Paint it black.
Maui’s black light troupe The Ultraviolets
This week’s most unique show also happens to be the most logistically challenging: The Can Can presents The Ultraviolets Black Light Burlesque at The Can Can Thursday July 11. The troupe of female clowns hail from Maui and have worked long and hard to launch their first West Coast tour. They’ve purchased a van just for the occasion and are ready to bring their brand of sensual movement and illusion under black light to the burlesque stage, particularly in a city where cabaret, burlesque, and dance so freely intermingle.
Founding member Rachel DeBoer has a BA in Theater Performance from the University of South Florida, but has lived on the Hawaiian island of Maui for the last twelve years. There she started a successful face and body painting business called Fabulous Faces as well as a black light theater company Next Level Theater Productions that specializes in black light mythological Hawaiian storytelling. “I always loved black light theater for its ability to make the invisible visible…to show magic literally, through floating objects…thought bubbles…energy…whatever one could dream up,” Rachel explained. “Our style of burlesque is more comedic, a parody of our relationships, awkward situations, what it’s like to be a woman. We are based heavily in storyline, puppetry, magic illusion, visual surprises…”
“When I returned from [a solo soul-searching trip to] Peru I wanted to create something I’d never done before,” Rachel continued. “The Ultraviolets emerged in December of 2011. We did show after show all through 2012 combining our unique surrealistic theater with dj parties at our local theater, The Iao Theater, until we ended up on the cover of the Maui Time Weekly, our island’s biggest paper. Recently we banded together with the Kit Kat Club, another more dance and song [oriented] cabaret troupe on Maui, and the Cherry Blossom Cabaret from O’ahu to create the Hawaii Superstars of Burlesque. We three troupes have performed twice at the Iao Theater as a unit, interweaving and juxtaposing our show styles together.”
Rachel explained what the burlesque scene is like in Hawai’i: “Burlesque in Hawai’i, or rather Maui, is pretty much us and the other two troupes I mentioned. In Maui burlesque is not allowed in places with liquor. In fact there are very strict rules about burlesque, which are rather antiquated in my mind. Pretty much everything we do is actually not technically allowed in a bar as it’s too suggestive for the Maui Liquor Commission. There have been times that we have been asked to censor ourselves in order to perform at certain venues, which I’ve refused. The only venue we really perform at without risk of being fined (or rather the venue being fined) is The Iao Theater, which serves no alcohol, so freedom of expression is still allowed there. Imagine my relief and joy knowing that going on tour would allow us to fully express ourselves at a variety of venues without punishment or judgment…that in Seattle burlesque is celebrated rather than outlawed.”
The Ultraviolets Black Light Burlesque will also feature appearances by Seattle’s own Boom Boom L’Roux and Randi Rascal.
The Ultraviolets Black Light Burlesque
Thursday July 11, 2013
The Can Can, at Historic Pike Place Market Seattle
94 Pike St.
Advance tix at http://www.thecancan.com
$12 GEN/ $15 VIP
Doors open 9:30pm
Show at 10pm
This Thursday July 11 at Can Can
Burlesque Seattle Press 