Miss DD Starr

October 29, 2023

Many moons ago on a dusty grass field in the middle of a little known festival called Coachella, I met this beautiful blonde ray of light and she told me she was going to bring Burlesque to the desert. Somehow, I believed her....Meet Miss DD Starr!

Photos courtesy of Miss DD Star

Q: Who are you and where are you from?

A: I'm Miss DD Starr I was born and raised in Toronto.

Q: How long have you lived in the desert?

A: I moved to PS 5 years ago from Brooklyn

Q: You are a Dancer, Choreographer, Femininity Coach, Event Producer, and Head Mistress of the Palm Springs School of Burlesque. Tell us how it all began!

A: My parents were totally hippies. My Mum is a ballet dancer and my dad a musician. I was 3 years old when I started dance classes and grew up watching my dad perform. At 18. years old I decided I was too fat to be a professional dancer. My curvy body type was never accepted in the dance world. I decided to go to school for fashion because I always loved the costume, hair & makeup elements of competitive dance & performing.

When I graduated college I started working as a wardrobe stylist. On set one day A MUA on set asked me to take an 8 week burlesque workshop. I realized that I hadn't taken a dance class in almost 10 years. After my first class with The legendary Coco Framboise I was immediately in love with burlesque. I entered an amature burlesque competition and won. Winning introduced me to the local Toronto burlesque community & I started performing regularly.

I wanted to grow beyond the local scene so I decided to enter an International burlesque competition at Lake Como in Italy. I competed against performers from all around the world and was so honored to bring the title home. Winning Queen of the Lake introduced me to the International world of burlesque. After that I started teaching more and producing burlesque shows in Toronto.

My mom moved to California when I was in college for work. That was when I knew I had to live in California. She became an American citizen so I could immigrate to the US. The first time I visited Palm Springs I fell in love with this Mid Century Modern Mecca & couldn't understand why there wasn't a burlesque community here. When my green card finally came I knew I had to move to PS. Given the history of this town & the history of burlesque I believed it was extremely important to revive a burlesque scene here. Palm Springs and burlesque belong together.

As soon as I moved here I opened the Palm Springs School of Burlesque, started teaching private lessons, bachelorettes & started performing. It's been 5 years and I feel I have so much work to do to nurture and grow burlesque in the desert.

Q: You teach and now have a dance troupe doing shows! Tell us about your Troupe

A: Tina Turntables, Chelsea Sphere, Anita Crystal and I have been doing gigs together now for years. Clients would always ask us what to call us. We played around with names but never seriously. We all knew to build our dream PS shows we needed a venue. So we basically worked for clients creating their dream show together whenever we could as independent performers. Once we found Fuego Events we all knew now was time to decide on our name. Since we started performing at Fuego we have added more ladies and it has been a pleasure co-creating with Ay Lex, Fancy, Noah & Alexsia. We want to make Palm Springs sexy again for the women who live here and visit here. We are all excited to welcome more talent to The Desert Starlettes in the future.

Q: Who was your inspiration growing up?

A: Growing up I loved old Hollywood movies, the glamour always made me swoon. I also loved all things sexy so Madonna was a huge influence on my life growing up. Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, Showgirls were always playing at my house. It's no wonder I turned out like this. I'm grateful to be able to perform. Especially because I quit at 18 because of bullshit beauty standards.

Q: What is the biggest struggle you deal with in your profession?

A: I struggle with raising the rates for live entertainment in the desert, living in what sometimes feels like a boys club and costumes are so damn expensive. I am looking for costume sponsorship right now to build a new act. I also want more burlesque education in the desert. It seems so many people here don't know what burlesque is.

Q: Do you have a favorite performance/song you like to do and why?

A: Most of my signature acts are extremely personal to me. My favorite act is called The Beauty of Destruction. It is a tango burlesque act where I dance with a life size rose and it falls apart with rose petal magic throughout the act. I put that act together when my marriage was ending. I was such a mess and I didnt know where to put all of my emotions. I heard a song and the entire act flooded into my mind. The act got a lot of attention and I toured North America with it. It's my favorite because it taught me to see the beauty of destruction and creating it helped me during the hardest time of my life.

Q: What is your purpose in this lifetime?

A: I believe it is my purpose to help people feel more comfortable in their bodies and embrace movement and sensuality. Teaching private lessons has always fed my soul. I love getting real and intimate with people in the studio. My private lessons are about dancing but it is also a form of therapy and self care.

Burlesque is my love because it's a creative scene dominated by women who encouraged me to celebrate my body, decorate it, put it on display and create art that pushes the boundaries of modern society. Burlesque is the punk of the dance world and I'm so happy I found it. I feel it is my purpose to pay it forward and encourage people to celebrate their bodies the way I was. It really helped me fall in love with my body with all its flaws and I know I can help people feel better about themselves. All bodies are beautiful and I want to help people see that.

Q: I ask this in all of my interviews: What's a question you wish I had asked and answer it please!

What am I most excited and grateful for about right now?

A: I am over the moon about collaborating with Fuego Events Palm Springs. It truly is a dream venue for us in so many ways. I have been working with all the talented ladies of The Desert Starletts for many years now and we have been dreaming of a venue to plant seeds in and call home for a while. When I first met Justine "J" the owner of Fuego . She immediately loved my vision, believed in us, put down deposits, added her magic with the incredible team at Fuego and The Desert Starrlets were born.

Fuego Events is a beautiful historic bank built in 1955 and truly is such a beautiful, unique space in Palm Springs. They transform that space in so many ways it's like they have a magic wand there. If you can dream it they can make it come true

So many expertise are involved in creating our shows. We need a lot of support and J has been there to give us everything we need to create. Working at Fuego has truly been a dream come true. We are so excited to bring decadent risque live entertainment to Palm Springs.

Right now I am most grateful for the women of Palm Springs. When I first moved here I didn't know anyone, I was mourning the loss of my marriage and my old life. I have experienced extreme loneliness here but I have also learned the beauty of destruction, the strength to let go, the power of planting seeds with good intentions and sometimes it has to burn to purify.

My life feels so full because of the women of Palm Springs. Tina Turntables is the DJ to my dancer and her friendship means the world to me, I am a better person and performer because of her. Chelsea Sphere is my rock who is always inspiring me to elevate because she always is. Anita Crystal is my PS burlesque sister. Her moving here has brought me so much comfort and love. I'm grateful for J being so kind to me, believing in my vision and I feel a beautiful friendship growing. I'm also grateful for you Monica. I love your art and your realness. I am a big fan and hope to shoot with you one day. I also really appreciate your support in helping me grow burlesque in the desert with this interview and you came to my first show in Palm Springs. There are so many more women here in the desert I am grateful for you all. I would be so lonely and art would be so boring. It's hard being single in the desert but the women here fill my heart and feed my soul.

I'm also so grateful for my mum. Living close to her again has been such. joy. She always loves and supports me no matter what and I've always been a wild one.