A young woman wearing a frightening mask and dressed in a flagrant black and red dress pressed her lips against a second woman, whose fingers slid up and down her waist and then pressed against her own barely-clad bosom. This spectacle greeted me at an event in downtown Des Moines known as the Dark Dance. The performers, two women from the burlesque troupe called the Sexcadelic Sideshow, caressed and enticed one another in a number of sensual performances.
In an interview I did with them weeks after the show, both performers stood behind their art and gave credit to its form. Marian Baggenstos and Jackie Schauf, stage names Mairzy and Murkie, founded the troupe based on their mutual interstest in burlesque. Baggenstoss pointed to the excitement of freeing the body as one of its strengths, and Schauf encouraged women to feel beautiful about their bodies.
"We started the idea together, I'd say," explained Baggenstoss, "our friend Chris came up with the name and does our visuals for some of the shows." At the dance she intrigued me, a taller woman with vines of jet black hair spilling down her spine and a slightly mischievous grin pasted on her face. She showed me a photo album containing some of the performances of the troupe, a gallery of sexual comedy and the sexual macabre.
As the night of the Dark Dance wore on, I stepped outside to get some refreshing air. Schauf stood on the sidewalk dressed in her regalia from the show, her nipples covered in crosses with what appeared to be electric tape. A number of people strolled down the street, glancing at the queer group gathered outside in the cold. We were all dressed in an esoteric fashion known in popular culture as goth, including medieval fantasy goth, business goth, neon and electro-goth. The performers from the Sexcadelic Sideshow blended into the group. Schauf, tall and brunette, with bright eyes and a warm smile, seemed distant that night.
Long before the Dark Dance, Schauf began her burlesque career with a solo performance at DG's Tap House in Des Moines. Baggenstoss helped her make her first bra for the show. Before the Sexcadelic Sideshow, Schauf had been performing for a small bikini joint in Ames. She looked back fondly on those memories, comparing her show to a "constant sleepover." The two met at a pool party, and Schauf had thought Baggenstoss looked beautiful in a bathing suit. They found they had a number of things in common, such as anime, music, flowers, crafting, vintage styles, and, of course, lingerie.
One of the first shows that Schauf and Baggenstoss put together they called The Seven Deadly Sins. The audience at the Dark Dance greeted The Seven Deadly Sins show with laughter, clapping, and loud applause. I had never before witnessed a burlesque performance, but watching the show that night I began to understand its reemerging popularity. Despite its negative connotations, burlesque was growing on me, a feeling I more than shared with the performers.
“Even though I love textiles," said Baggenstoss, "I feel that clothing hinders us sometimes. We get up in the morning after sleeping naked comfortably (some of us) and have to put on things that bunch, pull, and put a label on who we are. We are all humans, we are animals, and clothes mask that from our reality."
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