Louie Spence: “Darling, my life is a show.”

As a dancer Louie Spence performed in Cats, Miss Saigon, worked with the Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Spice Girls, Take That and Bjork. But it is as his outrageous self in the TV series Pineapple Dance Studios that he has become most famous.

The observational series set at the famous London dance studio where he is Artistic Director, has made him a breakout star.

With his flamboyant style and abundant energy, it’s hard to know whether Spence is the real deal or a parody of a real deal.

But don’t dare suggest he is anything other than his own colourful self.

“Well it’s just me being me, darling, I don’t need any direction,” he told TV Tonight. “A lot of people wonder is it scripted and are we directed? Absolutely not. I mean, the guys were here for seven months with the cameras constantly here and they had so much footage to edit. Everything you see isn’t pushed, isn’t faked, it’s totally us being us.”

Pineapple Dance Studios captures the day to day parade of showbiz rehearsals, dancers, auditions, chaos, and the characters that imbue it in the heart of the West End. The centre has notched up big names renting the space including Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Janet Jackson plus leading musicals and daily classes. The series slogan says in part “where bitching is an Olympic sport an everyone is fabulous!”

“This place is totally unique and the people come through the doors are unique and it’s a wonderful place to work, full of wonderful people. I think that’s why the show has become such a great hit, because what you have to remember is it’s a place where there are artistic people. It’s not a bakery or like an airport. It’s basically full of singers dancers, actors just everyone you can think of – aspiring people in the showbiz industry. So it wasn’t hard when the red light was turned on. Everyone was just off!” says Spence.

Despite its magnetic lure, Spence says he declined many earlier offers to allow access to cameras. But, as he explains in his outrageous style, one producer caught his eye.

“There’s been lots of people who’ve passed through the door before wanting to do a show but they all have to come through me first, darling, so it helped if they were good looking,” he says.

“But they would come through and have a negative spin on the place. They’d talk about people who don’t get jobs and doom and gloom and anorexic dancers and all that. And this place isn’t about that, it’s a much more a positive place than a negative. So they just didn’t inspire me, and I was like ‘Well I’m not even going any further. I’m not gonna approach Debbie who owns it cause you just seem like a knob.’

“But then this one guy came in who was cute and Laura fancied him. I thought he wasn’t bad. And when we started to have chat with him I noticed he had really big balls. He had a really big package and I said to him ‘My god you’ve got a big package’ and he said ‘I’ve got huge balls’ and from that moment on I thought ‘Well this guy didn’t take a breath, he wasn’t embarrassed by it,’ and like I say nothing really embarrasses us here, we’re all very open and just go out about everything,” says Spence.

“So I felt well this could be the guy who could make us a great show and show the true colors of Pineapple and we were right he did. So that’s how the show came about, the fact that he’d come in white jeans and had big balls.”

The result is a curious mix of reality and comedy, sometimes leaving viewers mystfied as to whether they are watching a documentary, mockumentary or something in between.

“We had no editorial control but we did had a great relationship with the executive producer and I think he knew that without us being open with him and letting him feel everything that we do, he wouldn’t have the show he wants,” says Spence.

“So he had to guarantee us give us his word and I said to him, ‘If you f*** us over I promise you I will chew your balls off with my teeth.’ And I think he knew that I meant that and he didn’t f*** us over and he did do a great show!”

Spence, who is now filming a second season, says he does everything at Pineapple Dance even though he is the Artistic Director.

“I will clear shit off the floor, cos’ we had a secret pooer who kept pooing on our fire escape,” he insists. “No I’m not joking. Human poo and I had to clear it up! So I go from doing that to making sure that celebrities are happy…. so yeah its Artistic Director, I artistically direct.”

But can you be Artistic Director of a studio hire space? You can if your name is Louie Spence.

“Darling, my life is a show. It’s constantly putting on a show,” he says.

“When Kylie comes through I direct her to have coffee with me and we’ll chat about what’s going on, and then I’ll let her go to her rehearsal.”

Pineapple Dance Studios airs 8:30pm Mondays on FOX8.