![\"Shade](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wrap-Shade-Nyx-Photo-Courtesy-of-Shade-Nyx.jpg\")
<\/a>Corsets can still fly open\u00a0to reveal elaborate pasties, but there is always a story around it. Shade describes herself as the \u201ckinkster\u201d among the four members of the troupe. \u201cI\u2019m definitely the fetish girl. My audience is geared towards the kink-positive, LGBT-friendly people.\u201d When a particular number in the show calls for whips, chains or ropes, that\u2019s when Nyx really takes center stage.<\/p>\n
This is evident amongst the thousands of friends, fans included, on her Facebook page, which she uses both personally and professionally. Regardless of whether they are friends and family or coworkers from either Sephora or the daycare, they can see her whole story on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Transparency has worked in her favour so far: Nyx has little fear of reprisal from either of her day jobs because of burlesque. \u201cI have always been upfront with my employers about what I do. I am a performer before anything else,\u201d she says.\u00a0 She admits to not flaunting her burlesque-side needlessly; still, she says, \u201cI don\u2019t censor anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moonlighting technically means a secondary job that isn\u2019t reported to the government; more often today it refers to a separate night job, done on the side, perhaps implying something secretive and indecent. It is the stereotypical notion of living a dual life: a housewife hosting brunch on the veranda by day and being a paid dominatrix in leather by night.<\/p>\n
For Nyx, though, there is no distinction between the two, no separation between what could be two people. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is anything wrong with it. It\u2019s all about the attitude that you have. If you\u2019re gonna act like it\u2019s your dirty little secret, then people will think you\u2019re a freak.\u201d<\/p>\n
A progressive way of thinking?<\/p>\n
A couple of decades ago, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find that kind of optimism in a smaller government city like Ottawa. Working as a burlesque dancer, drag queen or any job in the adult night life was a guarded secret, the same as any taboo. Fortunately for Nyx, taboos break down over time, even in traditionally conservative towns.<\/p>\n
\u2018My audience is geared towards the kink-positive, LGBT-friendly people.\u2019 \u2014 Shade Nyx<\/p>\n The judgement, however, may still linger. Kimberly Tessier works as a make-up artist with Nyx at Sephora; while fully supportive of her colleague and friend, Tessier isn\u2019t convinced everyone is so understanding. \u201cI think people care, for sure,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m from a federal government background, and I think more than [Shade] realizes, people have a lot of judgment about what others do outside of work.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet this pragmatic perspective is apparently not shared by all. Chris Seabrook, Shade Nyx\u2019s boyfriend of four years, received a degree in anthropology at Carleton, later coincidentally taking an interest in sexual subcultures. He believes that Canadians as a whole might just be too indifferent to bother caring about what their neighbours and co-workers do on Friday night.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in Canada we don\u2019t have a lot of \u2013isms,\u201d he says, fingers twisting his blond dreadlocks in thought. \u201cThere are some people who are truly racist, sexist or homophobic \u2014 it\u2019s out there \u2014 but most people really aren\u2019t. Some might act that way because they think they should, but really they don\u2019t give a damn. It\u2019s just not relevant to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n However, indifference doesn\u2019t seem to stop misconceptions from remaining prevalent, especially regarding adult entertainment. While burlesque might be misunderstood, drag has arguably suffered the worst misconceptions, specifically about those who refer to themselves as drag queens or kings. Ron Crepin, also known by his stage name, Carmella Kature, has been a drag queen in Ottawa for three years. When going by Crepin, he is a hair stylist at an Ottawa salon. \u00a0Like Nyx, Crepin is very open about his night life: \u201cIt\u2019s on my resume; sometimes I speak with clients about it while doing their hair,\u201d he says, \u201cand sometimes they even come to my shows.\u201d<\/p>\n