Introduce yourself.
My name is Bolly Golightly, and my pronouns are she/her. I am an instructor at Sky Sirens! I teach almost everything – burlesque, feather fans, lyra and sling.
Tell us about your condition.
I have a leg and back injury, so I am in pain a lot. It’s something that I have learned to manage. I can’t sit down for two hours a time. I realise, most people think to just get up and stand, but that makes it hard to work, hard to catch a plane, and hard to drive for a long time.
I also have unilateral industrial hearing loss. I identify as Hard of Hearing.
How does this impact your dance journey and teaching style?
I know that I don’t suffer in the same way as others who experience pain do, but in the dance world, not having long lines, pointed toes and odd shapes can be a barrier. But as an Indian dancer, pointing our toes wasn’t something that we did. If we craft a different way of seeing what beauty looks like, we can be more inclusive and accessible for our students.
In terms of my hearing loss, I don’t struggle as much as others, but loud music and multiple people talking at once make it difficult to understand - so I may ask you to repeat. My chronic pain can make it difficult to dance.
If they can’t do something, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong with them. We should be looking for what we can do.
I found the world of burlesque to be more accepting of body diversity than many other spaces. There can be a lot of discrimination and cultural appropriation and marginalisation in the world of burlesque but in my life, I’ve found them to be great at redefining what a great body moves in
