Julie Jitterbug Pearce, the woman behind Dante, holds two degrees through Fond Du Lac Tribal College, and is in the process of becoming a Physician through the University of Minnesota Duluth. She lives in Duluth, MN and runs a business known as Jitterbug Productions.

Her alter-ego, Dante DiFranco, began performing as a drag king in the summer of 1999. He debuted wearing 6-inch platform shoes and Elmer’s Glue to hold on cut up hair to his face.

He has come a long way since that fateful night! Continuing to perform both locally and Internationally, Dante has embraced the drag king culture by producing and directing various media that serves to both preserve and promote the culture’s enlightening past and brilliant future.

Among the work that Dante has produced, is the largest running drag king list-serve, “DragKinging” available on the Internet, a 2002 “Gender Distortion” solo tour down the East Coast of the United States, a book “The Art of Drag Kinging” which is still in the process of being published, and his newest production, “The Men of Club Casanova 2002 Tour Documentary”. This 58-minute feature film follows himself, 4 other drag kings, and one beautiful femme, 18,000 miles around the country on a 43-city tour. It dives the viewer into life on the road, backstage, and in the spotlight.

Currently, Dante has plans to create another drag king documentary capturing the culture as it has evolved itself into modern culture. Keep your eyes peeled for more information.