Every month, a café in the Saint-Cyprien district, in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), is transformed into a performance hall. Strolling between customer tables, Drag Queens and Drag Kings punctuate the evening. We attended it on January 23.
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Extravagant makeup and sequinned outfits, the Pirouette café takes on a party feel. This Thursday evening, this Toulouse bar is hosting a Dragshow! Behind the scenes, Shana Banana is getting ready. At 30, she is a professional drag, an art born in the 19th century that questions the codes of our society.
-The artist explains: “Drag is a universe, it’s a very broad spectrum where we generally come to play with the codes of the genre. Whether it’s feminine or masculine codes, all mixed with art and poetry. It is an art that is approached by all genres.”
That evening, Shana plays with Coco Damoiseau. She also makes a living from her art. While preparing her stage outfit, she confides: “Outside, it’s a bit of a mess at the moment politically. We are a little undermined, as much the LGBT community as everyone else. So, we use these kinds of events to give people a little good humor..”
In this bar, drag evenings are sold out. The public, made up of neophytes or real fans, iseduced by the audacity of these two artists. “What I particularly like is the slightly transgressive side, that it creates a bit of a niche apart from the world and which allows us to already find ourselves among ourselves, to feel safe. In fact, we may not necessarily know the tables next to each other. It brings people together, it creates dreams, magic, glitter.” confides a young man.
Coco and Shana’s next show is scheduled for March, with other characters shaking up society.
