Mohawk burlesque performer ready to compete in Vegas

She’s a mother, a Fancy Dance powwow dancer, and a burlesque performer who will be competing for the title of Miss Viva Las Vegas April 14 to April 17.

Not many people can add those three occupations to their resumes, but somehow Lauren Ashley Jiles pulls it off.

Jiles, who grew up on the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk reserve just 15-minutes outside of Montréal, began her unusual life path a decade ago when she received a chance invitation to a burlesque contest on MySpace a few weeks after her 18^th birthday.

It wasn’t too far of a stretch, as she started out on the stage in musical theatre at the age of five, and performed for 13 years until a demanding school program in the sciences put an end to it; balancing the workload of theatre and school was too difficult.

“It was a really depressing year, until I received [the invite],” explained Jiles, who jokes that burlesque saved her life.

And it just kept getting better for Jiles, who goes by the stage name Lou Lou la Duchesse de Rière: She performed for Playboy in its hometown of Chicago; she performed to a crowd of 5,000 people at the Masonic Temple on Halloween in Detroit; and in February of this year, she performed in Montréal with celebrity burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese.

Now Jiles will soon be able to add to her list of performance highlights the annual Miss Viva Las Vegas Burlesque Competition, as part of the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender.

“It has been one of my life goals to touch a toe on a Las Vegas stage, but I did not think that I would unlock that goal for a long time,” said Jiles, who will compete for the title with 10 other women from around the world.

“It’s all very touching and surreal.”

Jiles was one of five women selected in the “On-Line Audience Choice” category. Five other women were entered into the contest through the “Judges Choices Finalist” category. They will all compete at the Orleans Hotel and Casino located in Old Vegas, a place very special to Jiles.

Burlesque may have not only saved Jiles’ life by putting her back on stage, but it also played a major role in shaping her confidence as a woman.

“It taught me humility, acceptance, and that there is real strength in being a woman. When you walk on that stage, you are in complete control of that audience for the duration of your act,”