JACQUELINE BOXX'S BEGINNINGS

Jacqueline Boxx’s mobility aids are as enticing as her activism, and she packs an aesthetic and emotional punch, whether she brings classic tease, nerdlesque, or neo-burlesque to the stage. Her background before disability involved trapeze, hooping, cabaret, musical theater, bellydance, clowning, ballet, and numerous other kinds of performance art, including touring with The Dresden Dolls as part of their Brigade. She debuted as a burlesque performer for the first time in 2006.

As her disability increased, however, many of these performance outlets became inaccessible and she drifted away from the stage... until linking up with Tucson's Black Cherry Burlesque and participating in their Burlesque for the Soul program in 2014 altered her understanding of what burlesque performance could mean. She brought her mobility aides onstage with her for the first time in January of 2015.  

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She has since headlined and been featured in burlesque festivals across the world, including Vienna, Adelaide, Montreal, Minneapolis, and New York City, among others. She won burlesque legend Gabriella Maze's "Personal Pick" award at The Great Burlesque Exposition and 2nd Runner Up at the 2017 Golden Legend Champion Challenge, as well as The "Glitoris" Judge's Choice award at Alterna-TEASE. She is the 2023 Monarch of Pacific Northwest Burlesque and the 1st Runner up "SupaFly" of the 2023 What the Funk Festival. She competed for "Best Debut" at the 2017 Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender, becoming the first wheelchair-user to ever compete for a title on the biggest stage in burlesque, and was chosen to compete for Miss Exotic World, "Queen of Burlesque," at that same competition in 2022. ​21st Century Burlesque Magazine named her one of the top 50 most influential burlesque performers in the world in 2022.

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Jacqueline is a devoted burlesque instructor, show producer, and disability activist, and has taught workshops and lectured on panels about mindful movement and adaptive performance across the world. She is a founder and core instructor at the Baltimore-based burlesque teaching collective Essential Tease which regularly teaches online and in-person classes and produces student showcases.

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Jacqueline's performances change minds and perspectives. Her acts are all related in some way to her experience with chronic pain and limited mobility, and she strives to bring attention through glamour and spectacle to disability.  

She is: Miss Disa-burly-TEASE!