Scarlett LaFlamme

Eight Years Later: How 'Game of Thrones' Changed My Life

My Game of Thrones Burlesque series was born innocuously enough. In the summer of 2012, having finished season two of Game of Thrones and beginning to work my way through the books (I had binge-watched season one during a bout of strep throat, had been relieved and thrilled to find out that season two was starting just a week later, and couldn’t stand the idea of now waiting almost a year to find out what happened next), I was scrolling through Facebook on a slow work day and came across a violin cover of the title credits music. “So beautiful,” I thought, as I listened to it over and over. “Wouldn’t this be great to strip to?!” Maybe I should back up just a little! I’ve been a burlesque performer since 2009. Burlesque is many things to many people and probably needs its own essay to fully explain, but suffice to say it’s a theatrical performance, often with elements of parody and always with elements of striptease – emphasis on the tease. A burlesque performance is about the journey, not the destination… which is also how I’m choosing to look at Game of Thrones. Ahem. In 2012, I had a small burlesque troupe, with varying levels of commitment and, as with any collective, a lot of compromising on creative elements. We did small bar shows that were fun, but we had a theme coming up that I, frankly, wasn’t very inspired by. I had never produced something that was truly my own vision before. This music captured my imagination the way all the classic burlesque standards I was considering for the troupe’s upcoming show failed to do. When I imagined dancing to it, playing it over and over, I knew without a doubt which character I would portray: the scared, abused girl who became a dragon queen.