer collective that hosts numerous events related to burlesque and the arts community in general. Bobersky and Lex have recently collaborated on numerous shows, such as the Tiddies and Tolkien show and a Northampton Pride after-party called Euphoria Unbound.
“Fae, quite frankly, could intimidate anybody…she needed somebody to play in a sold-out show at The Quarters,” Grotesque said. “She needed an extra performer or two and was centering BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), like really trying to bring in black and brown performers, which I value hugely.”
“A lot of people say they want to do that and then they tokenize like wild,” Grotesque added. “I might be one of the only brown people in the show, but I do not feel at all that that’s doing the tokenizing. I saw Fae reaching out to the community, being like, ‘BIPOC to the front’ and actually responded to me so fast and put me in a role there. So now I’m playing Legolas in her [Lord of the Rings] show.”
Bobersky wants people to know that diversity and inclusion in the burlesque community are here to stay.
“I’m excited that more burlesque is happening more visibly in the Valley and I think that we hit a point where we were almost entirely drag, that was the queer performance of the moment and now they’re kind of crossing paths again,” Bobersky said. “I think it’s hard to have a body and be a person in this world, especially right now. I think it’s just a beautiful, liberating way to claim the body that you have to live in and share that with people.”
Paige Hanson can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @Paige_Hanson1.
