SINGAPORE: Mention the word “burlesque” and, chances are, those familiar with the art form imagine Dita Von Teese slowly undressing to sultry music, or a scantily clad Sukki Singapora doing a seductive slow dance number.
But a new burlesque troupe in Singapore is set to strip away preconceived notions of what this popular form of entertainment can be.
The group, called Skin In SIN, is making its debut performance at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival next month with Foreign Bodies, a show that looks at people’s perceptions of the “other” through the expatriate experience.
While there will indeed be people onstage in various states of undress, this burlesque show will not just be about showing skin, says its producer Eugene Tan, a drag performer who also goes by the name Becca D’Bus.
Skin In SIN’s Datin Coconut Muffin. (Photo: Audi Khalid)
“Since I moved back in 2011, I noticed Singapore is in a moment of quite intense migration. And a lot of the responses to that can only be described as xenophobic,” he said.
“But I’ve also noticed that those of us who have some kind of expat experience – whether Singaporeans who’ve lived overseas or people from overseas living in Singapore – talk about it in a different way. We want to talk about what’s happening in Singapore in a way that’s sexy, possibly challenging, thought-provoking and… loins-provoking.”
STORIES BEHIND THE NAMES
Skin in SIN was Tan’s brainchild. He came up with the idea of creating a burlesque troupe while producing his own drag show, RIOT!.
“In the contemporary sense, there’s a lot of overlap between burlesque and drag,” he said.
An open call drew around 40-plus applicants, which was whittled down to 18 members. Of these, 10 will be performing in Foreign Bodies.
Comprising men and women who are either Singaporeans who have lived overseas or foreigners currently working in Singapore, they sport unusual stage names such as Hank Spank and Michelle Piper – a burlesque tradition.
Michelle Piper from Skin In SIN. (Photo: Audi Khalid)
Among them are Datin Coconut Muffin, a female Singaporean who works in the art sector and who lived in New York for 15 years.
Her act in the show is partly inspired by Dita Von Teese. But her strip routine – “where I end up in bra, panties and fishnet stockings” – is also a commentary on how people perceive her.
For one, she has been mistaken as an expat in her home country. “Everywhere I go, the first question people ask is, ‘are you Singaporean?’ Then they say I don’t look or sound like one. I was born in Kandang Kerbau Hospital, I’ve a pink IC and a red passport – how much more Singaporean can you get?” said Datin Coconut Muffin, who added that her second name was a nod to the “brown on the outside, white on the inside” stereotype.
Her two other names are a nod to her experience as a minority woman in Singapore. “‘Datin’ (the female term for “datuk”) is the socialite and extrovert while ‘muffin’ is the stay-home wife who’s unseen. I’m exploring that duality of a woman’s position in society,” she said.
Meanwhile, fellow Skin In SIN member Lykie Liquor will be doing a drag-burleseque performance. An American who has been working in Singapore for the past three years in corporate real estate, he applied after hearing about the open call at a RIOT! show.
Skin In SIN member Lykie Liquor will be doing burlesque, drag-style. (Photo: Audi Khalid)
“Living in Singapore is my first time living abroad and, looking back, I wouldn’t have been moved to do performance art at all in the US. Coming to Singapore and meeting incredible individuals and allowing myself to expand my mind was great – I wanted to get onstage, express myself and my experience,” he said, adding that he took his cues on how to perform drag through Tan’s own performances as well as RuPaul’s Drag Race, the reality TV show by the famous drag queen.
As for his stage alter-ego, Lykie Liquor, “she’s very much in-your-face, loud… I want to stop short of saying obnoxious but she’s been told she is. She’s gonna dance all over and there’s a lot of audience participation that could occur,” he teased.
AN ALTERNATIVE BURLESQUE
Skin In SIN’s Foreign Bodies is far from being the first burlesque show in Singapore, said Tan, who cited previous striptease shows and topless revues (which are related to burlesque, he added) from defunct places such as Great World, Neptune Theatre Restaurant, Tropicana and Crazy Horse. There’s also the country’s famous burlesque performer Sukki Singapora.
But he described what Skin In SIN does as a kind of alternative to the mainstream burlesque that most Singaporeans would be familiar with.
Popular Singaporean burlesque star Sukki Singapora. (Photo: Lam Shushan)
“There’s a kind of history of contemporary burlesque in Singapore which is linked to fitness dance classes; dance studios have burlesque classes,” he said, adding that the term itself has been used quite loosely in the nightlife scene. “It’s become code for scantily-clad female dancers and (Foreign Bodies) is definitely not that.”
Instead, he pointed out how there have been other contemporary practices of burlesque overseas that push the boundaries, “whether it’s a kind of diversity of gender, sometimes queerness, sometimes not, but done by performers who come to it from a place of art and artmaking”.
Among these is American performer Madge of Honor, a performance artist who uses the burlesque tradition. Last October, she was in town to help Tan mentor the troupe members during a two-week workshop. She’s back again this week to continue the workshops and will also be hosting the Foreign Bodies show.
At the end of the day, Skin In SIN won’t be merely skimming the surface but combining burlesque’s popular entertainment roots with social critique – with the body at the centre of it all.
“It involves some kind of uncovering, and it’s a range of ways of talking about naked bodies – so there are people who are straight-up hot and it’s all about their sexy, beautiful bodies, and there are those who are playing with their bodies in probably more subversive ways, like ‘isn’t this body gross or funny’, that sort of thing,” said Tan.
And if one is keen to learn more about this other kind of burlesque, they’d be more than happy to teach audiences the ropes – one can pay for a VIP experience for Foreign Bodies, which entails a pair of front row seats and an hour-long burlesque class afterwards with Madge Of Honor.
“At the class, people will receive a pair of nipple tassels… and learn how to twirl them,” Tan quipped.
