As the Twin Cities burlesque scene celebrated its local history with Twin Cities Titans: A Legend-ary Benefit Weekender, the narrative could have quickly become one of succession. But the metaphorical torch isn’t being passed; it’s being shared. At least, that’s how Rosemary Maranda Wallace sees it.
The September 12–13 event’s aim was to honor the performers who built and grew the scene, while also allowing space for performers of all ages and experiences to share the spotlight.
“That is one of the things I love about burlesque, because people are still performing,” says Maranda Wallace, whose stage name is Maranda Wright.
“I think that newer people have so much to learn from people that have been doing it for a while, and for people that have been doing it for a while, it’s a thrill to get that excitement that the newer people have when they get into the art form,” she says. “I think it’s just kind of this lovely little circle that happens.”
Building on a Legacy
Maranda Wallace is one of three producers behind Golden Garters Burlesque Revue, a live-band burlesque production that grew out of Capital City Cabaret. During COVID-19, she considered retiring from burlesque. Instead, she started thinking about “how it really is supposed to be done is with a live band. How magical would that be?”
That commitment to live performance connects Golden Garters to an earlier era of Twin Cities burlesque. The local burlesque resurgence began more than 25 years ago, before performers found audiences on social media.
Maranda Wallace points to Gina Louise, founder of the Minneapolis Burlesque Festival and a co-founder of the Twin Cities Burlesque Academy. She also calls out Foxy Tann for helping to shape the local scene, notably by creating space for Black burlesque performers.
“We just have this really rich history locally, and we still have a really active scene,” Maranda Wallace says. “I think a lot of the younger performers coming up, or people that are newer to burlesque, don’t realize really how fabulous we have it here, and what was built over these years.”
The Secret Ingredients
The Twin Cities’ political culture paired with the area’s queer and performing arts communities created an environment where burlesque had plenty of room to grow. But Maranda Wallace sees another reason the art form has endured here: it gives performers the freedom to decide what they want to say and how they want to say it.
At its core, she describes burlesque as “a performance art rooted in satire, storytelling, and complete artist agency.” That’s particularly powerful in a broader culture that constantly tells people how they should look and act.
“Burlesque gives performers total control over their own narrative, movement, music, costuming, and stage presence. It’s a rigorous yet often joyful craft where you get to take up space strictly on your own terms.”
Rosemary Maranda Wallace
At Golden Garters, the mix can include live music, comedy, drag, and theatrical spectacle alongside classic burlesque. Maranda Wallace remembers the work of the late performer Barbara Gordon, who once appeared as a pregnant Cher and gave birth onstage to a puppet Sonny.
Gordon’s act proves how burlesque can be sexy, but it can also be absurd, political, theatrical, or just plain funny. For audiences, Maranda Wallace says the result is “live, uninhibited entertainment and a shared sense of celebration that you rarely find anywhere else.”
The Twin Cities burlesque community has continued to celebrate and make room for performers with different identities and bodies.
Room for Everyone
“The younger folks, I’m seeing it’s more diverse. It’s more body positive. More queer,” she says.
But diversity in the scene isn’t only about who is new to burlesque. It also means who gets to keep doing it. “I’m middle-aged, you know? I love to see diversity on the stage in all ways, and I think age is one of the ones that we don’t probably talk about enough,” Maranda Wallace says.
Having a variety of people mingling together creates the kind of environment she described earlier as a “lovely little circle.” Those connections don’t necessarily come through formal mentorship programs.
Maranda Wallace points to Q Cabaret, whose performers range in age from 24 to 75. The performers participated in a wellness series where they eventually created a group burlesque number and continued supporting one another after the project ended.
Taking Care of the Scene
She says, “across the Twin Cities, the broader burlesque community frequently pools resources for direct mutual aid,” from performers donating tips to productions raising money during crises.
Twin Cities Titans carried that tradition forward, supporting the Burlesque Hall of Fame Legends Fund while helping launch the MinneTease Care Fund, a proposed safety net for local performers.
The fund could eventually help with emergency medical bills and other unexpected needs.
For Maranda Wallace, mutual aid is less an abstract idea than a responsibility: “I believe in taking care of each other.”
Looking Toward the Future
She adds, “What makes our Twin Cities burlesque community special, and why I believe the future of it is bright, is how we build fierce, joyful spaces.”
Creating that future will require more than preserving what already exists. She half-jokes about fair compensation before adding to her list of hopes for the future of burlesque. She looks forward to more genre blending, consent-forward spaces, better accessibility, and spaces where neurodivergent people feel welcome.
As an example, she shares memories of a recent neurodivergent-friendly cabaret at Queermunity where audience members waved chiffon flags instead of applauding. It’s a small example of a larger idea: creating an environment where people can feel welcome, both on stage and in the audience.
For more than two decades, Twin Cities burlesque has kept changing while making room for the people who built it as well as the people who are new to the stage. And Maranda Wallace has a reminder for all of them: “Joy is resistance,” she says. “We need to have some joy because it’s really easy to get stuck in whatever it is we’re living through right now.”
Legends in Action
A few of the legends this story is about on stage: Sweetpea, Foxy Tann, Musette Badeau and Coco Dupree. Press play to watch each of them work.
