Behind the costumes, choreography and confidence of a Las Vegas showgirl are years of auditions, rejection, competition, body pressure and learning how to walk onto a stage and perform even when you don't feel your best.
In this episode of Ava Devine's Bad Advice, I sit down with professional dancers Lauren Strong and Krystyna Lauren from Las Vegas' Sexxy The Show for a conversation about professional dance, burlesque, bodybuilding, body dysmorphia, confidence, rejection and what really happens behind the scenes when being sexy becomes part of your job.
Long before becoming Vegas showgirls, Lauren and Krystyna were already accustomed to high-performance environments.
Lauren spent years in professional dance and cheer, performing across the NFL, NBA and NLL worlds while experiencing firsthand how competitive auditions can be. She opens up about making an NFL team, being cut the following season and learning how quickly your identity can become attached to the career you've worked so hard to build.
Krystyna spent years auditioning for professional dance opportunities while also building a career in competitive bodybuilding, fitness and coaching.
Together, they open up about something both worlds taught them: when your body becomes part of your profession, it can become very difficult to stop evaluating it.
Krystyna discusses struggling with body dysmorphia, analyzing her body even when she didn't need to and eventually stepping away from bodybuilding competition to figure out whether she still wanted that life.
Lauren reveals that she experienced body pressure from both sides. While bodybuilding rewarded one physique, professional cheer told her her upper body had become too muscular and needed to look more feminine.
Eventually, both women found themselves entering a very different world: burlesque. And something unexpected happened. Performing in Sexxy The Show didn't make them more critical of their bodies. It began helping them become more accepting of themselves.
We also talk about rejection, perfectionism, burnout, aging as a professional performer, female friendship, competition and why learning to separate your identity from your achievements may be one of the hardest lessons for a high performer to learn.
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