VIRAGO NATION WORKSHOPS
Explore decolonial training, anti-racist practices, or discover your inner warrior with the members of Virago Nation. Each workshop is designed to empower, inspire, and uplift in a comfortable and fun environment. Contact us to book a workshop for your next event, conference, or community gathering!
Browse the different types of workshops we offer:
Movement & Performance Glamorous Creations Decolonizing Personal & Organizational
Movement & Performance
Dangerous Curves
The Burlesque Guide to Loving Your Body
(60 minutes)
Instructor: Ruthe Ordare
Dangerous curves is a class for beginners to learn how to use every inch of their body to its full potential. Rooted in voluptuous movement, this class will focus on smooth body rolls, sexy hip sways, bumps, grinds and embracing the jiggle. The class includes a dance-based warm-up and beginner level choreography set to contemporary music. This class can accommodate those with limited mobility.
What to wear/bring: Please wear comfortable clothing you can move in, preferably form fitting. Class can be done in low dance heels (with an ankle strap) or bare feet. Please bring water.
Due to the nature of the class, no observers/guests are allowed in the studio and photography/video is only allowed with permission of participants.
KISS:
Keep It Simple Striptease
Striptease 101
(60 minutes)
Instructor: Ruthe Ordare
A striptease class to help those who find choreography overwhelming! We all strip our clothes off at the end of our day - so how do we add the tease? This class will focus on clothing removal while moving to your favourite music. There is no detailed choreography to remember, just feelin' the music and feelin' yourself! This class is beginner friendly and can accommodate those with limited mobility. This class is open to all femme and female identifying community members. Participants are asked to bring an extra bra and pair of panties for practicing with over top of work-out clothing. We will have a few extra items on site.
What to wear/bring: Please wear comfortable clothing you can move in, preferably form fitting. Class can be done in low dance heels (with an ankle strap) or bare feet. Please bring water.
Due to the nature of the class, no observers/guests are allowed in the studio and photography/video is only allowed with permission of participants.
In Your FACE Choreography
Characterization
(60 minutes)
Instructor: Sparkle Plenty
Whether your number is saucy, scandalous or silly, you gotta sell us what you’re feeling! This one hour movement-based workshop will explore different ways you can characterize your choreography by learning tips and tricks to let your mood make you move. Sparkle Plenty will guide you through various character exercises and help you apply them to simple choreography to show you how changing your facial expression can make a big impact. You will have all the tools you need to serve some serious face to your audience after this class!
What to wear/bring: Please wear comfortable clothing you can move in, preferably form fitting. Class can be done in low dance heels (with an ankle strap) or bare feet. Please bring water.
Due to the nature of the class, no observers/guests are allowed in the studio and photography/video is only allowed with permission of participants.
Glamorous Creations
Not your Auntie's Craft Class!
Making Pasties
(90 minutes)
Instructor: Scarlet Delirium
Betcha haven’t seen these handicrafts on the pow wow trail! Professional costumer and designer Scarlet Delirium is going to make your head spin with her custom nipple tassels! Guaranteed to be a riot, this class will teach participants how to design, create and twirl their very own set of nipple tassels.
All supplies are provided. This class is open to community members of all gender identities.
What to wear/bring: A Notebook
The Costume Narrative
Costuming 101
(90 minutes)
Instructor: Scarlet Delirium
This class will focus on the “Costume Narrative.” This is a powerful tool and visual aid for the storyline of a routine, be it fully formed or loosely strung together. Learn how to make simple and impactful costume decisions, explore the who, what, where and why of your own Costume Narrative, and get comfortable with the evolutionary processes of your costumes.
Visual art is defined as “creating art primarily for visual perception,” and performance art “combines visual art with dramatic performance.” As performance artists, burlesque dancers, strippers and so on, we create a fantastical world on stage through movement, facial expression, mood and of course, costume! class will include examples and creative processes of Scarlet Delirium’s personal collection of handmade costumes. From extravagant builds to thrifty finds, and how they all tie together to aid in the story of a routine to the captive audience.
What to wear/bring: A Pen, Notebook, costumes you’ve been working on and your imaginations!
Makeup Level Up
Drag and Glamour Makeup
(90 minutes)
Instructor: Sparkle Plenty
Want to elevate your eyebrow game? Struggling to find the balance between cat-eye and racoon eye? Unsure what colours to paint on your face? Join Sparkle Plenty as she walks you through the wonderful world of glamorous makeup application. This workshop will guide you through techniques, tools, and some of her favourite products that will help enhance your stunning features and elevate your makeup game. Learn all about skin prep, contouring, highlighting, and ideas to make magic with eyeshadow to bring out your inner glamazon!
Blended to the Creator
Makeup Foundations
(60 minutes)
Instructor: RainbowGlitz
Have you ever wanted that perfectly blended skin? did you want that Instagram blur in person? Have you wanted to figure out how to get that perfect balance between contour, highlight and blush moment? come learn some new medicine in this workshop with RainbowGlitz. She will show you the best tips, tricks, tools for the job so you can be blended to the creator too.
Beat to the Creator
Makeup 101
(60 minutes)
Instructor: RainbowGlitz
Come learn some beautiful medicine with me and enhance your beauty (or Handsomeness if that is your choice) with the art of makeup. RainbowGlitz will teach and demonstrate the best steps, tricks and tools for the job to start your journey into getting that perfect professional rainbow glow-up.
Decolonizing: Personal & Organizational
Decolonial Self Love
(90 minutes)
Instructor: Shane Sable
Goal: provide participants with tools and confidence to prioritize and execute a self care program with a decolonial lens that specifically addresses the lived experiences of colonized individuals/communities/cultures
Learning Outcomes: Participants can articulate impacts of colonization on their ability to care for themselves, discuss the importance of self-love in both personal and professional contexts, and implement self-love strategies beyond the confines of the workshop
What to bring: This a facilitated writing workshop and discussion, please bring a notebook and pen.
Decolonizing Art Organizations
(120 minutes)
Instructor: Sparkle Plenty
Colonial concepts, mechanisms, and power structures are insideous, they permeate and even make their way into organizations that aim to foster decolonial art.
How do we liberate ourselves from the from oppressive modalities in our arts-organizations?
This two-hour workshop will examine your own personal (and unintentional) biases as well as your organization's infrastructure to work towards the goal of decolonizing.
What to bring: Notebook and pen.
Whose Land is it Anyways?
Making Meaningful Land Acknowledgements
(90 minutes)
Instructor: Sparkle Plenty or RainbowGlitz
What do you know about the history of the lands you occupy? How you can begin to decolonize the burlesque scene through events, classes, and within your own community? Members of Virago Nation will share the challenging colonial history Indigenous people have faced since settler contact and offer ideas to empower emcees, producers, and community leaders to make meaningful acknowledgements of the lands they live on.
Bring a notebook, pen, and an open heart as we dive into difficult conversations to help us uplift and celebrate the living cultures of Indigenous people.
Occupy Your Land: Body Reclamation
Gentle Decolonized Movement & Self Reflection
(90 minutes)
Instructor: Shane Sable
Our body is our land. Though many of us have become displaced from our sense of body sovereignty, we can reclaim that space. Through song, dance, and community, we will learn how to embrace the body Creator gave us and evict colonial expectations from our relationships with our bodies. We will also learn how to engage our bodies to manage how stress and emotion take up space within ourselves.
This workshop is for Indigenous women and femmes specifically. Please respect the intention of the space.
Decolonizing Sexuality
Reflective Discussion
(60 minutes)
Instructor: RainbowGlitz
How does colonization impact our sexuality and how does this hurt us? How does colonialization define the meaning of sexuality? Have you always wanted to start your journey into decolonizing sexuality but never know where to start? Have you always wondered what this concept and statement really mean? In this workshop, we walk through and break down the meaning of this statement through honest knowledge sharing and discussion. this will be the start of the road to good medicine and a better future
What to bring: A Pen, Notebook
Hustle:
Healing Relationships with Money
Money Skills 101
(60 minutes)
Instructor: Monday Blues
What role does money play in our lives? Whether you want to create wealth, create security and/or nurture a different relationship with money, this introductory workshop will help you make sense of it all and help you clear a path to cold hard cash.
What to bring: A Pen, Notebook