Ep. 43: Merendiando with Dainty Smith
November 18, 2020
“A person who’s terrified – TERRIFIED – of life, but they show up anyways: I think that that’s what tenderness is.”
– Dainty Smith
Our guest this week is Dainty Smith, Toronto based actor, burlesque performer, playwright, producer, and speaker. She is the founder of Les Femme Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque, and the co-creator of the Body Love program.
In this interview we talked about what burlesque means to her, how there are many ways of being sexy, her passion for telling the stories of complicated women, and the power of tenderness.
Show Notes
- Josephine Baker, world renowned performer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist.
- Les Femmes Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque Troupe, the first burlesque troupe for women of colour in Canada, which Dainty founded.
- Body Love, a series of affirming dance classes led by Dainty Smith and Ravyn Wingz
- Toronto Burlesque Festival and the Burlesque Hall of Fame Museum, examples of celebrating excellence in burlesque.
- The PUSH.PULL project, a series of workshops, panels and showcases that present the intersections of burlesque, cabaret, and performance art.
- Daughters of Lilith, a play by Dainty Smith inspired by the stories of Lilith and the experiences of Black women. It’s prequel, Blood and Memory, is in development as part of Obsidian Theatre’s 21 Black Futures project.
- Some of Dainty’s favourite books and writers who celebrate complicated women: The House of Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and Toni Morrison.
- Dainty’s merienda: a morning cup of coffee, tea, snuggles with her cat, a big bowl of trail mix, some good TV, and sea salt dark chocolate.
All Merendiando episodes are in Spanglish, English, or Spanish. New episodes of Radio Aluna Theatre are released on Wednesdays. Follow and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
Radio Aluna Teatro is produced by Aluna Theatre with support from the Toronto Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Metcalf Foundation, and TD Bank.
Aluna Theatre is Beatriz Pizano & Trevor Schwellnus, with Sue Balint; Radio Aluna Theatre is produced by Monica Garrido and Camila Diaz-Varela.
For more about Aluna Theatre, visit us at alunatheatre.ca, follow @alunatheatre on twitter or instagram, or ‘like’ us on facebook.