We chat to flamboyant performer Beatrix Carlotta ahead of her Egg Ldn performance on Saturday 16th

Where are you from and are you based in London?

I’m originally from just outside New York and I’ve been based in London since 2007.


What’s your favourite memory or experience of Berlin and have you performed there?If so could you please recount your favourite club experience and why?

I have not been to Berlin, yet (!) but I certainly hope and intend to visit, and would feel quite honoured to perform there someday (after being influenced by it from the outside).


How will you incorporate the Berlin style into your performance at the BB party at Egg Ldn? Do you identity with the Berlin Tanzbar scene of the 20s or do you prefer the performance scene of 2016?

One of the strongest ideas I associate with the Weimar period is how it’s artistically infamous for exploring social and sexual taboos. Androgyny, polyamory and fetishism are boundaries which were uniquely pushed by that scene, and these are themes I identify with quite naturally to write about. Also, as a designer and costume fetishist I’ve always been especially drawn to this time period, due to the symbolism and history the clothes hold for sexual freedom and expression.


Where do you get your ideas for your shows from?

The most recent act I’ve produced for the Berlin Berlin event was called ‘Binge Before Bloom’- the title referencing the young death of the ‘priestess of depravity’ Anita Berber at 29. It was first inspired by the famous Otto Dix painting of her, and then led to a deeper research of her work and life. Being a cabaret performer who is currently the same age she passed away at roughly a century ago, I found it quite overwhelming to learn from her life, drawing comparisons that resulted in me producing an act about addiction and immersion into one’s work- creating a visual to symbolise this based on her habit of stirring poisons in a bowl with white roses and then eating the petals.

I think there’s a significant overlap between this glorious, dark scene from the past and the scene that still exists today but which often channels the less glamorous or attractive elements. The reality of artists still writing around their changing city, club environments, sexuality and experiences, trying to earn and survive, but most importantly, leave imprints behind just as the artists of the Weimar scene did for us to work from now.


Do you have any inspirations or performers, artists, etc that influenced when you first started and also who influence you now?

I have some core inspirations that I can see run through my work from the early days until now. A bizarre blend of adolescent influences like clowning, late nights up watching ‘I Love Lucy’ with Lucille Ball, Patrick Swayze as Ms. Vida Bohem, or beloved collections of Vogue magazine’s black and white glamour photography. These things are truly a part of me. The often sinister or grotesque theatricality of designers like Alexander McQueen or Eiko Ishioka are what drew me to study at Central Saint Martins and my transition to London in the first place, after starting in fashion in New York. Those two designers specifically play a huge part in inspiring the bridge between design and performance for me, and that’s still so significant to my work now.


For people that have never seen your performance, what can they expect on the night?

If you’ve never seen my work, expect a lot of play with movement, eroticism and emotion! I have two new danced dramas that I’m creating to celebrate the Berlin Berlin: The Return. The two acts are quite different, but both are exploring and playing with macabre interpretations of sexuality and sentiment.

Marnie Scarlet and Beatrix Carlotta perform at Berlin Berlin:The Return on Saturday January 16th at Egg Ldn alongside Chalet Club’s Mark Henning, Frag Maddin, Yannick Robyns and Save Us Records’ Cosmic Cowboys, Kris Davis and Andrea Ljekaj, Sisyphos’ Jonty Skrufff, Fidelity Kastrow and Juli.N More and Bite My Lip. All info www.egglondon.co.uk