Dance Disassembled: Drag, burlesque performers use makeup for self-expression

This post was updated Nov. 17 at 10:47 p.m.

From selecting music and choreography to perfecting costumes and makeup, the ins and outs of putting on a dance performance are complex and detailed. Put on your dancing shoes and follow along as columnist Laura Carter takes a behind-the-scenes look at dance, disassembled.

The worlds of drag and burlesque are using makeup to highlight and contour their performances.

Performance makeup, especially for drag, is used to amplify facial features in ways traditional makeup does not. The makeup used in burlesque and drag performances utilizes brighter colors that contribute to the overall dance or persona. For alumnus Jared Menschel, also known as Valley Gyrl in the drag community and on Instagram, makeup is an integral part of personal exploration and discovering self-confidence in their performance.

“The way people are able to express themselves through the art of makeup is an incredible feat to me,” Menschel said. “I will never forget the first look I ever painted on my face. … I went from being a little timid, but suddenly I had this moment of like, ‘I am unstoppable.’”

Menschel’s journey to drag started after watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and attending RuPaul’s DragCon, and it evolved with practicing different looks during the pandemic, they said. With the help of a makeup artist friend, Menschel said his makeup skills were able to progress exponentially faster than before once he learned how to do a cut-crease eyeshadow look. Many of the makeup looks Menschel creates are based on outfits, such as monochrome pink looks to amplify pink eyeshadow creations.

The makeup he uses tends to be brighter colored than traditional, everyday makeup, and Menschel said he is drawn to makeup looks that utilize bold pinks and neon blues. They also take significant inspiration from the artists they listen to, such as Carly Rae Jepsen, whose music brings to mind colors such as baby blue, Menschel said. The colors they see while listening to music filter through to their drag looks, they said, especially the vibrant pinks they use in eyeshadow looks.

“Generally, I’m going for the pinks, blues and the purples,” Menschel said. “It’s very important to me to listen to an album and understand what the artist is talking about and really (get) a sense for who they are based on what colors I feel their music is giving me.”

[Related: Dance Disassembled: Student groups interlace culture with dance through costumes]

For King Baba Moon, a Los Angeles-based drag king, drag makeup goes beyond what is created on the face of the performer. The makeup is utilized as an element in a persona, and he said it is a tool in a drag performance that works hand in hand with the other elements of the look, such as the outfit and edited backgrounds.

“Makeup is part of the performance that I do,” Baba Moon said. “It’s expressing myself on myself, and the art is not just on my face. It’s also the way I dress, the way I move and the things that I perform.”

Baba Moon’s experience breaking into the drag world started with the COVID-19 pandemic because drag audiences’s focus shifted to an online platform. Since he does not frequent drag performance venues very often, he said the transition to consuming drag content online made it more accessible to him. Baba Moon said learning the technical aspects of the makeup was a fast process because of his background in fine art. Most of the progression from his earlier drag looks to the most recent ones differs in the tools used to apply the makeup – such as brushes and sponges – and not the technique, he said.

Baba Moon’s makeup also incorporates a few defining facial features, he said. All of the looks are completed with a mustache and a unibrow that connects to a line down the nose which he said comes from old Mexican masks. He said exposure to these Mexican masks, with their bright colors and dramatized facial features, left a lasting impact on him growing up that filtered into his drag persona. The process of applying the makeup takes anywhere from one hour to four hours depending on the complexity of the look, he said. Because drag makeup is so dramatic, he said each step in the application process is followed by setting the makeup with rice water setting spray.

“The thing about drag makeup is that if one part of your face is super defined, you need to define everything else,” Baba Moon said. “Even though my makeup is not very heavy, it’s heavier than usual (makeup).”

[Related: UCLA student takes dance moves to national level in commercial]

 

In student dance group Bruin Burlesque, the makeup used in performances is variable and changes depending on the piece being performed, said fourth-year dance student and Bruin Burlesque president Maya Peterson. Though the group hasn’t put on any performances, Peterson said the makeup look for their dancers would be flexible to allow for personal expression in the performed piece. Because many dance pieces tend to have standardized makeup requirements, such as a certain shade of lipstick, allowing dancers to choose the shades of makeup they apply would help reflect the club’s goal of providing a space for personal expression.

“Stage makeup and dance makeup was a lot more dramatic than your everyday makeup,” Peterson said. “Burlesque is a little more feminine (than) other styles of dance.”

Sometimes, she said, dance pieces contain special instructions for makeup looks, such as using a brighter lipstick or making the dancers look like they don’t have any makeup on at all. Since burlesque is a dance style that relies on dramatization, the makeup looks that accompany it might rely on emphasizing the face in ways other dance styles may not, she said.

For both drag and burlesque performers, makeup is used as a way to contribute to a dramatized version of the persona being displayed. A performance relies on makeup the same way it relies on costumes and choreography, and ultimately, the makeup in drag is just as important as the rest of the performance elements. Especially for dance groups such as Bruin Burlesque, in which the goal of the group is to amplify individualism, makeup can be used as a continuation of that goal, Peterson said.

“For me personally, this club is all about self-expression,” Peterson said. “If we were to have a performance, I’d give everyone the freedom to do their own makeup how they like and make sure they’re comfortable with the way they look.”