Tell us a bit about your background in theatre design, and how you’ve used that within your performance work?

I trained at Central Saint Martins and I think that, despite what I may have thought upon leaving college, to some extent design IS my performance. Although I “live” in my performances and dance and move to express myself, a lot of the story I am trying to tell is effect - using design to make my ideas more real or magical.

A lot of my acts center on the idea of transformation so if you put them on a stage without costume, set or lighting design they wouldn’t be the same pieces.

Prior to your current work, did you look to integrate lighting advancements within theatre design? How did you go about doing this?

Right from the beginning I have always used light in my work: of course stage lighting has always been important, as is anything that can reflect light, but I have always been on the lookout for portable and non-obviously technological technology.

It has always been a challenge to find things that are affordable, portable and not obviously gimmicky. I have used LED storage lights, fairy lights, light changing bulbs, EL panels, rows of bulbs that can be placed beneath a rotating panel on different gels to create a flickering flame effect…

Given time and budget there are so many things I would love to experiment with: flexible screens for example. But as I am entirely self-funded, I usually try and find new and better ways of making more “classic” effects work better and go further.

What was it that led you to combine burlesque, an art form with a long history, with lighting and more technological elements?

They have always interested me and I don’t see having a variety of interests to be conflicting. I suppose that some element of it may be down to having an older brother who works in technology so it’s something that I have been exposed to. But there are also a lot of precedents: I see most of the stuff I do as being more in the tradition of exotic vaudeville, and modernity and electricity have always has a big part in that.

Vaudeville may look “old fashioned” to us now, but audiences were fascinated by the quest for innovation and novelty either to enhance existing effects (magic lanterns, film) or spectacle in itself (exhibition of Tesla coils, sideshow style acts using conductivity).

There is a performer I identify with in particular called Loie Fuller who began in American burlesque and went on to star at the Follies Bergere and in adverts for electrical products around the world. Although I was unaware of her when I started performing, there have become more and more parallels in my work. Nicknamed “The Electric Salome”, she was interested in using technology as an effect rather than a novelty. Some of the lighting technology she invented is still used today in theatre.

What would you use light for within performance art, if there were absolutely no limits?

It’s hard to say, and I am actually fairly reluctant to in case one day the capabilities are there and I work out (how) to harness them!

The wonderful thing about light is that I genuinely believe that there are no limits - I mean, you can already use a projector to create anything from nothing. Whether it convinces or not is another matter, but that’s the magic of theatre…

Where do you see the future of light going – both within theatre and live performance design in general, and within burlesque as a specific art form?

I don’t really distinguish between those forms. Largely for me the only difference is that burlesque is generally completely self-funded so there are far more financial limitations concerning access to technology. I suppose technology will get more portable, but the rest is up to the imaginations of those using it…