Naked and Unafraid | ELLE - video Dailymotion

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1 year ago

Jake Dupree | ELLE

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00:00 Most of the gender-affirming care that I get is on stage and performing the way I do.

00:05 Burlesque has really given me everything.

00:08 I'm Jake Dupree, my pronouns are they/them, and I'm a burlesque performer.

00:12 This career path has definitely affected the way that I feel about gender, period.

00:21 I think coming where I'm from in Arkansas, I've been othered my entire life.

00:27 I never was exposed to people that were "different."

00:31 So I would hide or put things into boxes or compartmentalize.

00:36 I was in a very, very depressed place, and I had some thoughts that were scaring me in a way,

00:43 and that's something I don't really talk about that much because it's kind of dark.

00:47 My career has been a bunch of paths.

00:53 I was doing musical theater stuff, and I was a fitness teacher.

00:57 At one point in my 20s, for sure, I felt like, "Oh, Lord, you're just throwing things at a wall trying to see what sticks."

01:03 I entered this amateur drag competition at Revolver in West Hollywood, which is a gay bar.

01:08 It was this 10-week-long competition.

01:11 I did this number based off this amazing burlesque performer here in L.A.

01:14 Her name is Miss Miranda.

01:16 And I ended up winning the whole thing.

01:20 It was this kind of opportunity that really changed my life and kind of gave me an excuse to express myself in a feminine way,

01:27 which I'd always wanted to, but I think I needed the validation.

01:31 Miss Miranda saw that I had been inspired by her, and she sent me this huge email back being like,

01:37 "I don't even know what to say. I'm blown away."

01:40 It was just this surreal moment of being like, "I'm doing the right thing. I'm going to trust myself and keep going."

01:45 She told me about this audition for Dita Von Teese's show here in L.A. called Bon Follies, and it was at the Roosevelt Hotel.

01:51 She's an idol of mine, and she made me want to do burlesque.

01:55 And so when I went to the audition, it was this moment where the room just kind of stopped.

02:00 And it was just me in lingerie, my heels, and my finger wave.

02:04 It was a room full of all these burlesque greats from all over the world.

02:08 And I got picked to do her giant martini glass act.

02:14 That kind of set me on the path, and now I've gone on--this is six years now,

02:18 and I'm the first non-binary person to perform at the Crazy Horse in Paris.

02:22 Now I'm in Vegas doing shows with Kylie Minogue and Christina Aguilera,

02:26 and it feels really good to see where it's all gone.

02:29 Sometimes I was like, "I don't know where it's necessarily going to go,"

02:32 but I just kind of trusted the process of it, and I'm glad I did.

02:40 A lot of us have fought very, very hard to have the freedom to get out

02:45 and do what we want to do and present the way we want to present.

02:48 I was in a really, really dark place before I started performing this way,

02:54 and I don't--I don't want to cry, but I think about this a lot.

03:00 It's like some of the things I've been able to do and the spaces I've been able to inhabit

03:05 and the people I've been able to meet, it wouldn't have happened

03:08 had I chosen a different path or let that darkness really speak very loudly,

03:13 and I'm glad I didn't do that because if I didn't get to see myself at this point,

03:17 I would be sad to have my life cut short.

03:19 That's hard.

03:22 I think that being on stage, presenting the way I want to,

03:27 dancing the way I want to, having ownership of everything that I do,

03:31 it has been the most reaffirming thing in my entire life,

03:34 and I can't imagine my life without it.

03:36 [music]

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