Missy Ink has been a force to reckon with since stepping onto the burlesque scene in December 2022. As a dancer for 20 years prior to stepping into a different style and persona, she says the nerves are nothing but distant memories.
Before she performs, she creates the visual in her mind, the energy she projects filling the stage and the whole venue.
“I close my eyes and imagine myself filling up with purple light,” she says. “I imagine myself becoming fully [Missy] and leaving my real-life self backstage.”
As well as giving opportunities to others through Ink Splatters Production shows, Missy’s favourite performance so far has been Cut the Tethers, which she performed at Vancouver International Burlesque Festival this year. Using her background of contemporary and lyrical dance styles, she wraps herself in 80 feet of beautiful silks to portray a cutting of toxic relationships from her life and to move toward healing.
“It was the first time I put something so personal into any of my art… I’ve been so moved by people’s reaction to it,” she says.
Missy—who will be starting one-on-one choreography workshops for burlesque performers in December; see @missy.ink_ on Instagram for info—has two goals in mind when performing for audiences. To revel in the queer, butchy goodness, and to offer some catharsis.
“I grew up in a more conservative part of the country and burlesque was my first chance [to] explore my queerness fully,” she explains. “The intimacy created through burlesque allows me to explore deep and intense emotions and express them in a way you’re not able to in other art forms.”
Missy says the closing of the Victoria Event Centre, where she held her first burlesque performance with Sapphos Isle, affects the community and the future of burlesque in this city.
“I saw my first burlesque show there and made both my producer and performer debut there,” she says. “We didn’t just lose a venue for burlesque; we lost a space that was a cornerstone of the queer community in Victoria.”
Losing these event spaces and being pushed from alternative locations, such as food-primary venues, has taken its toll on queer and already marginalized communities.
“It comes across [as] devaluing specific kinds of art,” she says. “But I have faith in our community that we will rise [and] make a new space for burlesque and for queer art overall.”
Victoria is known for unique burlesque shows and Missy is bringing her third to The Mint this November. Ink Splatters Production has brought all-sapphic cast shows to the community and is not done making a mess of the town.
A F*#%ing Mess: A Chaotic Cabaret
7 pm Saturday, November 30
The Mint
themintvictoria.com