Majo

Hoping to land the timing between everyone coming back from their 2025 vacation but not yet having booked for 2026. Nobody wants to have this conversation, and that’s why it matters! This is a topic far more layered, nuanced and complex than I could possibly cover in a single post. My intention is to encourage a discussion, rather than to solve the whole world in 20 slides. This cause is close to my heart. I continue to learn and educate myself on this topic, and I hope to revisit it in the future. Soon on Substack (it’s free), with all the sources

Boundaries?! In this economy?!?! Photo by @barbarasalome.f

Me: doesn’t post for months Also me: posts multiple passionate quasi manifestos in one week PS: I imply it in the slides, but we also gotta remember that teaching implies a certain level of professional persona building and maintaining. It is a version of ourselves that is entirely service-driven, that doesn’t bring their dirty laundry, that self-censors to a certain degree. It’s not “fake”, in the disingenuous sense, necessarily. It might be very close to our social personalities (which are personas themselves lol) or our private ones, but it is somewhat artificial still. When done well they feel very candid and genuine. And it’s normal! When we teach we are there to teach, we being the best of ourselves, not our little problems and opinions. A good teacher is one that doesn’t show preferential treatment to any student despite their own affections or preferences, in my book. As an anecdote… a former student once became my colleague, and seemed somewhat surprised to discover that in training I can be a solitary, weird, whiny little bench, and not necessarily the super hyped and social me that they had known as a teacher. PS 2: I’m not implying I’m a perfect teacher at all. I try my best but I still mess up all the time, and I will keep learning forever, and I’ll possibly never stop making mistakes.

💙 PS Sobriety is also and above all collective. It’s about strong networks of support, about conflict resolution skills, about holding space for each other’s fallibility and wrongdoings as much as oneself’s, about access to social services and healthcare, about creating alternative community spaces, about keeping each other safe and fighting for one another’s rights and safety, about harm reduction and the destigmatisation of substance abuse.

I might or might not have made this whole montage just to use that screenshot cover. Last weekend was @la.veuve ’s 250th birthday cabaret at @cabaretmademoiselle (with @angele_virago , @daisy_superb.tch , @castrat._ and yours truly). Veuve gave us carte blanche, and when I pitched the Magic Majo idea to her, not only she said yes, she told me “Make me uncomfortabllllllleeee”. And if you know me, you know I hate to disappoint! So on we went to make not one, but two new numbers. Including one to give her her very first cowboy dance! She’s an old spider, and she deserves a little joy after all these centuries. I am not particularly known for stage masc/king, but you know what? You might start seeing more of it. The gender spectrum is my oyster and playground ✨ Light & sound @nathoo_lights Cowboy pants @toni.truante Cowboy hat @la.costumotheque Stick horse @cabaretmademoiselle Harness by moi with help from @leah_wolff Shoutout to @just_al_x , @domidominette and @lift_with_lourdes for letting me try the final lift

Due to popular demand, here it is in post form. PS Mind your media consumption! It’s totally fine to block, unfollow and/or mute accounts that push and promote insane body standard bullshirt.

Freelance performing life is notoriously uncertain and precarious, but then there’s also moments where you’re doing things so funny and silly you kinda think to yourself, “ha! And I’m getting paid for this? Winniiiiiing 🎶” Matthew McConaughey who?! This weekend was @la.veuve ’s birthday cabaret at @cabaretmademoiselle (with @angele_virago , @daisy_superb.tch , @castrat._ and yours truly). Veuve gave us carte blanche, and when I pitched the Magic Majo idea to her, not only she said yes, she told me “Make me uncomfortabllllllleeee”. And if you know me, you know I hate to disappoint! So on we went to give her her very first cowboy dance! This is the beginning of it. Stay tuned for the rest. Also yes I totally watched country dance tutorials. I take my silly very seriously! I am a professional. Light & sound @nathoo_lights Pants @toni.truante Hat @la.costumotheque Horse @cabaretmademoiselle Harness by moi with help from @leah_wolff Shoutout to @just_al_x , @domidominette and @lift_with_lourdes for letting me try the final lift (which you don’t see on this video but sometimes you gotta be patient in life) And of course thanks to the whole @cabaretmademoiselle staff

Many many thanks to beta readers @leah_wolff , @_aru_lee , @lakalachnikova , @syn_ariad , @b6xbutchibou , @ttthildeee , Staffie (who recently lost her account, help her get it back 😢), @campaycha , @beton.mouille , Misha, Nize, S, A, O and E, who intervened at different points of writing and helped me shape the piece and make it more cohesive and legible. Also forever thanks to @brusselsartpole for being my teaching home and for doing the work 💙

05. 05. Tussen de Soep & de Feiten from 12.00 - 13.30 Intersectionality: On Queerness & Migration ENG/NL During the Pride week, we will take time to discuss diverse intersections and what it means to exist at the crossroads of multilayered identities. See you there! . . . Register here: Tussen de Soep en de Feiten | Intersectionality: Queerness and Migration (EN/NL) | Muntpunt https://share.google/LZjuvLniQGC75yL0y

Channeling my inner @its_mirko_piccolo and getting my shirt together to do some self promo. I might or might not be dusting some of my cutest party tricks, working on new performances (with partner in crime @toni.truante ), and have a few weekends available in May and June. Hit me up 😉

Vier sprekers, vier boekentips. Op dinsdag 6 mei hebben ze het over intersectionaliteit, queerness en migratie, in de aanloop naar Pride Brussels op 16 mei. We vroegen hen: welk boek hoort bij dit gesprek? 📖 Majo tipt 'I hope we choose love' van Kai Cheng Thom 📖 Sanele Mwelase tipt 'Queer Africa: new and collected fiction' van Karen Martin & Makhosazana Xaba 📖 Sherine Falasteen tipt 'Perfect victims and the politics of appeal' van Mohammed El-Kurd 📖 Fran C. Bracho tipt 'A rainbow thread' van Noam Sienna Swipe voor meer over elk boek. Alle titels vind je in onze collectie. Tussen de Soep en de Feiten • DI 06.05 • 12:00 – 13:30 • Muntpunt Gratis, schrijf je in via de link in bio. — 🇬🇧 Four speakers, four book tips. Ahead of our lunchtime panel on queerness and migration (May 6). All books are in English and available in our collection. Swipe for details. Info & registration: link in bio.

Snippets of some research impro for AFK (premiere in September, stay tuned) by @sofie.anny.nicea and @campaycha last week at @miramiro.gent . If you know me, you know I’m naturally more of a jerky, fast moving sprinter than a smooth, slow marathon runner. Working on slower and longer length research for this project is actually fairy counterintuitive but also a fascinating challenge. When starting to work on this, my mind went to my former schoolmate @martinezsmanu , who used to train up to 20 minute no-touching-the-floor endurance impros on his silks (we were young and wild), and is extraordinary at creating an aquatic-like quality in his movements. To be fair, the particularity of pole is that there is no relaxing or “just chilling” on it possible. There is no sitting or knotting. Muscular engagement of some kind needs to take place to hold on it at all times (no shade to the aerialists). I’m learning and finding my way in this kind of moving and enjoying it very much. It takes rewiring how I move and even breathe to find that movement quality and endurance. It brings a different attention to different details from my usual work, and I like it. Also, fun fact, it makes you sore in new ways. Shoutout to @yvonnesmink and @sirene.des.montagnes for being huge inspirations on the pole. And of course, one of my favourite movers, @marcomottaart . Every now and then I pause and giggle at how much pole is part of my work nowadays. Becoming a pole performer was never the plan. It all began as a bratty joke to @angele_virago , circa 2018, and then having access to a free training space as a teacher at @brusselsartpole . Curiosity and fun take you to some wild places. If a project involves doing something I have not yet done, that is one strong argument in its favour. These year’s projects are obviously cool in their own right, but they all involve working on learning new skills. I guess old dogs can learn new tricks! Wohoo! Music by @iambadgalriri__ ✨ PS yes that is absolutely a snot-covered tissue coming out of my pocket. It’s the spring and I’m an allergic babe, what can I tell you.