EXPLODE! queer dance

Curated by Clare Croft
June 22 - 24, 2017

EXPLODE! queer dance is a four-day festival of performances and conversation, curated by dance scholar Clare Croft, that re-imagines the potential of queer dance today. Featuring a range of forms – including South Asian dance, improvisation, Irish step dancing, and drag – the festival showcases artists from across the U.S. and around the world, including Jennifer Monson, DD Dorvillier, Thomas DeFrantz, Jennifer Harge, Nic Gareiss & Cleek Schrey and Post Natyam Ensemble. The shows will be hosted by the fierce and beautiful Boston-based desi drag queen LaWhore Vagistan.

PROGRAM:

Thursday, June 22 at 8 pm
Anthony Alterio and Michael Parmelee (drag/contemporary dance; Lexington, KY/New York)
Anna Martine Whitehead (dancer/poet/puppeteer/performance artist; Chicago)
Peter Carpenter (contemporary dance; Chicago)
Gu Jiani (contemporary dance; Beijing)

Friday, June 23 at 8 pm
Post Natyam Ensemble (South Asian dance; Montreal/Santa Cruz/LA/Munich)
Nic Gareiss & Cleek Schrey (Irish traditional dance and music; Michigan/New York)
Thomas DeFrantz (dance & technology; North Carolina)
Jennifer Monson & DD Dorvillier (improvisation; New York/Illinois/Paris)

Saturday, June 24 at 8 pm
Jennifer Harge (contemporary dance; Detroit)
Nic Gareiss & Cleek Schrey (Irish traditional dance and music; Michigan/New York)
Thomas DeFrantz (dance & technology; North Carolina)
Jennifer Monson & DD Dorvillier (improvisation; New York/Illinois/Paris)

The impetus for the festival arose from the fact that queerness – in activism and art making – has always pivoted on the promise of coalition. Lesbian, trans, bi, gay, and queer people can come together and make something with their sweat, with their bodies. Yet sexism, racism, classism and transphobia have kept that promise from being fully realized in practice. Through convening a multiplicity of queer dance artists, this festival is an effort to be a part of activating that promise.
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EVENTS AT OTHER LOCATIONS:
Wednesday, June 21 at 1 pm
Performance and conversation with the artists and authors of Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings.
Lobby, Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Saturday, June 24, 10-11:30 am
What does queer dance do?: A public conversation with the artists and authors of Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings.
Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Dance, New York University
111 Second Avenue, 4th floor, Studio 1
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Clare Croft (Curator) is a dance historian, theorist, curator, and sometimes dramaturg. She is the editor and curator of Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings (Oxford 2017), and the author of Dancers as Diplomats: American Choreography in Cultural Exchange (Oxford 2015). She is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

EXPLODE! has received generous support from the University of Michigan, Oxford University Press, and New York University.

Photo of Jennifer Harge by Olivier Demeffe