SHOWMAN (2017)

Showman, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Oct 16, 2017. photo © David Gonsier

Showman is a solo that emerged from found performance photographs of a hardcore punk band from Cape Cod—where I grew up. This solo excavates a stage of self-formation that happened in close proximity to male musicians who readily performed rage, abandon, and communion. Drawing from memoir, fantasy, the movement of hardcore music performers/fans, glam rock, and queer theory, dancing Showman stretches my capacity to do and be what is “not me”—to shift and keep shifting. Composing my body into shapes of power, energy, and angst, I touch the edge and beyond what I think I am. It is also a grieving prayer for those who didn’t survive growing up in our small town. May we expand what can be expressed, imagined, and realized.