The Tassel Ten- Winter Greene
30 January 2026
Every month we are going to bring you into the mind of performers we love with a series of questions. We call this The Tassel Ten.
We have known Winter Greene quiet a while, watching from the wings as they took their first steps onto stage, watching their brain cook up wonderful quirky ideas and combine it with their own personal storytelling and strength on stage, and watching as more and more audience members fell and continue to fall in love with them.
Being a producer has allowed us to be present for so many moments of this wonderful performers career. We squealed with delight when they won Mx Burlesque Melbourne in 2023 dazzling with a striptease routine that portrayed a new level of eroticism (and rhinestones) not previously shown by them, we gleefully watched the audience reducing into a panic and be confused at these new feeling towards the usually very silly Winter. Showing incredible versatility and depth, Winter reassured the audience that night that ‘silly Winter’ was still in there as their unique act had the audience in tears of laughter as they debuted their infamous showgirl rat and slinked about the stage to ‘Feeling good’.
Was this the start of their rise? perhaps not, but standing in the back of that audience that night, knowing what was coming was a complete honour as a producer, and friend of this incredible performer.
Winter is someone who on stage who continues to delight and surprise as well as demonstrate a vulnerability and authenticity in performance that we sometimes forget about. Completely mesmerising, I challenge anyone in the room when Winter Greene is on on stage to try to look away, this is not the time for another drink or a pee break, its time to watch them weave their magic.
Mx Burlesque Victoria in 2025 proved to be another milestone that we at Tassel Events are so proud we could facilitate, with a perfectly executed striptease that echoed of the timing and wit of Gene Kelly (if he was a trans masc who striped.) and a unique act so deeply personal that it had a large percentage of the audience in tears, these acts and their recycled jester red carpet outfit earned them not only another sash but the crown and title of Mx Burlesque Victoria 2025.
We could go on forever about Winter Greene, and this is why they are our first participant in The Tassel Ten
1. What was the moment you realised burlesque had its hooks in you?
When I first saw it as an art form at Drawing Straws Burlesque Life Drawing in approx 2014! I had no idea such a rad art form existed until then. What can't it do!
2. Who is your stage persona, and what parts of your every day existence get to be louder onstage?
Winter is like all the problematic D&D characters I ever had mashed together and shoved onto a stage. Bit of a fuckboy, bit of a clown, bit of a douche. But they're not real! Winter has a confidence I don't have in real life. There's traits and expressions I am drawing on from within myself that makes them a character I can find easily in the moment, but it's all an *act*, babey.
Photo credit Alexis D Lea for Mx Burlesque Victoria
3. How do you create your acts, what's the starting point of knowing you are onto something?
It's 70% of the time done by finding a song I like and growing the act from there. If I'm not super inspired by something right at the start of the process then I lose interest too fast - so having a good song to start the process is super helpful. The other 30% of the time it will be built from the visual idea of a costume/character I think will be fun to play with!
4. What are the three integral parts to you creating art?
EXPRESSION, FREEDOM, AND MUSIC. I need all three to work together to be able to create something I am happy to put on a stage
5. Costume is power in burlesque, how do you choreograph a reveal that *means* something?
We're essentially working as a form of mime in burlesque a lot of the time, so meanings will be misinterpreted by audience members basically every time we perform, and that's okay! I think, as long as I am *feeling it* when performing a reveal, any intended meaning is less important than the actual feeling it gives the audience in the moment - even if they have misread my original intention.
Photo credit Shannon J Shaw for The Victorian Burlesque Gala
6. Which act has changed you the most — and why? (can be your own or others)
I remember coming out of lockdown and seeing Whisky Falls' Chimera act for the first time - it struck such a chord in me about the magic and power in existing while not fitting a specific mold. It's an incredible act. I'm always inspired by Whisky!!
7. How does your work challenge ideas about bodies, sexuality, or who gets to take up space?
<gestures broadly at self> Ahahah, but seriously, I am super honoured to have a platform to spotlight (pun intended) transmasculine / non binary bodies on stage. When trans people approach me after a show to say they have been inspired/delighted to see a body that looks like theirs on stage it is genuinely a highlight of my whole life. It's incredibly touching, especially in the times we're in.
Photo credit Alexis D Lea for Mx Burlesque Victoria
8. What’s the hardest truth burlesque has taught you about yourself?
That I am certifiably deranged
9. What are you itching to create next?
TOO MANY THINGS. I would love to make acts with singing, angle grinding, puppetry, wet mess acts, fan acts, chair tricks and so many more (...not all at once) (but not NOT all at once)
10. Lets end on inspiration, words of advice for those who might feel a little lost in their art at the moment?
KEEP GOING, DON'T SHRINK YOUR ART, YOU'VE GOT THIS, I BELIEVE IN YOU
Photo credit 3 Fates Media for Tasselmas 2024
If you are not following Winter Greene you can on instagram HERE