In August of 2018 I began a project with the Montréal burlesque artist Sugar Vixen. We started a live palimpsestic engagement with Nick's print and video ads to bring new attention to this history: our history.
As an erotic dancer in this city, Sugar is part of a lineage that goes back nearly a century. Her body is a "walking palimpsest", the "harlot past" of the dancers that came before her visible in her own personal style of movement, costuming and presentation. Sugar and I also share a personal connection. She began doing burlesque after I came and spoke to her class at Dawson College about my experiences stripping and doing neoburlesque. I attended Dawson College, twenty-five years before Sugar. We are women connected to M0ntréal in multiple ways. We are alive and real and present, and also a vital part of its erotic entertainment history.
thank you to Jeremy Hechtman
for use of The Wiggle Room and
Mark Ambrose Harris for helping with filming. Chris Benisch edited the video.
Sugar Vixen as "The Tank Girl"