GiGi Holliday: The Shaman of Sensuality Heavy Flo

Award-winning burlesque performer GiGi Holliday sits down with podcast hosts Puss and Kooch to talk about owning your own sensuality, the importance of recognizing the DC art scene, and how much she loves Beyonce.















GiGi Holliday on Heavy Flo with Puss and Kooch







GiGi Holliday is an international burlesque performer. Really, she’s a performer in every sense of the word. She’s also a teacher of dance and fitness. In DC, she runs a party brunch known as La Boum Brunch, which is one of Bravo’s Top 5 Raging Brunches in the United States.







The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear everything GiGi has to say, listen to her podcast episode.







A brief rundown on the art of burlesque







I do a very niche art form that has roots in various places. Stripping is definitely a part of it, as well as vaudeville comedy. Hence, why I’m also very funny. But I do the art of tease. It’s a form of striptease that can be very sensual, very funny, very fast-paced, whatever you want. 







This art form has been around since the 1800s. Two major names you might know are Josephine Baker and Dita Von Teese. My parents tell their friends, “She’s like a modern day Josephine Baker,” and they go, “Oh, we get it!” And if say Dita Von Teese to other friends, they say, “The woman who was married to Marilyn Manson?” She was a burlesque performer who made burlesque a household name for us. 







The difference between burlesque and the work done in a strip club







I’ve been a commercial stripper, as in I’ve worked in a strip club. I find that what I do is sex work and sex work adjacent. So I like to consider a lot of my burlesque “sex-y” work because sex work is a whole different thing. Hustling for tips in a strip bar is different from hustling for tips in a burlesque place. 







The difference between a burlesque performer and a stripper is that a stripper can pay their rent on time. That’s a joke, but it’s also for real. I’ve seen burlesque performers go broke and go into debt, myself included. 







But I’ve also been one of those strippers who were just like, “Well, I just made a bunch of bands tonight, so I’m gonna go to Red Lobster.” I’m gonna go to the fanciest place and eat and keep it moving because I can afford to do things.







I love both sides of the stone. But for burlesque performers, it’s a different hustle. We’re trying to be the sparkliest, we’re trying to win a different set of awards. We have a whole award system. Strippers also have an awards system. But burlesque performers have to hustle to headline. 







Burlesque performers definitely have more of a character, more of an act. Some people can take two weeks to work on an act. I have worked on an act that took two, three years. The costume was expensive. The music was a lot, as were the concept and the dance moves. I was in someone’s dance studio almost every day trying to figure out the music and routine.







I love that routine, love it to death. But it’s also one of those things where I say, ” You’ve gotta pay me a whole lot of money to get me to do this routine again.” I spent a lot of money and a lot of time on this routine. But yeah, that’s the difference. 







Learning to own sensuality through burlesque







The burlesque that I do is considered classic, which is what you might know from Gypsy Rose Lee.