Dec 25 2011
STREETWALKER: Ken Varree – Anchorage Press: News
Where we found him: Getting his groove on at the Stellerdance
Ken Varree flips his mid-length black hair and adjusts his bosomas he greets students entering Steller’s recent gender benderdance. his appearance draws gasps and belly laughs from the kidswho are not used to seeing Varree looking so, well, pretty.
“It took me 25 minutes to get ready,” he reveals, “well maybe 30 ifyou count applying the press-on nails.”
The dress is one he borrowed from his wife, who slipped out to aconcert before Varree had finished his transformation (she’ll bestopping by the dance later on to check him out, and the look onher face when she walks in the door is incredulous, like on thosemakeover shows, but she almost appears afraid to touch him).
The wig – called a “Chloe,” he thinks — is from Dooley’s, and hedoesn’t elaborate on who provided the Spanx. Oprah, he says, is hisfashion icon. Varree says he’d done drag once, about 15 years agofor Halloween. this evening’s get up, he says, goes along with thetheme of the dance. “The best way you can get people to a dance isto give them the opportunity to dress up,” he says. And he’scertainly not alone, as a good portion of the students are alsodressed as the opposite sex. something about a discount on thecover charge for those in costume.
“Kids really like seeing teachers dress up. In the back of theirminds they think we are stodgy and conservative and they don’tthink we would ever dress up,” Varree says. think again, kids!
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