Jesse Hold On
Yes, B*Witched (only) hit from their second album is giving me life and healing me whole
I grew up on Disney channel, Sam Goody CD’s and a whole lotta dance in the golden era of 90s girly pop.
Everyday after school for most of my upbringing you could find me in my cement floor unfinished basement lip syncing and dancing to music in front of a floor length mirror with a DIY ballet bar my parents set up. Solo time and playdates were all spent dancing, directing, choreographing, doing something fun and creative in that space. School mates shapeshifting into muses, band mates and goofy folks you could let your hair down with.
I had no idea at the time that what we were doing was essentially drag and sometimes literally. The first time I impersonated masculinity was age eight with my best friend and younger brother as the pop superstar boy band family group - Hanson. We were all blonde with different length hair just like brothers. We all wore different versions of a striped Gap t-shirt, jeans and converse. My mother set up her 90’s camcorder for us to use while I pretended to play my Dad’s full drum kit, my brother on a toy guitar and my bestie with an air mic. We then proceeded to lip sync perform the entire 1997 Hanson album, “Middle of Nowhere“ from top to bottom. I think we knew Mmmbop the most and the rest was freestyle.
Making album length music videos was a common occurrence, as was summer backyard theatre on this stone patio pictured below at the end of this page.
Summer going into sixth grade I caught a bad case of swimmer’s ear and couldn’t do swim team for a few weeks. And what did I, a high masking creatively exuberant cant sit still AuDHDer decide to do with that time off?
Why start a theatre company and run a one act production with my besties of course!
And the Greenbriar Theatre was born.
Our first show was September 2001, the weekend before school re-started and unbeknownst to us at the time, a week before my father would come home covered in a white-gray dust, eyes and skin red, watering and horrified.
Our next two shows, “Wizard of The Mall” and “Phantom of the Soap Opera” were comedic musicals. The second getting too big cast and production wise to handle, so we took off a year.
The last show held at this humble neighborhood theatre we’d fill with outdoor chairs and a piece of tape with the row and seat number written on it, was in 2006 with a review of Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Our biggest success despite one of the main ensemble members not showing up for the show! Good thing I knew all the parts!
Theatre is hilarious and insane and wonderful.
It’s a place to be witnessed and share, inspire and move and be moved.
Since moving home, I’ve often found myself on the back patio after a walk pacing fast to cascading imagery appearing in my minds eye in response to the music in my earbuds. By the time I arrive back at the patio, I feel moved to dance full out.
My rehearsal process has always been get inspired by a song. Listen to it over and over and over again until a clear visual image can play throughout and my MindBody knows all the layers of the music to a T. That’s when I do my “first dance” aka first time dancing to the song I want to perform. It’s always a freestyle and I try to record when I can. Later this serves as the outline for setting choreography, though most of my performance sets these days don’t make it to that stage of creation. Choreography is a whole discipline and time commitment I’m not quite ready to make space for at the moment.
Right now, I am deeply enjoying living my baby self’s dream as a lip syncing dance crazed pop star as Drag King Sly Saturn.
This “first dance” pictured below was recorded the day the UK Supreme Court ruled against the existence and protection of trans people. I made this video for them, for us - the gay gaels all around the world, and all gender expansive beings.
I edited this video the day the US Congress voted in favor of a bill that removes gender affirming healthcare coverage for folks on medicaid/medicare. Adults. Denied. A life saving, research supported, absolutely necessary medical procedure. Many will die from this. Unless you do something about it. Unless we all do.
Step 1: Call your Senator and say no to cuts to gender affirming healthcare / H. R. 1 “One Big Beautiful Bill”. Click this link for contact info and script.
Step 2: Watch this love filled dance video to one of the best and most underrated B*Witched songs ever as a dopamine hit treat for tangibly showing up for people I know you care about.
Step 3: Forward this email to someone so they can do the same!
Step 4: Give yourself a big hug!!! You are so loved and beautiful and necessary!!! May you be blessed by the gay gods, land fairies and Quuuuueeeeeeeennnnssssss <3 <3
In Solidarity,
Lucky