We are looking for instructors that fit our mission and values. Our goal is to include a wide range of instructors and teachers whenever possible. This includes people of all genders, ages, sizes, abilities, backgrounds, races, beliefs, and sexual orientations.
If you’d like to teach with the DisabiliTease Academy, visit our application page to learn more and apply.
Class:
Creating Accessible Digital Performance Videos (Recorded live in February, 2022)
In their non-performer life, Mae works as a counsellor with an extensive background in disability supports, crisis management, and conflict de-escalation, all of which inform how they approach working with others in their productions and as a performer. They are drawn to the creative expression of burlesque, the potential for a supportive community that it offers, and its inherently political nature. As an openly Autistic performer, All The Way Mae hopes to increase visibility of neurodivergent performers and advocate for ND-safe performance spaces.
Panel:
Red Flag, Green Flag: Safety Considerations for the Burlesque Industry (Recorded live on June 25, 2022)
Class:
Seated Spanish Fan with Anani I’naru (Live workshop on October 11, 2023 at 7 pm Central)
As a teacher, she loves teaching all levels of dance and adores being able to help create movements that both challenge you as a dancer and lets you leave with some new content to add up your dance. Her goal isn’t to make you another Athena, but to help you find your inner dancer. As a student, be ready to work hard, laugh at a goofy joke, and be reminded of how great you are. She’s intensely body-positive, age-positive, and works to build an inclusive class for any student who joins.
As a researcher, Athena is always deep into some nuance of belly dance and its history. Her research has been published in the book “The Gilded Serpent” and she is currently researching trap influences in mahagarant (pop music from Menath countries) with a focus on Egyptian music post-revolution. She also is advising on her research on LGBTQIA+ contributions to music, arts, and culture in the region, with a focus on Egypt. She is known for her ability to discuss complicated issues with a human focus.
As a student, Athena is dedicated to the work it takes to be a good visitor in this art form. She loves failure and being wrong. Her recent foray into playing middle eastern music is a testament to that since she is more wrong than right some days!
Described by some to be “bold like hot sauce” or “basically the gay female Elvis,” Athena is a grateful dancer who is dedicated to the work it takes to be a belly dancer.
Class:
Honeyed Hands (Recorded live on May 9, 2022)
Class:
Bendy for all Bodies: DisabiliBabe Edition (Live on February 19, 2023)
Panel:
Red Flag, Green Flag: Safety Considerations for the Burlesque Industry (Recorded live on June 25, 2022)
Court has worked with tax law firms learning the ins and outs of artists’ taxes while pursuing a law degree.
Outside of their work in taxes, Court works locally in stage management and tech in both design and operation.
Class:
Taxes Demystified: Writing off Rhinestones (Recorded live on January 31, 2023)
Valentine holds a BA in Musical Theatre Performance and an MA in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago, a certificate in Diversity & Inclusion from Cornell University, and they’re currently pursuing their JD at DePaul University College of Law. Their teaching credits include many university workshops and panels, spanning topics such as performance, business, sexual health, sex worker rights, and more.
Class:
Burlesque as Industry: The Business of You! (Recorded live on January 4, 2023)
Known as The Mocha Mae West for her quick wit & sultry moves, Dahlia Kash is no wallflower! They’re the producer of Melange: A Queer & POC Variety Show in Portland, OR, Mischief: A Melanated Variety Show in Olympia, WA, as well as The Rock Show, an all POC Variety show, also in Olympia. San Francisco Bay area born & raised, and Pacific Northwest based, this Queer Fat Femme is gonna rock your world!
Panels:
The Virtual Reality: A Panel Discussion About Virtual Burlesque Shows (Recorded live in January, 2022)
Red Flag, Green Flag: Liability Concerns for the Burlesque Industry (Live on March 5, 2023)
Since 2016, Diana has produced multiple seasons of the award-winning disability cabaret Singin’ in the Pain, nationally touring burlesque troupe The JustAss League, and regular queer variety show Lucky Dip Tease. Diana also works as a freelance graphic designer for local artists and businesses, including a residency at Hot Sauce Burlesque. They also teach comedy and character burlesque with the school, where they are lovingly referred to by the students as “Uncle Di”.
Diana is now turning to even bigger things, developing Embrace: Disability Arts Festival as a part of their 2022 Carclew Sharehouse residency. The arts have been a valuable vehicle for self-expression, and Diana aims to create more space for others like them.
Classes:
Bio Writing Basics with Diana Divine (Recorded live on July 16, 2022)
Character Crash Course with Diana Divine (Recorded live on July 16, 2022)
Mountain landscapes rise like the curve of her hips, her breath is the warm air of summer, her skin as smooth as quartz crystals. She is the serenity of the rainforest, but just as dark, wild, and untamed. A walking art gallery she wears her skin like a canvas and her heart on her sleeve. The Empress can fill you with the world’s beauty, if you just let her in…
Sometimes strange, sometimes sensual, sometimes both, Empress Eyrie blends burlesque with performance art and storytelling to bring her soul to stages all over Australia. Empress adores traveling to perform and share her creations with audiences anywhere she can. She puts the dynamite in dynamic disability; able to do a cartwheel one day and not even put on her socks the next.
Empress is the proud owner and teacher at Tease-Able Burlesque School, the world’s first disability-owned and focused burlesque school she prides herself on making burlesque open and accessible for everybody. She adores being able to perform with her mobility aids and show the world that disabled people can be sexy and deserve to be seen.
An experienced artist, proud disabilibabe and all-round magical creature there is nothing routine about her routines. Make way for the Empress…
Class:
Pretty Hands for Burlesque (Recorded live on November 16, 2022)
Eun Bee Yes is proud to be honoured by the Ladies of the Lake, a fully professed House of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, as Saint Walk of No Shame.
Eun Bee Yes is the show producer of Transcendence Cabaret, a monthly online show which features transgender artists of colour, including non-binary and gender non-conforming artists in the main cast as well as guest performers. This is one of a handful of shows in the United States that feature primarily BIPOC artists.
You can follow Eun Bee Yes on Instagram or on Twitter.
Classes:
Ace Artists: The Art of Connecting with Others (Recorded live on October 22, 2022)
Glitter Activism: Using Burlesque to Create Social Change (Recorded live in July, 2021)
Frankie Fingerling is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Amiskwaciy waskahikan (“ah-miss-kwa-chee wah-skay-gun”), colonially known as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. No matter the medium, their art helps them process their own lived experiences and trauma as a non-binary Chinese person navigating life in a predominantly white, conservative province. They are inspired by their late grandfather who was an oil paint artist in Hong Kong and the Philippines, as well as QTBIPOC art from around the world. By trade, Frankie is a researcher and curriculum developer, which informs their current artistic practice as a burlesque performer and producer, and lifelong journey of learning and growth.
Panels:
The Virtual Reality: A Panel Discussion About Virtual Burlesque Shows (Recorded live in January, 2022)
Red Flag, Green Flag: Safety Considerations for the Burlesque Industry (Recorded live on June 25, 2022)
Red Flag, Green Flag: Liability Concerns for the Burlesque Industry (Live on March 5, 2023)
Learn more at www.missdisaburlytease.com and www.essentialtease.com
Classes:
Energy Flow: Safe/Centered Stage Presence (Recorded live in July, 2021)
The Mind: Dance for Mobility Restrictions (Recorded live in July, 2021)
The Movement: Floor/Chair for Mobility Restrictions (Recorded live in July, 2021)
The Virtual Reality: A Panel Discussion About Virtual Burlesque Shows (Recorded live in January, 2022)
She has 8+ years of burlesque and costuming experience, a background in industrial engineering, has taught several classes, and has mentored other burlesque dancers.
Her sparkle is handmade from her small business, Leopard Lightning.
During quarantine, The Bulletproof Beauty picked up even more neat hobbies, follow them on TikTok to find out more!
Class:
Easy Access: Costume Closures With Disabilities In Mind. (Recorded live on April 10, 2022)
Figure Out Your Face with Kevlar B Lightning (Recorded live on July 16, 2022)
Her wealth of knowledge and performance experience has led her to coach aspiring performers to follow their dreams of becoming a professional too. Kitty performs with her giant martini glass at events across the country and can also be found dangling from the roof of a big top with the traveling circus.
When not performing, Kitty loves nothing more than coaching her Successful Showgirl clients on how to become the fabulous performers that they were born to be! Kitty shares everything she knows from performance to psychology, business to mindset. As a qualified doctor, life coach, dance/circus instructor, and dance studio owner of almost 20 years, she knows her stuff.
Class:
Creating a Business Strategy for Burlesque Performers (Recorded live on January 8, 2023)
Panel:
Red Flag, Green Flag: Liability Concerns for the Burlesque Industry (Live on March 5, 2023)
Class:
Face It: Storytelling From the Neck Up with Margo Mayhem (Recorded live on March 11, 2023)
Velvet has been a professional artist for over seven years and has shared their work locally and nationally, on pages and stages of all kinds. Accustomed to centering Black and equity seeking voices as a cornerstone of their work, taking a BIPOC-only burlesque class in 2018 inspired Velvet to explore the art and power of telling stories with their body; stories which are often silenced, demonized and dismissed. Since then, Blaq Velvet has slithered, sashayed, and shimmied across stages embodying the joy, beauty and resistance of living in a Black queer neurodivergent body (and popping a petty ass pastie or two along the way).
Smashing all your little notions about what Black women and femmes can do, come and get some of this Black Velvet…if you please.
Panel
Red Flag, Green Flag: Liability Concerns for the Burlesque Industry (Live on March 5, 2023)
Class:
Introduction to Burlesque with Mellogamy Muse (Recorded 6-week course started in August, 2023)
A fierce advocate for persons with disabilities, she works tirelessly to spread awareness and champions for change at every opportunity. She is the founder of the DisabiliTease Festival, a multi-day festival that showcases performers with disabilities in the areas of burlesque, cirque, cabaret, and drag from around the world. She is also the founder of the DisabiliTease Academy, the first school specifically geared towards performers with disabilities and their allies.
Don’t ‘dis’ her ‘ability’ to capture your heart, because that’s how this wheeling woman of wonder rolls.
Classes:
Accessibility, Both On and Off the Stage (Recorded live during the Victoria International Burlesque Festival. Updated workshop below.)
Providing Accessibility Both On and Off the Stage: Producers and Instructors (Recorded in September, 2023)
Requesting Accessibility Both On and Off the Stage: Performers and Students (Live workshops on November 14, for 90 minutes and Tuesday, November 21, for 30 minutes at 7 pm Central.)
Burlesque Bombshell, Teacher of Tease, and Mentor of Mischief, Miss Paige has 10 years of performing, producing, and instructing under her garter belt! With a love of Old Hollywood & Vintage Glamour, Miss Paige combines opulence, seduction, and her killer curves to leave audiences with more than she takes off.
Past Clients Include; L’Oréal at Sephora, Make Up Forever, OCAD University, Bisha Hotel, Clio Private Member’s Club, Gladstone Hotel, & more.
Class:
Booked & Busy (Recorded live on January 18, 2023)
Born of royalty, M’Lady Rae’s hard-edged glamour speaks of her opulent, shadowy past. Exiled for her lustful desires, M’Lady is now the ruler of her own realm where down is up and pain is pleasure. Fall to your knees and get ready to expect the unexpected. Cruel Things Come in Small Packages.
Class:
Shine Bright with M’Lady Rae (Recorded live on July 16, 2022)
Class:
Let’s Get Stoned! (Will be re-recorded due to technical difficulties)
Class:
Accounting Basics For Burlesque with Nicola Swan (Recorded live on January 25, 2023)
Class:
Expressive Movement: An Introduction. (Recorded live on March 19, 2022)
Special training:
• 20+ years of professional ballet training, competition tap and jazz
• 15 years running sketch comedy
• 4 levels of comedy for theater at UNCA
• Floorwork master workshop with Sweetpea
• Past and ongoing mentoring by: Scotty the blue Bunny, La Viola Vixen, and Celeste Petrovic
You can follow Skirt on Facebook and Instagram. You can also learn more about them on their website.
Classes:
Faces and Hands for Stage (Recorded live in September, 2021)
Tas wields her art as a form of social activism designed to explore the varied (and sometimes conflicting) facets of her identity, with the intention to challenge expectations related to these facets, specifically: intersections of race, sexuality, and heritage. She is a core cast member of the Old Hollywood-style variety show Babylon Cabaret and also SoCal’s only all Asian cabaret The Jade Follies, as well as the 2015 and 2017 California Burlypicks Master of Singing, earning her the monikers of “the sultry and seductive South Asian siren” and “The Bengal Bombshell.”
Additionally, Tas has been a Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusivity Consultant for over a decade and holds a B.A. in Psychology as well as a Masters in Clinical Social Work, in addition to several certificates and over 15 years of field experience.
Class:
Don’t Get Cancelled with Tas Al-Ghul (Recorded live on July 16, 2022)
Panel:
Red Flag, Green Flag: Safety Considerations for the Burlesque Industry (Recorded live on June 25, 2022)
Class:
Expanding Movement Vocabulary Using Laban with Vandellous (Recorded live on July 16, 2022)
Panel:
Red Flag, Green Flag: Liability Concerns for the Burlesque Industry (Live on March 5, 2023)