So … My name is Sunny Hailstorm … I was formerly known as Bodasia Deviant … or … Dasia … It’s funny how I came to this name … Actually … I owe Lilly Rascal … for helping me to find … this journey … because she was the one who suggested … we were name-storming … throwing out different names … because I wanted to change my stage name … and she threw out Sunny as a suggestion … and … she didn’t realize at the time … but it really resonated strongly with me … already … because it is my family nickname … I have a million different nicknames … but that’s one of the ones that my family has always called me when I was growing up … “Sunny” … “Sunshine” … So Sunny … fits … definitely … and Hailstorm … I wanted something … just to kind of describe my personality … my persona … and my dance style … and I feel … I feel like I’m pretty much a hailstorm of energy … and passion … and angst … and fire … and all of this … all rolled into one … and I think the name … as a whole … captures the dichotomy I have between … my compassion … and … I guess the fire I have inside of me … What have I been up to recently? … Well …  I’ve been taking some time off for the past months … just to reconnect with myself … and focus on … you know … focus on myself … not so much my art … because I have been spending so much of my time an energy on that for the past … year … and a half … to two years … So I needed to figure out … what it is I wanted to say with my art … where I wanted to go moving forward … what I want to represent … And … also … I’ve had a lot of struggles … with … my … mental health lately … so I’ve been kind of … kind of taking a seat … on the back burner … a little bit … to figure that out … and work through it … and figure out what I need to do for myself … and … what measures I need to take to work through that … So … that does effect my art a lot … because a lot of times I do create … from that place of … whether it’s euphoria … or pain … or … angst … or depression … that’s where my art comes from … and my most powerful art comes from … my deepest struggles … but its also … its a double edged sword … because … whereas I can … get this creative energy from it … it also holds me back a lot … and … I feel like … especially last year … it held me back … because I just haven’t been motivated … to … pursue goals that I set for myself … I haven’t been motivated to really sustain myself … and … you get … kind of stuck in this place … where you can’t grow … and develop … and it’s hard to … work through that … especially without … relying on assistance from outside sources … which … I wasn’t doing … so … it made it a lot more complicated … It is something that I’ve been dealing with my whole life … I would say … I became aware of it first when I was sixteen … I believe I have had … other issues with it before then … but it really … exploded … from the time that I was sixteen years old … and I’ve been struggling with it since then … There have been periods where its wax’d and wain’d … where it’s kind of severe … and then years … or periods where … I struggle with it the hardest … But what I have noticed … though … that the older I get … the more difficulty I have managing it … and the more overbearing it becomes … the more intense it gets … So what I have specifically is called … borderline personality disorder … it’s similar to bipolar … actually … when I was a teenager … I thought I had bipolar disorder … but I wasn’t positive … because it’s similar … it imitates it … in that you have these drastic mood swings … that can typically … with borderline … last for a few hours … or a few days …. whereas with bipolar disorder … it typically lasts for weeks … or months … you know … periods of euphoria … versus depression … and its just swinging from those two extremes … so rapidly … is what defines it … one of the things that defines it … But yeah … it’s managing … mood regulation … going through periods of depression … I might be depressed for two hours … and suicidal … and then … I don’t know … something will happen … and three hours later … I’ll be on top of the world … like nothing ever happened … So it’s really stressful … and confusing … and mentally straining to deal with that on a regular basis … There are medications … I’m working towards … I have an odd relationship … or an odd perception of therapy … just because my past experiences haven’t been all that great … the last psychologists that I saw … he prescribed medications … none of them really helped … So it’s … treating underlying symptoms … and just depression and anxiety … and helping to regulate moods … The main thing that helps is … psychotherapy … coping … and mood regulation skills … learning those … But for me personally … since I’m not in a place where I can participate in therapy on a regular basis … I’ve just been trying to get better by listening to my body … and listening to what it is I need … in a given state of time … and not trying to … force myself … or force too much on myself … more then I can handle … Honestly … weed helps a lot … it’s probably the only thing that helps me right now … especially when I’m cycling through extreme mood swings … or cycling through extreme depression … it helps me stabilize … and push the reset button a little bit … Other then that … I’m still figuring out … honestly … I’m still trying to figure out how to work through it … It’s an ongoing journey … And … what else have I been up to in my life? … I will say that … with the new pieces I’ve been choreographing … I’ve been taking a different approach … The first one … that really switched gears for me … was choreographing this chair act called “Desire” … it also kind of doubled as a vampire act … I think I first choreographed it last October … But that was … the … I guess kind of the shift … in how I approached my art … and how I approached choreographing … because I try to find this fusion between … connecting my concert dance background … the jazz … the ballet … modern … trying to fuse that all together … into striptease … and make it … I guess … a sensual movement … story … in a way … if that makes any sense at all … (laughter) … It’s a little weird … I don’t know how to put it into words … but … I’ve been trying to play with new ways … to approach the art of striptease … while incorporating … technical aspects … and movement aspects … of classical dance … It’s been really interesting to see how they can both meld and fuse together … My personal fashion choices? … I don’t really consider myself as making a statement with my fashion choices … I just do … what feels good … to me … and what makes me feel good in my body … and … a way to express my femininity … and also my edge … because I do have this kind of polar attraction to masculine … and feminine … I was kind of a tom-boy growing up … so I never was into wearing skirts … or dress … or floral patterns … Now … I’m … I don’t know … I like to accentuate my feminine side … and also … going for something … a little more edgy … and just … funky … I love funky looks and colors and styles … So … leather … bright colors … I love leopard prints … always been my favorite … animal prints … something that’s really bold … I love flowing pieces too … very loose fabrics … loose jumpsuits … things that just billow … very light and weightless … that defies gravity … I love that … I’ve always been told that … and I am … I’m a very carefree … free spirit … I always have my head in the clouds … and … I think that comes through in the way I dress … I’m avant-garde … I don’t really follow fashion trends … I just do what I think looks good … and what feels good to me … there’s definitely that air of freeness … I’m also … very bold … I’m not afraid to try new things … just go out and be adventurous … I like pairing things together that probably doesn’t make sense … or you wouldn’t think to pair … or you wouldn’t think to wear … I like trying different things out and seeing how they pair up together … I think that speaks a lot to my personality and mood … Other peoples fashion? … Like I said … I like things that are out there and eccentric … and also very bold … So … if I see someone walking down the street … in bright colors … or just something extravagant … it will draw my eye … it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate … I love seeing what people wear … and how they use … their fashion to express theirselves … and their ideas … It’s really cool to see … you can be very artistic in how you dress … and very expressive in how you dress … It’s cool to see how others do that … without using their words … As far as how what’s going on in the world … and how it effects me … It’s a tricky … Sometimes I ride the border a little bit … it’s hard to be hopeful in these circumstances … but at the same time … you just have to hold on to some kind of hope … Honestly … (laughter) … this is a tough one … I think what drives me … is knowing what I want to see in the world … and knowing what I want to bring to the world … what I want to offer to people … and … I try to surround myself with like-minded people … who want to incite change … in the world … for the better … and who want to contribute something that other people can … that can impact other people … in a positive way … So … I think that knowing that I have this light in me that I want to share with others … even if it does seem bleak … and chaotic … and hopeless … I know that I can bring something … some kind of light to make the world a better place for someone else … regardless of who they are or where they are … I know that there are plenty of other people out there like me … so I don’t think there’s … a reason to be completely hopeless … as long as we keep … using our voices … and keep fighting … to be the change … and be the difference that we want to see … To be honest … I feel like unless I’m actively doing something … to inspire or influence other people … or to connect with … or reach someone … I feel unless I’m doing that … I am not fulfilling … or living up to a purpose … like I’m just taking up space … I know that may not be the case with everyone … but … that’s how I personally feel … I feel like as long as I’m here … I should be doing something … to effect change in some way … As far as social media … I have kind of an up and down relationship with it … I’m not the most consistent with it … I am working on being more consistent … more engaging … posting more frequently … engaging with followers … and friends … and connections through social media … and trying to create more of a platform through it … So I am working on getting better … and working on learning how to utilize it in a better way … because I see … how … influential it can be … and how you can reach out and connect with so many people you wouldn’t otherwise have means to connect with … without it … But yeah … it’s a powerful platform … It can be very useful if you know how to use it in the right way … Instagram is the main one I use … I’m on Facebook … I don’t really use it much … I kind of lost interest in it … over the years … To me … Instagram allows you to connect with so much more … you get a much farther reach … engagement is better … and I personally feel like Instagram is … more popular to use … To me … Facebook feels like a wasteland … almost … I think Instagram is where most of my engagement is … that’s the one I prefer … What are my future plans? … Actually … I have been thinking about teaching … getting back into teaching … I used to teach … dance classes … before I got into burlesque … so … I kind of took a break from that … because I wanted to focus on performing … but I have been thinking about starting up my own classes and workshops … I’m still working out curriculums of what I want to offer … and what people might be interested in … that’s something on the horizon for this year … Also … I want to travel more … I’m looking into shows in the Midwest … primarily … but also across the nation … and festivals … so I can travel with my art … and reach other cities … and see other performers around the world … around the nation … and connect with them … and engage with new audiences … Those are my two biggest endeavors for this year …