Introduce yourself.
My name is Brea and my pronouns are she/her.
How long have you been a student at Sky Sirens? What do you do here?
I have been a student at Sky Sirens for two years now. I started with lyra, then moved onto sling, and have also done the occasional pole and non apparatus class. Initially, I had followed Sky Sirens after a friend of mine posted about the studio. I was living in the Central Coast at the time, and yearning for the day I would move to Sydney and be able to dance here.
What do you identify as within the LGBTQIA+ community?
I identify as bisexual and queer.
I view sexuality as fluid and believe that my own identity is free to change at any stage in my life, which is why I like the versatility of ‘queer’ as an identifier.
I cannot pinpoint when I realised I was bisexual, but I knew throughout my life that my interest in women wasn’t just because I wanted to befriend or I admired them, it was more than that. However, I do have an early memory of watching Dirty Dancing as a primary aged child and being very very intrigued by the scene where Baby, Johnny and Penny are dancing together... I think I have now watched that film at least seventy times. Hungry Eyes is a bisexual anthem to me.
I have always had close female friendships, and what I know now to be crushes on women, but it took me until my early twenties to properly acknowledge my sexuality. And it wasn’t until I was dating a woman for the first time at age 25 that I properly “came out” to my family by announcing we were together. My friends have known for years, and I never wanted to have to ‘come out’ officially, I just wanted to live authentically and whoever I was to love/ be intimate with, I would be open about that.
I feel that my sexuality is a part of my desire to dance and perform, as it is an expression of who I am and a release of what I am feeling.
It also feeds into my love for the family that is this studio. I have learnt so much from my teachers, other students and about myself when I have been at Sky Sirens, and I am able to be free with my identity and sexuality. The home that Katia and all the Sirens create here has been one that opened me up and took me in at the same time. I have made invaluable connections and memories here.
Another part of my identity is that I am a young queer teacher. I initially believed that my sexuality was something I had to keep from work and my students, but now I am open with it. I currently look after the SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Alliance) Club at my workplace.
It is such a beautiful thing to see young queers have a safe space to be themselves, create a sense of community and feel able to make a difference within their school environment (and hopefully make a difference outside of that too)!
However, the taboo surrounding being a female teacher and embracing your sexuality is still rampant, and it becomes difficult to be able to express that in all areas of my life, including public performance, as others may view my participation in that as inappropriate. But to them I say, I am a person before I am an educator. I am a whole person and deserve to live my life for me first. And I’d rather know that the young people in my care have an example of a person living authentically, as their teacher, than one who lives with parts of themselves hidden.