Artist Statement
“By being naked on stage I reveal my own sexuality; it’s danger and allure that seduce the audience into an unexpected conversation about passion, power and feminism.”
–
Video Artist, Jennifer McCoy said about my work, “Like an artist such as Taylor Mac, Peekaboo is pushing boundaries normally associated with entertainment into a more conceptual practice that questions the expectations of the audience.”
I am naked in public often, and this is a revolutionary act. I use my body as bait, to lure you in, make you feel comfortable and then inspire a conversation or a feeling about larger topics. I like to think of my work as if I were a naked Mary Poppins saying, “a spoonful of titties helps the medicine go down.” My work explores intimacy by subverting the expectations of the viewer and using my body as a tool to explore larger topics of gender, compassion and feminism with a little playful humor to help it all sink in. I do this while holding space for the audience to process their own individual emotional responses.
I use my performances to create a through line from my grounding in contemporary dance and choreography, 15 years of cabaret performance, and my years as a stripper to connect to a personal narrative around my identity as a queer woman. By weaving my experiences into these different performative expressions, I have created a body of work that can co-exist in both traditional performance spaces and the world of nightlife entertainment, as well as the space in between. I believe that it’s just as important to present work to those of us in the academic art community as it is to be able to present that same art in a nightlife entertainment setting. My work walks easily between the two. Oftentimes, I believe that performing thought provoking performance art in a nightlife setting has the potential for more of a political impact on an audience.The political, conceptual and the entertainment factor are all of equal importance in my work.
Learning to accept the intricacies of our sexuality is complicated matter and, as a queer woman I know this well. By capturing intimate scenes in my own life, I am showing that it’s these moments that connect us all. My art strives to assemble stories into a narrative that makes sense of a world where female sexuality is still considered taboo. I put small moments into the spotlight to facilitate big change.
– Peekaboo Pointe
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About
Peekaboo is a performance artist, burlesque performer, and choreographer. She received an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Art from Brooklyn College in 2019 and a BFA in Dance from George Mason University in 2002. In 2003 she began performing burlesque on a regular basis in the nightclubs of New York. Her work in burlesque gave her the space and freedom to explore her voice as a solo performer and grow her craft into the multi-faceted performance career she has now.
In 2009 she began to tour internationally. As a headliner she toured Australia, Canada, and across the US. Peekaboo self produced 5 international 6 week tours across Europe and South Africa. She was a guest artist in Vive le Cabaret at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And joined the long running French Cabaret show Cabaret New Burlesque for 3 months. She was a cast member in the long running New York City shows: This is Burlesque with Murray Hill (2007-9) which ran 4 shows a week; and Guilty Pleasures (2006-7) Currently, she is a resident performer at The Slipper Room (2003-present) and Duane Park (2008-present).
Outside of burlesque she has had the honor of choreographing and performing for Taylor Mac’s 24 decades of popular music. (2013-2018: NYLA, UCLA, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Montclair Theater, Celebrate Brooklyn) She was a dancer and collaborator for the dance company, Gesel Mason Performance Project’s piece entitled Antithesis (2014-16). In 2012 she was commissioned to create an interactive installation at the Coney Island Museum entitled Nice to Meet You. And was the physical dramaturg for Ben Gorodetsky’s performance work entitled Biblioteca.
Peekaboo has created a body of work that can co-exist in both traditional performance spaces and the world of nightlife entertainment. In addition to performing burlesque in nightclubs around the world, she is currently creating interdisciplinary multimedia dance theater in NYC, and has presented work at HERE Arts, Dixon Place and Wild Project.