From her career in crisis consultancy to glittering on the stage at night, Ravenna Radeyah is in love with performing in London.

Q: What is your name and occupation?

A: My name is Mariska de Gooijer, I’m a crisis management consultant and entrepreneur. I also have a stage name for performing burlesque which is Ravenna Radeyah.

Q: How long have you been doing your career?

placeholder image — Ravenna Radeyah as Maleficent

A: I’ve been working in crisis management for 13 years now.

Q: Do you have any other hobbies outside work?

A: I love to travel and do sports, but my biggest hobby is burlesque.

Q: Do you enjoy burlesque and why do you do it?

Ravenna Radeyah and Farfalla Di Fiori at the Ibiza Burlesque Festival

A: I love it! Burlesque is so much fun to do, you can dance, you can tell stories, you can be in beautiful costumes, you can be creative and meet many other people celebrating life in the same way. I do burlesque to step into a sexy, fun and creative world which is challenging me on other aspects than my regular day job.

Q: How many countries have you been to performing burlesque?

A: I've performed in Spain at the Ibiza Burlesque Festival, UK (London), Chez Republic (Prague), Italy (Naples), Croatia (Rijeka and Cres) and of course many places in the Netherlands.

Q: What is your goal, is it to become a big star or to keep it as a hobby?

A: I love burlesque, and I love my day job so I will keep doing both. I can definitely grow bigger with burlesque, but I will also keep working on safety and peace in everyday live during crisis situations. My goal is to spread safety, peace and joy and I can do that now I two different ways.

Q: Does it interfere with your day job and confuse people that you’re a cabaret performer?

A: It interferes in a positive way because burlesque helps me in feeling comfortable being more visible and that helps me in my day job as well. I did not meet anyone that was confused about me combining these to activities, most people are interested or inspired.

Q: What do you love about performing in London?

A: London is the city of theatre! There’s a lot of inspiration and so many fellow artists to see and meet.

Q: If you could give advice to anyone else wanting to get into burlesque what would it be?

A: Just do it! Sign up for a course to learn the basics and become comfortable with your sensuality around a safe group of other woman and man learning the same. It helped me become more free and more secure in my femininity, maybe it could do the same for you.

You can see Ravenna Radeyah performing for the Ibiza Burlesque Festival London Launch, Friday 5th September, 7pm at Blue Marlin Ibiza London in Shoreditch.