Introducing ELSC Stripper Life Drawing: TRANS PRIDE EDITION!
This July we have put together two very special events to platform and showcase some of our beloved Trans and Non binary Swers who are often under represented withing the industry and many who are apart of the core team here at the ELSC. Come show your support and celebrate trans pride with us at the iconic Crown and Shuttle in Shoreditch.
WHAT’S THIS? ANOTHER LIFE DRAWING CLASS IN AN EX- STRIP PUB IN EAST LONDON? HOSTED BY ACTUAL STRIPPERS?
Life Drawing with ELSC first launched in 2013 as a natural progression from the age-old practice of hiring professional harlots & hussies as models for art.
Our class is fast paced & involves high-octane aerial pole poses. We incorporate some traditional life drawing with a couple 5, 10 and 15 minute poses. We have an extremely popular “audience participation” exercise. It is a nod to the “lap dance”, encouraging a fun, mischievous atmosphere throughout the class to inspire our community of talented amateur & professional artists.
We de-stigmatise sex work & create our own working conditions through this interdisciplinary class that includes drawing, visual arts, dance, music, comedy, improv, performance & writing.
All our models are strippers or ex-strippers. We welcome newcomers and veterans alike.
No experience necessary – we can’t wait to make love and make art with you, every Monday, 7-9:30pm!
We are giving artists a unique opportunity to draw strippers performing and pole-dancing, in a venue once lauded for it’s striptease shows. The classes are entirely self-organised and hosted by a group called East London Strippers Collective (ELSC), a group of strippers challenging stereotypes and societal attitudes towards strip clubs, by inviting a new audience of onlookers inside.
Our doors are open to professional artists, designers, sketchers, illustrators, animators, doodlers, students and first-timers alike.
We have worked out a section of the class called “strip-freeze” – a striptease routine interspersed with one minute poses. As the model performs a strip show on stage, our class-leader calls out “Freeze!” giving the class one minute to capture the pose before the model continues moving. This section is a warm-up exercise for the class, and an intense drawing experience. Once the model is naked, the length of the poses follow a more traditional pattern, with five, ten and fifteen minutes at a time.
The Crown & Shuttle is proud of it’s own history as a traditional East London boozer. Back in the day, as a Truman Brewery public house, it was common for strippers and showgirls to perform alongside other entertainers, comedians, and bands, all booked to entertain the rowdy punters. Crown & Shuttle’s upstairs venue, Filthy Fanny’s, is a nod to the steamier side of Shoreditch, back when pub landladies were tough old matriarchs, and before licensing laws clamped down on striptease entertainment. ELSC is proud to be collaborating with the Crown & Shuttle on this updated version of the art of stripping.
Many artists have used sex workers as models & muses for their work, however because sex work throughout history has been framed as inherently degrading, this age-old practice has been a long-ignored fact. The term ‘muse’ is important to this history as it is often used in the context of the male ‘creator’ who is inspired’ by his female muse – in other words, she’s incapable of her own creation or self-realisation – reinforcing women as passive object in relation to the male, active, subject.
ELSC welcomes all gender expressions & identities, and artists from all ethnic & cultural backgrounds. We support a diverse audience that reflects our community of strippers & sex workers.
The class will be led but not tutored. All levels of ability welcome. All paper & drawing materials are available for a £2.50 donation (free materials for students who bring photo ID).
HELPFUL TIPS