Local entertainer embraces success in tough market
About ten minutes into the interview, she had to stop and greet a fan.
“Oh yes, the show is tonight,” she said graciously. “You should come on out and see us, we’re going to have a fabulous time.”
She apologized for the brief interruption, admitting that interactions like these are becoming an almost daily occurrence and sometimes she feels like she can’t go anywhere in Columbia without being recognized. But unlike many celebrities who resent their fans for infiltrating their private lives offstage, Dorae Saunders chooses to embrace the chaos.
“I strongly believe that when you put yourself out in the public eye as an entertainer, you belong to the public,” Saunders said. “You’re making a personal choice to be on display, so not wanting to greet people, sign autographs and take photographs is silly. If you want to have that attitude, you can just take your ass home.”
At the young age of 16, when most teenagers were worried more about high school grades or their first kiss, celebrity performer and entertainer extraordinaire Dorae Saunders was doing her first drag show. Taking the “very small” stage at a local bar called the Candy Shop in Columbia, Saunders said she was immediately hooked on the entertainment drug, and began performing at any cabaret that was willing to give her a chance.
But finding venues open to hiring new performers, she said, is a task often easier said than done.
“One of the hardest things when you’re first starting out is finding your niche and finding people who are willing to give you a shot,” Saunders said. “You almost have to have someone vouching for you and saying, ‘give this person a chance’ to really start getting somewhere.”
Although she openly admits to not having the long, lean legs and elongated torso of the typical “dancer’s body,” Saunders’ first foray into performance art came from a string of dance classes offered by USC’s summer programs. And once she got into dance, Saunders knew there was no other alternative for her career — this was what she was meant to do. If only there was a way to perfectly blend her body type with her greatest passion.
Enter the world of drag entertainment.
“Growing up back then, every gay little black boy wanted to be Leroy from ‘Fame,’” she said with a laugh. “But built like I was, even my mama was saying, ‘Baby, maybe you ought to rethink things.’ Then I went to my first drag show here in Columbia, and I knew it was the perfect outlet for me to entertain.”
Fast forward to 2012. Saunders has taken her unique act all over the country, performing close to home in Columbia and even venturing out as far as Alaska, which she describes as one of her most “humbling” experiences. The entertainer even enjoyed a television stint on ‘America’s Got Talent’ in 2008. But though one might think the best takeaway from her on-air time was being viewed by millions of fans around the world, Saunders says that there was one particular thing that reaffirmed her role as a performer.
“The fact that I was a transgender performer was never brought up and my sexuality was never brought up on the show. That was just it for me,” Saunders said. “Even David Hasselhoff told me that I had gone leaps and bounds. I love what I’m doing, and now it was just about getting the rest of the world to see it.”
These days, Saunders can be found in cabaret shows around Columbia, sometimes taking on the title of producer, director and star — all in one performance. She is lively, vibrant and clearly passionate about providing the best entertainment to her packed audiences.
Continually striving to be her own inspiration, Saunders designs and embellishes all of her own outfits, choreographs her own routines and struts the stage in stacked platform heels that would make most women wobble just looking at them. She even comes complete with her own backup dancers from the Phi Iota Phi dance fraternity at Benedict College, including Aaron LaGroone, Amarriie’ Michan, Kristen Johnson, Darrell Daney and Aaron Kelley.
The self-trained performers, who came together through a chain of introductions from mutual friends, love the spotlight as much as Saunders herself, soaking up every aspect from the outfits to the bright lights on stage. They even earned some of the loudest screams during their ‘Single Ladies’ performance with Saunders, which Johnson says is his favorite part of every show.
“Single Ladies is my favorite thing to perform,” he said. “We just love being on stage and entertaining the crowd.”
But no matter the stage or the performance, Saunders injects her own “fire” into every show, spreading her act equally between upbeat, catchy tracks and more sultry, soulful hits. She works the crowd for tips, booty-bumping with a few and stacking up dollar bills that she tucks away with a wink and a smile. And as always, the biggest goal is to keep the crowd moving.
“My performances are designed to be captivating,” she says. “I always want my presence on stage to make you stop and look at only me.”
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