Harrell & Bengolea & Chaignaud & Monteiro Freitas

(M)imosa. Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M)
Sat 21 & Sun 22 April | 20:30 - 22:30 | Theater Kikker

Buy your tickets for Sat 21 April
Buy your tickets for Sun 22 April 
 

(M)IMOSA, a choreographic collaboration between Cecilia Bengolea, Francois Chaignaud, Marlene Freitas, and Trajal Harrell, is the title given to the Medium version of Harrell's series in five sizes, (XS) - (XL), entitled Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church. The propositional departure for the series- "What would have happened in 1963, if someone from the voguing ball scene had come down to Judson Church in Greenwich Village to perform alongside the early postmoderns?"- is not addressed but reconfigured by (M)IMOSA into a encounter between these four artistic voices.

The Voguing dance tradition refers to the competitive balls staged in Harlem dance halls beginning in the 1960's. A form of social performance practiced primarily by African-American and Latino gays, transvestites, and transsexuals, voguing imitates archetypal social and gender identities through fashion, movement, and behavior. At the same historical moment, in the 1960’s, the pioneers of the postmodern dance broke with the traditional representations of classical and modern dance and sought to make dance without artifice, based in authenticity.

Inspired by Paris is Burning, the seminal documentary film about voguing; their personal research on voguing; and their collective experience as makers, the four collaborators in (M)IMOSA dare to own and share the immediate distance between themselves, between them and their inspiration, between what they portend and what they perform, and between their counteracts. 

BIO

Trajal Harrell is a dancer-choreographer based in New York City. His choreographic works have been seen at The New Museum, Danspace Project, Crossing the Line Festival 2009, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, and PS122 in NYC as well as The Lotus House Heart Happening/Margulies Art Warehouse in Miami and Art Basel-Miami Beach. Internationally, his work has been seen in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Croatia and Mexico.

In 2011, he will be in residency at Workspace Brussels, Pact Zollverein (Essen, Germany) and WWF Festival (Tokyo).

He has created four evening length works Notes on Less Than Zero, Showpony, Quartet for the End of Time, and Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (S). Quartet for the End of Time premiered October 2008 at Dance Theater Workshop and was chosen by TimeOut-NY Magazine as one of the best dances of 2008. His latest work, Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (S) was also chosen by TimeOut-NY Magazine as one of the best dances of 2009 and recently toured to Working Title Festival (Brussels, Belgium), Festival Artdanthé (Vanves, France), ICA Boston, and at Festival Rencontres Choregraphiques 2011 in Paris.

Cecilia Bengolea, born in Argentina. Studied in the University of History of Art in Buenos Aires 1998-2001. She moved to Paris in 2001, since then, she has produced her work in European venues and festivals. In 2004, she followed Exer.ce.,Mathilde Monnier’s  research program in Montpellier.

Bengolea has collaborated with Joao Fiadeiro, Claudia Triozzi, Edouard Levé, Marc Tompkins, Yves-Nöel Genod,  Joris Lacoste, Alice Chauchat, Alain Buffard, Mathilde Monnier. 

François Chaignaud, graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSM) in Paris (2002). Since then he has collaborated as a dancer with various choreographers such as Boris Chamartz, Emmanuelle Huynh, Gilles Jobin, Tiago Guedes, Alain Buffard. Since 2004 he has shown several performances and concerts on different stages in France and Europe : Pompè – procession urbaine (2004), He’s one that goes To sea for nothing but to make him sick (2005), La Culture des Individu.e.s (2006), Aussi bien que ton coeur, ouvre-moi les genoux (2008). He's involved in many collaborations, a.o. with swiss artist Marie Caroline Hominal (Duchesses (2009), minimal hulla hoop performance), with french model Benjamin Dukhan or with american legendary drag queen Rumi Missabu from the Cockettes. In addition, he has an historian activity in university and has recently published a book about french early feminism (L’Affaire Berger-Levrault – les féminismes à l’épreuve, PUR, Rennes, 2009). 

Since 2005, François Chaignaud has collaborated with Cecilia Bengolea. They created together 3 pieces based on very intense disposal : Pâquerette (2008), Sylphides (2009) and Castor & Pollux (2010) currently touring in many festivals and venues. They are also reprising Free Dances from the 1920's repertory of François Malkovsky. 

Marlene Monteiro Freitas was born in Cabo Verde where she was member and co-founder of the dance group Compass and collaborated with the musician Vasco Martins. After her dance studies at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), at E.S.D. and at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon), she developed a dance project with the community of Cova da Moura (Lisbon), under the idea “we will not have dance classes, we will rehearse”. She regularly works with Emmanuelle Huynh, Loic Touzé, Tânia Carvalho, Boris Charmatz, among others. Her creations include Guintche (2010), A Seriedade do Animal (2009-10), Uns e Outros (2008), A Improbabilidade da Certeza (2006), Larvar (2006), Primeira Impressão (2005). She's member of the collective Bomba Suicida, based in Lisbon.

REVIEWS

New York Times 3-10-2009
The Village Voice
Dossier with reviews