Rochelle Flaherty
THE ART OF TEASE When you say 'burlesque' or 'cabaret' here, people tend to think of gentlemen's clubs with lap dancers. Even local dancers who come to audition for me have been wary of what kind of show we are running. Because there is nothing else like [Lan Kwai Fong club] Bisous in Hong Kong, people can't imagine proper dance performances at a bar, with only the Wan Chai scene as their reference. The show at Bisous is a fusion of dance styles; we are doing traditional and modern burlesque with showgirl elements, cabaret, jazz, musical, tap and pop.
What we do is a touch of tease. I don't think you could do full burlesque in Hong Kong just yet. What's for certain is each week is going to bring something different; it's constantly evolving. It's good for the performers. I've done the same show every night for a year in previous jobs, where nothing changes. It's so nice to be able to update things and get excited about doing new things.
BABY STEPS I've been dancing my whole life. I started taking classes when I was three in the small town where I lived in greater Manchester [England]. I have a twin sister, with whom I started my first ballet and tap classes at The Golden School of Dancing, but she didn't continue with it. She knew from the beginning that it wasn't a serious thing for her, whereas for me, corny as it sounds, it was a dream. My mum recently sent me a book that I'd made when I was six; it was like a little key to my life and, in it, I had put the question: 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' And the answer was, 'A dancer'.
The Golden School of Dancing is a family owned business; my own teacher and her mother still work there. By the time I was 13, I was helping out with the baby classes. When I left school, I went to [award-winning dancer] Phil Winston's Theatreworks for three years, studying drama, musical theatre and dance. I did my teaching qualifications there. On the weekends, I'd go home and teach proper classes at The Golden School.
THE WORLD OVER For me, dancing and travelling are passions that go hand in hand. I'd get a call about being in a show in Portugal and the next day I'd jump on a flight and go. The day after I completed college, in 2004, I got my first job, in [the northern seaside town of] Blackpool. There were still a lot of shows running in England; many have closed since because of the credit crunch. The show I started with was called Legends - there's one in Las Vegas, too - where lookalikes would perform songs, supported by dancers. There were Britney Spears, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and Elvis, among others. After that, I was in Cyprus for a couple of months as an illusionist's assistant and dancer. Then, after a few more travelling shows in England, there was the casino show in Spain in 2007 and Portugal in 2008. In April 2008, I took a dance manager job on a European cruise line in Asia for a year and travelled to some amazing places; we would be in Japan one day, Korea the next, Taiwan, Bali [Indonesia], everywhere.
We would dock often in Hong Kong, and I cannot say what it is about the city, but I just loved it from the beginning. It's not clean, it's not that the people are particularly welcoming, but it has this energy and vibe. Every time we came back to Hong Kong, I'd think how much I wanted to live here.