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SpeakEasy Noir
Burlesque Alchemy

SpeakEasy
Noir
Burlesque
Alchemy

Burlesque Act Development and Performance Mastery

Transform Your Craft. Captivate Your Audience. Master the Art of Burlesque Performance.

SpeakEasy Noir is a mind-body wellness practice and immersive movement experience for intensely sensuous and deeply curious souls. 

Burlesque Alchemy

Act Development and Performance Mastery

A comprehensive 6-month program that blends the rich history and modern art of burlesque with immersive act creation, guiding performers to develop their unique archetypes through sensual movement, storytelling, and theatrical roleplay. Students will refine their stagecraft, mastering the art of tease and scenography while exploring burlesque’s global culture and impact. This course goes beyond performance, providing career-building tools, wellness practices, and industry insights to craft sustainable, long-term success in burlesque.

 

"Erotic Boudoir" - https://speakeasynoir.com

“I would do this work, this gorgeous, delicious body work, again and again and again… because while it let me express my sexuality in ways that I absolutely relish, it also taught me something about the intrinsic nature of me, of human beings, of sensuality and expression.” 

— BROOKE ARCENEAUX, Author & Digital Creative

What You'll Learn
During
Burlesque Alchemy

"burlesque alchemy - act development" - https://speakeasynoir.com
  • Burlesque Persona: How to create a burlesque persona using theatrical, sensual, and archetypal elements.
  • Burlesque Skills: Techniques to perfect striptease timing, sensual movement, and storytelling.
  • Burlesque Bookings: How to craft and adapt acts for an array of clients. (local, international, private, public, corporate).
  • Burlesque Business: Tips on building your burlesque brand and sustaining a career in the entertainment industry.

Act Development & Performance Course
Module Overview (Month 1 - 3)

A comprehensive 6-month program that blends the rich history of burlesque with modern techniques to help you develop and sustain a creative practice and career.

1. Burlesque Survey: Cultural and Historical Context

2. Primal Erotic: Sensual Core Flow

3. Roleplay: Archetype Exploration (Pt.1)

4. Scenography & Stagecraft, (Pt.1)

5. Roleplay: Archetype Exploration (Pt.2)

6. Burlesque Critique: Global Markets

7. Roleplay: Burlesque Personas (Pt.3)

8. Dreamstorm and Dancemaking

9. Plot & Passion: The Art of Burlesque Performance

10. Haptics: Touch & Tease

11. Striptease Technique: The Art of Tease

12. Scoring An Act: Burlesque Direction, (Pt.1)

"burlesque alchemy - act development" - https://speakeasynoir.com

Who This Course Is For

Burlesque Alchemy is designed for artists, creatives, and sensualists at a range of experience levels who are ready to engage burlesque as a serious art form, expressive practice, and/or professional pathway.

No prior burlesque or dance training is required.

Complete beginners can absolutely enroll and keep up.

While formal dance or performance experience is not expected, this course is best suited for those who already feel invested in their creative or expressive life – whether through movement, theater, visual art, storytelling, comedy, ritual, or other embodied practices. Burlesque is a fusion art form, and curiosity, openness, and willingness to cross-train matter far more than technical background.

This Course Is Especially Aligned For

  • Aspiring Performers (Beyond “Just a Hobby”) – Those who want more than casual classes. You’re seeking a strong foundation in burlesque while also developing a persona, point of view, and artistic identity, with the possibility of performing professionally or semi-professionally –  locally or internationally.

  • Experienced Dancers & Performers Expanding into Burlesque – Performers with backgrounds in dance, theater, circus, or movement who want to deepen their storytelling, tease technique, erotic aesthetic, archetypal presence, and learn the business and branding skills unique to burlesque.

  • The Serious Aspiring Professional – Those inspired by the resurgence of glamour, nightlife, and showgirl visibility (often romanticized as “the life of a showgirl”) who understand that sustainable success requires craft, discipline, business strategy, and mentorship. You are willing to invest time, energy, and resources into building something real.

  • The Established Performer Ready to Headline – Performers who have plateaued and are seeking refinement, rebranding, global perspective, stronger production values, and elevated stage presence. The guaranteed production booking and focus on “headliner energy” support artists ready for their next era.

  • The Transformational / Embodiment Seeker – Those drawn to burlesque as a pathway for sensual reclamation, confidence-building, healing, and identity exploration. You’re interested in somatic practices, archetype work, sensual flow, and kink-informed ritual as tools for personal and creative transformation.

  • The Culturally Conscious Performer – Artists seeking an intentionally inclusive, kink-aware, and socially aware space – especially performers of color and those interested in exploring identity, power, race, and representation within burlesque and performance art.

Act Development & Performance Course
Module Overview (Month 4-6)

A comprehensive 6-month program that blends the rich history of burlesque with modern techniques to help you develop and sustain a creative practice and career.

13. Scenography & Stagecraft, (Pt.2)

14. Roleplay: Advanced Burlesque Skills (Pt.4)

15. Intrigue & Edging: The Art of Seductive Storytelling

16. RolePlay: Dynamic Stage Presence

17. Scoring An Act: Burlesque Direction, (Pt.2)

18. Headliner Vibes: The Burlesque of Business

19. Wellness for Performers - Training and Conditioning the Mind, Body and Soul

20. Industry Mastery: Building Your Burlesque Brand

21. BDSM for Burlesque: Branding. Development. Strategies. Marketing.

22. Final Act Presentation - Peer

23. Final Act Presentation & Professional Critique

24. Shay Au Lait's Cabaret presents

BONUSES
(What's Included)

Community Events

Virtual and in-person connection events.

Interactive Peer collaboration

Devised Projects and Group Performances and Peer Reviews

Mentorship program

Get vetted to join our initiated network of students paired with experienced industry professionals.

Custom Personalization

Individual Act Critiques and/ or 
Personalized Coaching

DJ and Producer Panel - Custom Soundscapes & Music Mastery

Learn to craft and/or co-produce personalized soundtracks.

Digital Presence & Monetization

Learn social media mastery 

Our Invitation To You

Take a decadent dive into ceremony. Come undone.

Journey in & spiral out.

"burlesque chair dance" - https://speakeasynoir.com
"burlesque boudoir workshops" - https://speakeasynoir.com
"Erotic Boudoir" - https://speakeasynoir.com

The Burlesque Alchemy Retreat

The Burlesque Alchemy Retreat is a 3-day immersive sanctum designed for artists, mystics, and erotic visionaries enrolled in the six-month Burlesque Alchemy program. Held in secluded luxury, each day opens in reverent silence, followed by Speakeasy Noir’s signature sensual praxis: meditative movement, legacy storytelling, and embodiment through archetype. Expect movement intensives, sacred kink-infused ritual labs, archetype boudoir and branding photoshoots, and dreamstorm sessions led by Switchress Shay Au Lait. Nights culminate in erotic ritual moving meditations under candlelight, while days invite nature walks, creative playshops, guided discussions, artful integration, and the kind of stillness that births new selves. This is not just a retreat—it’s a remembering. A reclamation. A living altar to your act, your body, and your becoming.

*Access to the Burlesque Alchemy Retreat is granted through the Full Immersive Tier. Retreat pricing covers luxury accommodations, curated meals, and all ritual and creative programming. Travel to the retreat location is not included.

“Shay took me through a mind-blowing experience.”

 EMPRESS V,  Journalist & Cofounder of Urban Wax Creative Studio

Applications for Enrollment for our June 2026 Burlesque Alchemy program begins March 2026.

Join The Waitlist

“For the first time in 37 years, I looked at myself in the mirror and only found my perfections instead of my imperfections. Thank you Shay Au Lait for this amazing embodied experience. Deeply humbled, grateful and blissed out by it.”

— LOLA MANEKIN, Alchemista & Founder of Tribe Baltimore and  Movement Lab

Pricing and Pathways

A choose-your-depth model for artists at different stages of devotion, capacity, and becoming.

Full Immersive Tier

A choose-your-depth model for artists at different stages of devotion, capacity, and becoming.
$ 833
33 Per Month
  • Full 6-month Burlesque Alchemy curriculum (all modules)
  • Access to the Burlesque Alchemy Retreat (housing + food included; travel not included)
  • Weekly live group sessions and embodiment labs
  • Mentorship, guided feedback, and community container
  • Guaranteed solo feature or production booking within a Siren Pack / SpeakEasy Noir production
  • Guest instructors, ritual labs, archetype work, and performance mastery training
  • Certificate of completion
Wait List

Core Online Tier

The full educational journey - without the in-person retreat or production component.
$ 416
66 Per Month
  • Full 6-month Burlesque Alchemy curriculum (all modules)
  • Weekly live online sessions and teachings
  • Group discussions, creative assignments, and peer feedback
  • Guest instructors and curated resources
  • Certificate of completion
Wait List

Introductory Tier

An entry portal into Burlesque Alchemy for those exploring the work or beginning their journey.
$ 166
66 Per Month
  • Access to the first half of the curriculum modules
  • Foundational teachings on act development, archetype, movement, and creative process
  • Selected recordings and resources
  • Does not include: retreat, mentorship, production booking, or advanced modules.
Wait list

We’ve taught classes & workshops at the following events, studios and festivals:

We’ve led movement workshops in the most sacred and pleasure-filled spaces, such as a queer tantric monastery in the mountains of South Carolina at the Touch & Play Festival; at a yoga resort in the Nosara jungle of Costa Rica at the Soul Fire Retreat, as well as wellness, dance and fitness studios along the East Coast including Lululemon. Our offerings are also booked as add-ons and features for both national and international wellness, tantric and movement retreats, and immersions, such as Sex Witch, Radiant Ecstasy, and Dakini Tantric by Lauren Harkness.

The Fit Factory • Movement Lab • Lululemon Baltimore • The Mythic Masculine • Touch&Play Emerging Seeds • Touch&Play Earthdance • MadameNoire • Soul Fire: Embodied Movement Retreat • CREATE Retreats • Touch&Play Transmutations • The Radiance Retreat • Sex Witch Retreat • Dakini Tantra Practitioner Training • The Rowe Center • Earth Dance • The Nest of The Owl Nest Group • Nine Mountains Retreat Center • Elizabeth Kross Photography

Immerse yourself into our experiential and transformational offerings.

Switchress Shay Au Lait

Short Bio

Shay Au Lait is an Interdisciplinary Erotic Noir Artist, BDSM Educator and Practitioner, Burlesque Producer, Immersive Theatre Artist, Keynote Speaker, Creator of SpeakEasy Noir, Co-Founder of the Black Kink Network, and Co-Creator of the Sensing Race embodied intensives.

 

Expansive Buslesque Bio

Shay Au Lait is a trailblazing burlesque performer, producer, published photographer and creative artist with over 15 years of experience in the performance and erotic arts. As the Founder and Executive Producer of Siren Pack, Shay has mentored and elevated emerging burlesque stars such as Alaska Lostboy, Queerly Femmetastic, Glow Job, Muva Magick, Katie Res, Madda, and many more across NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Denver, New Jersey, and virtually.

Her career includes a one-year, 30+ city national tour as a resident burlesque dancer, Director of Marketing, and lead creative for an entertainment production company. She has performed as the opening act for punk rock band Vixen77 (Philly), and the Whoreible Decisions tour (NY & Philly), as well as served as a headliner, troupe member, and ad hoc co-producer for the high-energy, rock and metal dance collective SlutChurch (2018–2023).

Shay has been featured on FuseTV’s “Sex Sells,” CNN’s “Office With A View,” Essence Magazine’s “Sexperts,” and in Luxury Travel Advisor Magazine. A pioneer in integrating sensual movement into wellness spaces, she introduced pole and burlesque programming to Movement Lab Baltimore (which evolved into Tribe Baltimore and Equilibrium Wellness) and brought burlesque curriculum to The Fit Factory on Long Island in 2018.

As the visionary behind SpeakEasy Noir, Shay leads with a hybrid of sensual movement, theatrical storytelling, BDSM ritual, and holistic erotic wellness. Her work blends cabaret, kink, immersive theater, and embodiment practices to support performers in accessing deep transformation through performance.

Currently, Switchress Shay Au Lait is a resident performer, workshop leader, and professional kink Top with Sucia NYC, and a recurring headliner with Sway Philly. She is a featured speaker with the Institute for Sex Education & Enlightenment, and has lectured and performed at the National Liberty Museum (Philadelphia) and the Rowe Center (Massachusetts). Shay also works as a Boudoir Movement Coach and creative collaborator with photographers, filmmakers, and somatic practitioners across the country.

As Co-Founder of Sensing Race, Shay has led embodied intensives at Touch and Play Festival, The Mythic Masculine Network, Earthdance, and Nine Mountain Retreat Center, helping participants explore identity, power, and liberation through the body.

Full CV.