Bold & Beautiful: Meadow Lark

Burlesque is more than a performance for Meadow Lark; it is an empowering, freeing and creative outlet. As a former member of the LDS Church and a returned missionary, Lark says performing burlesque helped her overcome feelings of shame toward her body and sexuality. “Having to shut out those voices saying, ‘What I am doing is degrading, is oversexualizing myself,’ was really hard in the beginning,” Lark says. “I have found that the more I perform, the more I am able to shed the shackles of my previous life as a Mormon—of these kinds of harmful images that have been placed upon me. [Burlesque has] been … very integral to my journey of leaving the LDS Church, of accepting myself for who I am, which includes being a queer woman.”

Despite burlesque being a foundational step to leaving the Church, Meadow Lark says being LDS was one of the reasons that it took her so long to become a burlesque performer. “[Burlesque] had been something I had been aware of, something I had gone to shows for, but it wasn’t something I could do, even though I was not super in the Church—just that shame is so prevalent,” she says. As a lifelong theater performer—doing everything from dancing, acting, singing and costuming—she can trace precisely how she “accidentally fell into burlesque.” A few years after returning from her mission, she became a professional mermaid and met Madazon Can-Can at an event, leading her to try Can-Can for the first time. Meadow Lark returned to the stage only one week later for her first burlesque performance.

“Having to shut out those voices saying, ‘What I am doing is degrading, is oversexualizing myself,’ was really hard in the beginning.”

From that point on, Meadow Lark began to strip away the shame she carried. “There is something incredibly empowering with sitting in your own skin,” she says, “That part of shedding those layers … becomes very symbolic to me of shedding the clothes and the imagery that the Church has put on me. And I think that’s why I created that “Burning Gold” [act] so that I could shed—physically, literally shed—that layer that had encapsulated me,” Lark says. Christina Perri’s “Burning Gold” is a song that reflects Meadow Lark’s personal story of leaving the Church. Meadow Lark comes out dressed in missionary clothing, working through a crisis of faith as Perri sings, “I’ve had enough / I’m standing up / I need a change.” Once the chorus hits—“I’m setting fire to the life I have known”—Lark whips off her missionary clothes to reveal a burlesque costume.

Now, Meadow Lark is using burlesque to help empower others to feel more positive toward their bodies and sexuality. She has worked with licensed sex therapist Natasha Helfer to perform burlesque during presentations on female sexuality and teaches at retreats, which she plans to continue doing in the future. At these events, Meadow Lark presents three life rules that she teaches to participants before beginning—be kind to yourself, don’t wish for a body that you don’t already have and say three nice things about yourself anytime you say something negative. Meadow Lark says she is also working to live by these principles everyday both as a burlesque performer and woman who grew up during the 2000s’ extreme diet craze.

“[Burlesque has] been … very integral to my journey of leaving the LDS Church, of accepting myself for who I am, which includes being a queer woman.”

And for anyone considering performing burlesque for the first time, Meadow Lark has one powerful piece of advice (other than taking lessons and practicing): “I heard a quote that is actually from somebody who produces porn, and they said that, ‘No matter what you look like, there is an audience for you. There is somebody who loves the way you look,’” Lark says. She adds that although we can become focused on what we think burlesque should look like, there isn’t only one way to do it and “there’s going to be a lot of people who connect with what you are bringing to the table as a burlesque performer.” 

Follow Meadow Lark on Instagram and Tik Tok @_meadow_lark_ or find her in person performing at Prohibition.

Read past Bold & Beautiful features:
Bold & Beautiful: JordiRoc
Bold & Beautiful: Mik Jager