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Meet With

Turkish D’light

she/her

Deliciously sweet and always a treat – Turkish D’Light is the one and only multi award-winning queer Turkish queen of burlesque. With her signature Turkish belly-dance, ballet, and classic burlesque fusion style and 20+ years of experience in dance performance and choreography, she is guaranteed to make you feel like a sultan.

Turkish D’Light (aka Turkish Delight) joined Harem of No One in 2022, and is beyond grateful to have found this family. Her performer style includes influences from ballet, belly dance, pole dancing, and of course, burlesque. She is very proud to say she is the winner of the prestigious Legend in the Making title at the Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival 2023, along with winning second place at the World Dance Olympiad in 2010 (contemporary dance). Outside of burlesque, she is a trained dancer and dance teacher with a BA and MFA in Dance and Choreography. Her main inspiration for her burlesque persona is Nejla Ates, famous Turkish belly dancer of the 1950s in Hollywood. Similarly, Nejla Ates was dubbed the “Turkish Delight” of her times. Turkish is a chronically ill/disabled and neurodivergent performer and these identities shine through in her show Cabaret Identitease she produces with Harley Phoenix. She is an advocate for representation of disabled/neurodivergent/chronically ill performers in cabaret. She is also the founder of the UK Cabaret Directory and Burlesque Casting Calls UK. As you can tell from her costumes, she has a rhinestone and crystal addiction and loves embellishing costumes in her free time.

Author/creator of “Conceal and Reveal: An Exploration of Complex Power Dynamics in Neo-Burlesque Dance Performance” (2020), “An Ethnographic Exploration of Strip Club Patron Typologies and the Performance of Striptease Tipping Rituals” (2020), “The Nipple Pastie as Weapon: A Narrative into the Burlesque Extension of the #FreeTheNipple Movement” (2021), “Ecdysiast: An Interactive Installation Parodying the Performance of Sexuality and Sexual Bodies in Burlesque” (2022).

  • Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival Legend in the Making – 2023 WINNER
  • World Dance Olympiad (Moscow, Russia) – 2010 1st Runner up
  • Infinitease 8 – Winner (December)
  • ​Limelight 6 – Winner (December)
  • MFA Dance and Embodied Practice (University of Roehampton) 2022
  • BA (Hons) Dance (University of Surrey/Guildford School of Acting) 2020
  • Certified Dance-Movement Psychotherapist