Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Longueville.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Danielle. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve been involved in the fine arts community since I was a child. Growing up, my mother was in the church choir, so we were thrown into the church plays often. Then, it was choir and talent shows through public school, which turned into high school musicals, choir contests, and solos with the high school jazz band. I even took some time to learn guitar amidst all of that.
In college, I briefly spent some time in the college of music where I tried to be a voice major but was rejected twice. I ended up getting my degree in French with a minor in Entrepreneurship from UNT. During my time at UNT, I joined a band called Class Action, which lasted off and on for about five years total. I was also in the UNT a cappella group Treble Makers for a season, which I think has since dissolved as an organization. After the band broke up (the first time) in 2016, I turned to burlesque as a means of fulfilling my artistic identity. I had put a lot of myself into that band, so to not be doing anything performance-related up until that point was really trying for me, and kind of pulled me down deeper into a depression I was already going through. Keep in mind, I had also been the Local Talent Buyer for Oaktopia for five years at this point, and we had decided to take time off, and that was equally crushing.
I performed a couple of times at Glitterbomb at Mable’s, but then put performing down for a bit because, like the legend, Vivienne Vermuth says, “burlesque is not and should not be the means of your therapy. You and your audience deserve more of you than that.” What she essentially meant was that burlesque wasn’t supposed to fill any voids, but more be used to show off the wholeness and beauty that is you, the individual. I super took that to heart. After some much-needed therapy and self-care and turning my focus inward, I was able to feel more comfortable in performing and rejoining the ‘real world.’ I was a member of DFW’s queer troupe Eclektic Elektric for a year, then became a Betty for the Glitterbomb Betties. Now, I perform semi-regularly at Glitterbomb and elsewhere in Texas, I’m also on the board for Friends with Benefits, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting smaller, fellow nonprofits located in Denton. I’m the “Co-Director of Awesomeness” with George Ferrie, and we spearhead the fine arts scholarship and grants program, which brings funds to growing artists in need. My love for fine arts, combined with a love for helping others, has brought me to this board and these organizations and I am so grateful for each group and their impact they’ve had on my life and growth in my own identity.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Lots of obstacles – the band broke up a few times, I moved to France in 2015 to teach English at the elementary school level and that put a big halt on a lot of things I was working on. It pulled me out of the Denton arts community when it was kind of peaking as far as some ventures, but that’s also what brought me back home early, on top of realizing that I was terribly homesick, mentally unhealthy and needed to be back with my family (we also had some family issues going on at the time). Greatest struggle was probably trying to keep Oaktopia alive when it was still hosted in Denton. It was great to have so many passionate individuals to work with, but with those people came many ideas, and therefore many butting heads. I was also one of three women on the team. I did my best though. We all did. We did everything we could and tried everything imaginable to keep that dream alive until our biggest supporters had to back out and we just couldn’t sustain the idea any longer. I would also say getting into the burlesque community was hard at first, too. The queer community is heavily integrated with this industry as well, and that was another realm I was trying to connect with, having recently come out as bisexual, but in a very slow, controlled way. I still haven’t had a face to face conversation with my parents about it to this day. So, there was a lot of internal struggles of feeling that sense of “belonging” amongst these beautiful people, while also trying to share about and feel comfortable in my queerness too, all while dating a cis hetero man, who I am still in a relationship with. I think that’s life, though. Rampant with struggle. But there’s really no better way to grow than through fighting for what you truly want,
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Right now, by day, I’m a Digital Marketing Coordinator for web management services and e-commerce tech company, GSATi. We’re a family-owned business, and I’ve been a team member for three years now. I’ve been able to take my event management skills, networking finesse, and love for local business and my community and apply it to my day to day roles. By night, thanks to the flexibility and trust and beauty of my day job that I love so much, I’m able to continue my work in burlesque, with a blended mix of some previous skills as well. I’m part of the Promo and Development team for Glitterbomb Denton and Salty Lady Burlesque and love what I do. From street team promotions to networking with potential partners, it’s all to help bring more butts to our seats that in turn support our fine arts community and its artists. I’m also a co-host of a now 7-month-old podcast, WTFemme!? We explore the lives, art, and beauty behind Femme (that’s individuals who identify as ‘”femme” as part of their intersectionality) and what “femme” means to them. I co-host with Birdie Holly, who is a fellow performer, photographer, fashion enthusiast, and future fashion art historian.
Truthfully, I think I’m most proud of being able to help create space and opportunities for other members of my community through my connections or artistic ventures. I love planning events, helping people find jobs, and helping artists grow in their practice and gain recognition for their hard work.
I’m not sure what sets me apart from others, aside from my ability to foster and maintain connections with people from all kinds of industries and backgrounds and create ways for those people to connect with others, and therefore help people grow through strength in numbers.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Right now, I feel very much in an incubation stage of my life. I’m looking forward to honing on what my podcast needs to grow and scale successfully. Same for Glitterbomb and Salty Lady Burlesque. There’s so much potential for all of those brands and I’m super honored to help them all succeed both in and outside of Denton.
As far as my day job, I look forward to seeing us grow as a business in the e-commerce sector. We just started migrating one of our bigger clients to Magento, an Adobe e-commerce program, and love it. We want to put other clients and future clients on this platform as well since the complexity of the software leaves for great potential growth all around. I’d also like to see us creating more accessible tech resources for our growing local businesses since we have a lot of experience and observance time with growing new brands.
Pricing:
- Join our Patreon as a fan for WTFemmePodcast! We have support levels as low as $1/month for fans
- Join our Patreon as a business sponsor for WTFemme Podcast! We have support levels as low as $10/month
Contact Info:
- Website: gsati.com
- Email: wtfemmepodcast@gmail.com
- Instagram: mariedementhe
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/wtfemmepodcast
- Twitter: @gsat_inc
Image Credit:
Photography by Flesh and Flora, Photography by SaraphimArt
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