Stirring words as well as a tragedy presented with a wink, featuring lots of catwalking and Voguing plus really extravagant costumes under magical stage lighting. This is how flamboyant Harlem drag meets the avant-gardist Judson Dance Theatre. It all started with Antigone, the offspring from the incestuous marriage of Oedipus and his mother Jocasta from the classical Greek drama by Sophocles. Today, a contemporary choreographer asks: “Is it possible that Voguing and this ancient theatre are not as far removed from one another as one would have thought?” In the Bessie Award-winning large version of Trajal Harrell’s “Twenty Looks” series, five brilliant performers demonstrate how surprisingly modernly Greek mythology can dance today. Besides rock and rap music, the pop voice of Britney Spears serves as an appropriate tool in this context. The queer Voguing scene in poverty-stricken 1960ies Harlem stands for a social group whose discrimination is still combated to this day.
July 25, 2013 | Volkstheater
