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Dainty Smith
File:TBD
TBD
Born
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Occupation
  • Burlesque dancer
Years active2010–present
Websitedaintysmith.com

Dainty Smith is a Toronto-based burlesque performer and founder of Les Femme Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque Troupe. [1]

Biography

Smith was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica and was raised in Thorold, Ontario. Her father was the pastor of a Hebrew-Pentecostal Church in Toronto, Ontario. She studied Performing Arts at George Brown College in Toronto.[2]

Career

Working across several creative roles as an actor, producer, writer, and burlesque performer, Smith uses the art of storytelling to tell deeply vulnerable stories regarding race, religion, sexuality and challenging social boundaries.[3] During the 2010s she became well known as co-producer for the independent performance art collective Colour Me Dragg and a co-founder of Les Femme Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque Troupe, made up primarily of Black women, women of colour, and their allies. [4] Smith has written articles for Sway magazine, About magazine, and Xtra! Newspaper. Additionally, she has published a series of autobiographical essays entitled, Femmoirs of a Burlesque Performer. She has starred in two films, How To Stop A Revolution and Red Lips (cages for black girls). [5] Smith occasionally works as an emcee and credits her religious upbringing for shaping her approach and developing a focus on the “sacredness and holiness” of marginalized women’s bodies.[6] Smith is an active member of Toronto's queer community as an organizer and performer.[7]

Burlesque

In 2009 Smith became a full-time burlesque performer, using the pseudonym, Dainty Box. Smith performs burlesque as a combination of theatre, storytelling, and seduction to express themes of body positivity and sex positivity. For Smith, burlesque is an intersectional-feminist act and describes that she became a burlesque performer to create a positive female role model that celebrates the breadth and complexity of female sexuality.[8] She expresses the importance of telling stories through her own body—not as a secondary object or as somebody else’s object, but purely her own[9] stating that, "I’m interested in the ways in which I can reclaim my body and find self-love as a black woman on a platform. We tell stories onstage, loving and owning our bodies. Being able to do that is a defiant act."[10]

Smith regularly cites Josephine Baker as key influence, who she explains taught her that beauty, glamour, and style were accessible to Black girls. As Smith explains, seeing archival footage of Baker was "a ‘light-bulb’ moment for me. Because of her, I changed how I viewed myself as a young black woman. It gave me permission to consider myself pretty—possibly even beautiful.”[11] In addition to Baker, Smith is inspired by Black entertainers such as Eartha Kitt, Dorothy Dandridge, and Lena Horne in addition to the ladies of the church she previously attended in Thorold, who she describes as her "style icons."[12] Writers Zadie Smith, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelo are also key influences on Smith's work and practice.[13]

In 2010 Smith co-founded Les Femmes Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque Troupe with Boss Lady and Madam in Charge, "a burlesque troupe made up primarily of black women and women of colour and their allies."[14] The aim of Les Femmes Fatales is to spotlight beautiful, talented, intelligent brown and black females of all different shapes, sizes, skin tones and ethnic backgrounds. The troupe's name is inspired by cinematic femme fatales, characters who Smith has long identified with, stating that, "I didn’t see them as bad people, I saw them as survivors—women who had been through hell and back....The femme fatales had war wounds and knew how to be glamorous in spite of those wounds..."[15]

Theatre

Smith has performed a numerous venues and festivals across Toronto including Mayworks Festival, Rock. Paper. Sistahz Festival, the Rhubarb Festival, Gladstone Hotel, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the Tranzac Club, Artscape, Harbourfront Centre, and Daniels Spectrum Theatre. In 2013 she participated in Kill Joy's Kastle: A Lesbian Haunted House conceived by artist Allyson Mitchell.[16]

In 2017, Smith wrote Daughters Of Lilith, a play that premiered at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. The play was directed by Ravyn Wngz who is a frequent collaborator of Smith's.[17] [18] The play features an entirely Black female cast and tells the story of six complicated sisters who are bound together through blood, Blackness, femininity, the past, and the present. Each sister has a dual nature, which, according to Smith, is symbolic of the very vital dual nature in all women. It is a story about how Black women survive love, loss, heartbreak, misogynoir and trauma. The sisters reunite in the forest, searching for their mother Lilith and for ways to remember their personal and collective magic.[19]

Public Speaking

In recent years, Smith has given speaking engagements and workshops with women and youth on themes of empowerment, glamour, beauty, self love and self care at The 519, Ryerson University, University of Ottawa, and York University on radical body positivity, survival, and thriving.[20] [21] Mentorship is important to Smith, who sees it as a responsibility to share her knowledge with new performers. Smith’s energy and commitment to burlesque is rooted in the sisterhood that develops when women support each other, particularly those from marginalized communities. She wants more young women of colour to take the stage and define burlesque and what it means to them on their own terms. Smith wants burlesquing for women of colour to grow and evolve, to expand and to carry the art into new imaginative and ground breaking ways of performing.[22]

Reception

Smith has garnered considerable media attention, particularly for her burlesque performance and role as founder of Les Femme Fatales. In 2017 she was featured on the CBC Television series Exhibitionists for her leadership role within Toronto's burlesque community. The episode referenced the phrase "black thighs save lives" which Smith coined to describe the empowerment that results from the daring and vulnerable performances created by Les Femmes Fatales.[23]

References

  1. ^ Nagra, Nav. "Dainty Smith, Founder of Les Femme Fatales: Women of Colour Burlesque Troupe". Room.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "'Black thighs save lives': Dainty Smith at the Highbrow Burlesque". CanCulture. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  3. ^ "FADO Performance Art Centre". www.performanceart.ca. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  4. ^ needed
  5. ^ "Dainty Smith". SAGE l Femmoirs. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  6. ^ "'Black thighs save lives': Dainty Smith at the Highbrow Burlesque". CanCulture. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  7. ^ "What Pride Means to Toronto Performer Dainty Smith". Torontoist. 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2020-09-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Smith, Dainty (11 June 2012). "Why I Became Dainty Box". Sage Femmoirs.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Disman, Adriana (January 2014). "The Politics of Burlesque: A Dialogue Among Dancers". Canadian Theatre Review. 158: s1 – s16 – via JSTOR.
  10. ^ Kirkwood, Isabelle (16 April 2018). "'Black thighs save lives': Dainty Smith at the Highbrow Burlesque". CanCulture.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Shamsher, Aliyah (6 February 2017). "The New First Ladies in Culture, Sciences and Sports: The performers, activists and athletes who are changing the world". FASHION MAGAZINE.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Femme is inspiration, femme is Dainty – HEARTBEATS". Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  13. ^ Feminist Burlesque with Dainty Smith, retrieved 2020-09-09
  14. ^ Dainty Smith https://www.daintysmith.com/les-femmes-fatales.html. Retrieved 9 September 2020. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ Saulter, Jelicia (17 November 2015). "Redefining the colour of burlesque". Vintage Vixen Magazine.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Cooley, Alison (October 29, 2013). "The Haunting of Allyson Mitchell's Kill Joy's Kastle". Canadian Art. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  17. ^ "Body Love". The 519. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Letters to the Universe". Theatre Centre. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  19. ^ "Daughters of Lilith". Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  20. ^ "FADO Performance Art Centre". www.performanceart.ca. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  21. ^ "Body Love". The 519. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  22. ^ "'Black thighs save lives': Dainty Smith at the Highbrow Burlesque". CanCulture. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  23. ^ Dechausay, Lucius. "'Black thighs save lives': How Dainty Smith is empowering women of colour through burlesque". CBC.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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