Lip Service shows have toured Canada since 2018
With sold-out shows and 5-star reviews, they are performed as an independent show, as a combination, or all 3 together. Lip Service can be adapted to audiences ages 15+ or 19+ and can be offered with ASL Interpretation, Described Performance, and as Relaxed Performances.
“A laugh-out-loud celebration of all things vulvacious”
Shawna Dempsey
“Feminism meets funny”
Georgia Straight
“No matter what sex organ you have, Lip Service teaches a bold lesson on honouring what you’ve got.”
CBC
Lip Service Shows
Lip Service 1: Come and Get Some
-
Introduces two larger-than-life vulva alter-egos navigating themes of self-acceptance, empowerment, and the relentless demands of performing within a patriarchal system.
The show unfolds as a physical comedy encountering endurance, competition, and the toll of “doing it all.” It challenges notions of whether success within a ruthless system truly counts as winning.
-
Debuted in 2018, running at numerous festivals:
Ottawa Fringe Festival (June 2018)
Winnipeg Fringe Festival (July 2018)
Edmonton Fringe Festival (August 2018)
Vancouver Fringe Festival (September 2018)
Envision (hosted by Boca del Lupo; March 2019)
Judith Fair (2019)
Winnipeg Fringe Festival (July 2019)
Havana Theatre, Vancouver (July 2019)
Lip Service 2: Breaking down Barriers
-
Tackles shame and taboo conversations with Pulsive Party’s signature campy playfulness. Following the education guidelines for grades 8-12, the vulvas playfully weave in sexual health information about STIs, barrier methods, testing, contraception, consent, and communication through original parody hits, TikTok references, and interactive projection.
It contributed enough memorable content to be featured prominently in Lip Service 3’s setlist.
-
Premiered at rEvolver Festival (Up in the Air Theatre), The Cultch, Vancouver (May 2023)
Lip Service 3: Live In Concert
-
Takes on a meta-theatrical twist: the “world tour” of the characters becomes a metaphorical or actual struggle for recognition. The question posed is whether these protagonists—“these vulvas”—should continue chasing a dream when recognition remains elusive.
The show is praised for its physical comedy, energetic song and dance, and campy humour—all used to spark empowerment, conversation, and engagement with sexual-health themes. It revisits and recontextualizes material from both earlier instalments.
-
Up and Coming
Presentations
Vancouver Fringe Festival, September 2024
rEvolver Festival, May-June 2023
Havana Theatre in Vancouver, July 2019
Winnipeg Fringe Festival, July 2019
Envision hosted by Boca del Lupo March 2019
Judith Fair 2019
Vancouver Fringe Festival, September 2018
Edmonton Fringe Festival, August 2018
Winnipeg Fringe Festival, July 2018
Ottawa Fringe Festival, June 2018
Pulsive Party
About the Creators
Pulsive Party consists of multidisciplinary artists, Ashley Whitehead and Natalie Tin Yin Gan. Since 2012, the two have used their best friend humour, signature campy playfulness, and extensive performance backgrounds in dance, clown, voice, and writing to create performance. Their three Lip Service shows engage pertinent social and political issues, tackling shame and taboo conversations in funny and unforgettable ways. Pairing with Ashley’s role as a sexual health educator, Pulsive Party shows create camaraderie and access to information, aiming to empower every body to make informed decisions about their health, lives, and relationships.
-
(They/Them)
They are a multidisciplinary creator, performer, and teacher who has been making the sweet moves of an awkward, tall kid all their life. Ashley has the privilege of living, working, and playing on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations - also known as Vancouver, BC.
Coming from a career as a contemporary dance artist, Ashley found creative character development (clown) with teacher and mentor, David MacMurray Smith, in 2015… and hasn’t looked back. Performing all their life, and choreographing since 2010, Ashley has presented work locally and nationally. They also lead classes that integrate forms of clown, movement, and voice.
After making the initial Lip Service in 2018, Ashley pursued education and became a certified sexual health educator. They currently work with Options for Sexual Health, Real Talk, and BCIT.
Whichever arena they are in, they look for ways to connect, to create, to move, to inspire, to play, and be played with. Ashley is queer, non-binary, and neurodivergent.
ashleywhitehead.ca
-
(She/Her)
She is an independent dance artist, writer, and facilitator based in so-called Vancouver, on the unsurrendered ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She has performed and presented work in Asia, Europe, and across Canada.
Her practice squats at the intersection of diasporic dissonance, somatics, and technology-induced melancholy. Natalie is Co-Artistic Director of the company Hong Kong Exile and the smaller half of vulva clown duo, Pulsive Party. Natalie is lead Narrative Designer at indie video game company, Sunset Visitor 斜陽過客, that released the award-winning and critically-acclaimed game, 1000xRESIST.
She is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, a body-centred and trauma-aware approach to the voice. Natalie is the younger daughter of a mother from Hong Kong and a father from Malaysia. She speaks Cantonese poorly but frequently.