By Eda O., for Blues Remix 2025
Cabaret has long been a space where music, dance, humor, and social commentary met on the same stage. In early 20th-century America, especially in Harlem and Chicago, blues women like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Ethel Waters brought the raw honesty of the blues into cabaret settings mixing theatrical flair with deeply personal storytelling. These performances often blurred the line between entertainment and lived experience: a place where marginalized voices could express freedom, sexuality, pain, and joy, often with a wink of irony or satire.
Blues cabaret was never just about spectacle—it was about sharing the spotlight. Musicians, dancers, comedians, poets, and storytellers created a collective atmosphere where every talent could shine, echoing the communal roots of African-American juke joints and vaudeville stages.
🌟 Why Cabaret at Blues Remix
At Blues Remix, our cabaret is inspired by this history:
- To honor the legacy of blues artists who mixed stage art with social truth.
- To celebrate diversity by opening the stage to dancers, musicians, singers, storytellers, and performers from our community.
- To remix tradition with today, showing that the blues is alive not only in music and dance but also in humor, vulnerability, and shared creativity.
- To share the spotlight together—because the blues has always been about connection, resilience, and collective joy.
Our first Cabaret act is by seven women dancers: Eva, Manu, Jazya, Nina, Sophie, Ornella and Eda
Next up we have seven women from our own jazz and blues scene here in Brussels. They know each other from late nights out and about in Brussels, jamming to the music of our great musicians and trying to honour the african-american roots of the dance and pay hommage to the great female jazz and blues dancers in history (Josephine Baker, Marie Bryant, Sandra Gibson, Carol Haney, Consuelo Harris, Mabel Lee, Norma Miller, Ann Pennington, Daisy Richardson, …). Their performance today is as much about what blues means to them individually as it is about dancing together. Each woman carries her own rhythm and glow, but when we rise together, we shine like a constellation: brighter, deeper, and truer than any single light alone.
Next on our stage, Victor and Elena invite you into the intimate world of partnered blues — where every glance is a question, every touch an answer, and every step a whispered conversation. Joyss and Ornella will bring another intimate and strong piece on stage to celebrate conversation and identity through dance. Daniel Castillo will take us to another performance by blending performance with storytelling on Mambo and Boogaloo rhythms (see the next article). Briana Ashley Stuart will take us to the voice, rhythm and movement blend of Stepping.
Finally we will celebrate the community and togetherness, with Jazya and Eda’s Sugar Line Choreography (see the next article).
Big thanks to Blues Remix Cabaret Coordinator Eva to facilitate this dream comes true moment and thanks to our music and light technicians and Albert Hall to create the real cabaret atmosphere for us!