Interview: Jolie Papillon talks about LA CLIQUE at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Jolie Papillon is an award-winning burlesque performer who was recently voted one of the most influential burlesque industry figures in the UK and worldwide.

As well as her residency at The Maine Mayfair and heading London cabaret shows, Miss Jolie is currently starring in the multi award-winning La Clique, which is heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August.

We chat to Jolie about her journey from trainee dancer in Italy to West End burlesque headliner, her inspirations and why live performance is so important.

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Can you tell us a little bit about your journey from your hometown in Italy to starting your burlesque career in London?

I trained as a dancer and a singer in Italy and did musical theatre before moving to London. I received a scholarship on my last year of musical theatre school and came to London to do a couple of weeks. I just fell in love with the city and how many opportunities there were for young performers.

So I decided, instead of moving somewhere else in Italy, to spend a year in London and see if I could do some auditions or more training, and then ended up staying! I realised this is where I wanted to be.

I found the world of cabaret and burlesque within the first year of living in London. I was just waiting for somebody to basically ask me, "do you want to be part of this?". Part of me was a little bit frightened to try because I didn't know where to begin. Even though I trained to be a performer, cabaret is a whole new world because you create your own work, and I didn't quite know where to start.

I auditioned for a burlesque show, and they called me to do a New Year's Eve gig in Madame JoJo's, and that's where it all started. They asked me to create a solo act for a competition, so I debuted my first solo act there, and from that moment I never really stopped working.

Over the past few years, I've had a really clear intention to give opportunities to other performers. So creating Gin House Burlesque with Betsy Rose and Missy Fatale was a way to showcase a really authentic 1930s vintage glamour in one show, and also give other performers the opportunity to showcase their work too.

I've also started producing more shows by myself and spreading the word as much as I can amongst the industry.

How would you describe your style of burlesque?

I feel like I fall into the category of classic burlesque, and would describe my style as very showgirl.

I try to incorporate as much dance movement as I can, as that's something that I always wanted to do when I started burlesque. I've trained as a dancer since I was a child, so I wanted that to be my prime quality, be noticeable on stage and be heavily choreographed. I want to channel burlesque through movement and the use of the music.

Costuming is also a really crucial part of burlesque. How do you go about creating your costumes? What inspires you?

It really depends because the creative journey doesn't always have the same formula.

These days it's a bit easier to get inspiration online, but when I started, I really had to research loads because there wasn't much burlesque online.

Rather than finding inspiration from other burlesque dancers, for me it comes more from the movie stars of the Golden Age. Movies with protagonists like Lucille Ball, these amazing movies with the most beautiful costumes that you can possibly think of.

I'm so passionate about that era, and you naturally get effected and inspired by those costumes.

How would you persuade people to see a burlesque or a cabaret show?

I think it's really important to see burlesque because it's so empowering. The amount of people who come to me after a show to say how much it's inspired them, it's amazing the impact that we have on our audiences.

Burlesque can really encourage you to free yourself from all these mental constructions that we've got about how we need to look or behave in society. It's a message of, "look, when somebody with confidence, has ownership of their own body and their own character, look at the impact that has!". It is powerful and inspiring.

I can't see burlesque being solely online, it has to be a live performance. Without the audience reaction, the show isn't the same. I play with the audience, and what they give me, I'm able to give back. You play a game with your audiences, and you integrate their responses.

Even if you have hundreds of people in the audience, burlesque is such a intimate experience that you create. It's so inclusive too, it's for everyone. So please come to the shows, because you'll be really inspired afterwards.

When the venues closed in 2020 because of Covid, how did you maintain your professional profile and promote your work?

Because I had so many amazing opportunities just before the pandemic started, I wanted to keep celebrating what we do and encourage people that this wasn't the end of live performance.

People were feeling so negative about the future of live shows, and I was so clear in my heart that online wasn't going to be the only way. I really wanted to maintain the hype, and to keep sharing all of the things that I had been doing.

I did a few virtual shows, but I only said yes to a few, because I felt it was really hard to reach people in the same way as live shows.

I then went on to do coaching. For years I've been asked to mentor people and coach new performers, so I decided to dedicate my time to fostering younger performers and trying to help them during this difficult time. I wanted to keep their hopes up that this wasn't an art form that was going to vanish.

How did you find coaching during the pandemic?

It was quite hard, because one-to-one coaching is really encouraging the people that you have in front of you, with all their insecurities, all of their doubts, all of their questions, all of their artistic blocks. So, it really stretched my heart to give as much as I could to these young performers, and to get the best out of them, all of their best qualities and see how they can use them and evolve it.

As a performer, you often doubt yourself and think that you should blend in with whatever trends are of the moment. So I needed to find the main skills in each single artist, and try to make that their highlight of their performance.

Is there anything mentally or physically that you do to prepare for a burlesque performance?

Depending on the type of performance you do, I think you need to find the right way of conditioning your body and keeping yourself healthy. We need to treat our bodies like the athletes, really.

I never find myself being any different from my fellow circus performers in the sense that they train specifically to be up in the air and to do incredible things with their bodies, in the same ways as a burlesque dancer.

I constantly have to keep myself in good shape to have the stamina of being on stage. Conditioning my body and have that discipline every week, to make sure that I train enough.

I also focus on being present and going through my choreography without worrying too much. I work very consistently, so the choreography is already in my body, so it's mainly the conditioning that I have to be disciplined about. We're also carrying around 25-30 kilograms of costumes in a suitcase across town, so that's a lot on your body!

You can catch La Clique at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Underbelly's Circus Hub on the Meadows

Photo Credits: Scott Chalmers