FTF Exclusive: Interview with EMC3

May 2016

This month, event extraordinaires EMC3 caught up with one of our founders Alix, to discuss some of our favourite moments in the 20 years we’ve been performing at events, and where Feeding the Fish are taking their light performance next.

Read the interview below.

How did you get started?

After I completed my degree in Dance and Choreography from The University of Chichester, I fell into the juggling world via Circus Space (The National Centre for Circus Arts). The other founding members were hobby jugglers that reached world class standards of juggling while they should have been studying for their finals. They successfully graduated and Feeding the Fish began.

Our name comes from a three-person juggling move called a ‘Feed’– where clubs are fed out to your partners and thrown back to you. The ‘Fish’ part comes from a brand of club called a Radical Fish that we juggled with before we got into LEDs. Even now, 20 years on, we are still complimented on how memorable the name is.

What makes your acts so special?

We’re the inventors of Pixel-Poi. These are specialised LED batons, which not only create beautiful light shows, but enable each client to customise their show as we can display logos and words in the Pixel-Poi. So if you want to see your name or brand design in lights, then our unique logo reveal is pretty special. We also have more than one string to our bow – whilst our famous juggling shows are still very popular, last year we released our Video Suits. So we also perform a dance act with all-over suits that display video and moving graphics and of course an optional logo.

Who is the most famous person you have performed in front of?

Well, when we performed alongside Coldplay at the 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony in London, Jay-Z and Rihanna were up next on the bill, and we were told they were watching…

Oh there is also Princess Anne, John Prescott, Jessie J, Hugh Grant, Fernando Alonso, Jensen Button and the Queen of Spain – not all at the same event of course!

Where is the craziest place you have performed?

Possibly the 2014 Dancing on Ice Tour, as every ‘stage’ was actually an ice rink! We choreographed the opening of the show and trained 10 of their Pro skaters to perform using our Pixel-Poi. 2 of us from Feeding the Fish were also performing – skating and spinning Pixel-Poi at the same time. At the end of the number Torville and Dean appeared on the ice through some very dramatic fireworks and the crowd went crazy every night.

What is the strangest request you have had during your career?

When Top Gear Live first approached us, they asked if we could cover two BMW M3 cars with LEDS, and then programme them to have similar effects to our Pixel-Poi and Video Suits.  We thought it was mad, but very exciting. As it turns out the strangest ideas are usually the best, and it worked amazingly. Together we created a stunning spectacle where the Pixel-Poi, 2 of our dancers in Video Suits and the two LED BMWs are all programmed and choreographed in sync with each other. The cars are so striking, that to be honest with you regular transport just doesn’t cut it anymore…

What does 2016 have in store for Feeding the Fish?

We are incredibly excited about our brand new act called Zoom, which we launched at The Gadget Show Live 2016 (NEC Birmingham). Zoom is certainly a world first for event performance, featuring our Video Suits and LED hoverboards. We’ve covered the hoverboards with LEDs, similar to our BMWs for Top Gear, which light up as the hoverboards move. Our dancers, who wear our LED Video Suits, perform a slick and exciting choreographed routine with the boards. The suits and hoverboards display graphics in sync, and like all of our acts these graphics can be custom made to each show. Everyone seems really excited about it, so watch this space!