Since 2010, I have developed a substantial body of work under the persona of “The Famous" (Notorious, Splat!, How to Become a Cupcake, How 2 Become 1, and more). These were presented in Live Art and Contemporary Performance contexts across the UK, Europe and the US, gaining respect within the Live Art world (‘Darling of the alternative performance scene’ - Time Out). My work investigates contemporary feminism, critiquing the problematics of pop culture whilst proposing alternative modes of womxn’s agency. Being a ‘difficult’ woman working at scale, and creating space for others to do the same, has been, and remains, my most precious ambition.
Trained at The Alvin Ailey School and Laban Conservatory of Dance, my background as a dancer and choreographer strongly impacts the role of the body in my practice. Playing on the borderline between the virtuosic and the abject, entertainment and boredom, pleasure and humiliation, ‘the real’ and the represented, the performances test bodily limits and ethics, and throw into upheaval what it means to be ‘a woman’ in contemporary culture, putting my own body at the centre of the work.
In 2017-18, Notorious toured The Barbican, ACCA, Take Me Somewhere, Fierce Festival, Reykjavik Dance Festival and Kampnagel, with residencies at PACT Zollverein and Koneen Saatio, with several ACE grants.
After leading a workshop with young womxn at The Barbican, I created Really Real Teenz! (RRT) with The Yard Theatre, supported by ACE (2019), a 9-month workshop process and performance with teenagers. In 2019-20, I delivered the workshop series at Kampnagel, with a production planned for 2021, (disrupted by the pandemic/illness.)
Splat! premiered at The Barbican, opening SPILL Festival 2013, additionally supported by ACE and Laban Theatre, to critical acclaim (Time Out, The Stage, The Guardian, Exeunt Magazine, and more).
I have been interviewed about my work on BBC Radio 4 alongside Marina Abramovic and Laurie Anderson, Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, and Icelandic public radio. I have given keynote speeches at various conferences and gave a talk with Kate Nash about popular culture and feminism at Reeperbahn Music Festival in 2019.
I hold a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London in contemporary feminism, popular culture, and ‘ugly feelings’, and have been a visiting lecturer at various UK and European universities over since 2011. My work is studied by international scholars and students – featured in Kim Solga’s Theatre & Feminism (2016), The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics (2019), further books, articles and doctoral theses.
I have authored several published articles, including: ‘A Queer Family Tree’ in The Only Way Home Is Through the Show: The Performance Work of Lois Weaver, ed. by Jen Harvie and Lois Weaver; ‘Splat!: Death, Mess, Failure and Blue-Balling’, in Performance Research; ‘The Cyclical Pleasure/Death of Symbolization in How to Become a Cupcake/The Famous’ Adaption of Frankenstein’, in On Repetition: Writing, Performance, Art, ed. by Eirini Kartsaki; and several articles for Feminist Times and Dance Theatre Journal.