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Dance: Lords of the dance

Gay creative energy abounds in season’s visiting performance troupes

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The Rambler, Joe Goode Performance Group, gay news, Washington Blade
The Rambler, Joe Goode Performance Group, gay news, Washington Blade

A promo still from ‘The Rambler,’ a performance by the Joe Goode Performance Group. Goode, a gay San Francisco-based artist, will be in Rockville this weekend for two performances — Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at American Dance Institute (1570 E. Jefferson Street in Rockville). Visit americandance.org for details. (Photo courtesy Joe Goode Performance Group)

Last year at this time we were saying farewell to the famous D.C. Cowboys, but just because the Cowboys have performed their last dance doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other important dance offerings in the region this spring. Many feature gay performers, gay themes or gay directors, so make sure to mark your calendar for your favorites.

Bowen McCauley Dance, led by dancer and choreographer Lucy Bowen McCauley performs at the Atlas Intersections Festival tonight at 10 p.m. at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H Street N.E.). This performance will combine dance and rock music and a live performance by Half Brother. On April 5-6, Bowen McCauley Dance performs at the Kennedy Center (2700 F Street N.W.) at 7:30 p.m. They will be celebrating the centennial anniversary of “Rite of Spring” and other pieces. Tickets range from $36-40.

On March 7-8, gay dancer and choreographer Helanius J. Wilkins performs his powerful piece “Closer” two final times at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H Street N.E.) as part of the Atlas Intersections Festival. In this piece, Wilkins navigates his way from questions to statements while exploring newfound realizations of dance. For more information visit hjwedgeworks.com.

David Burkholder is the artistic director of The Playground, which performs “The Chemistry of Lime Trees” at The Mead Theatre Lab @ Flashpoint (916 G Street N.W.) March 14-24. This piece explores the impact of real and perceived boundaries in our lives.

Gay helmed VT Dance/Vincent Thomas celebrates 10 years of dancing with VT Dance Looking Back, Moving Forward on March 16-17 at the Theatre Project Baltimore (45 W Preston Street, Baltimore). For more information visit www.theatreproject.org.

From March 20-24, The Washington Ballet performs “Cinderella.” which combines magnificent beauty with ravishing costumes in the retelling of this classic romance. This piece is choreographed by gay director and choreographer Septime Webre and will take place at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theatre (2700 F Street N.W.). Tickets are available starting at $25.

The New York City Ballet performs at The Kennedy Center Opera House March 26-31. The company will dance two signature mixed reparatory programs accompanied by the New York City Ballet Orchestra. For more information or tickets go to kennedy-center.org.

At Dance Place (3225 8th Street N.E.) on April 6-7, Abraham.In.Motion performs Pavements, which is “Boyz in the Hood” re-imagined as a dance work investigating the state of black America.

On April 13, gay choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess and his company dance at Episcopal High School (1200 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria Va).

The 2013/2014 season marks the 10th anniversary season for the gay lead dance outfit Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company. On April 13 and 14 they perform a mixed show of Sokolow work, classical Indian dance and fusion at Dance Place (3225 8th Street N.E.).

On May 3-5 at the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University (3700 O Street N.W.) Derek Goldman presents “Once Wild: Isadora in Russia” written by gay award-winning playwright Norman Allen and choreographed by Cynthia Word. This progressive multidisciplinary production offers a bold new vision of Isadora Duncan. For tickets or more information go to performingarts.georgetown.edu.

From May 8-12 the Washington Ballet performs Septime Webre’s newest exploration into American literature with Heminway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” Tickets start at $25 for this Kennedy Center performance. For more information on to purchase tickets visit kennedy-center.org.

The Washington Ballet also performs “Peter and the Wolf” at the THEARC Theater May 18-19. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit thearcdc.org.

Gay choreographer and artistic director Josh Beamish of Move presents “Pierced” at the American Dance Institute (1570 East Jefferson St, Rockville) May 18-19.

Edgeworks Dance Theater, lead by openly gay choreographer Helanius J. Wilkins, returns to the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center (2700 F Street NW) on June 3. This predominately African-American Dance Company will dance a mixed repertory program featuring signature and new works.

Dance Place (3225 8th Street N.E.) has many additional offerings throughout the spring including Revision Dance Company, Karen Sherman and Idan Cohen among others. For more information and a full listing of performances visit danceplace.org

The D.C. Lambda Squares, an LGBT square dance/social club, has numerous square dance events and class sessions coming up this spring including a community dance on March 9 with a Mardi Gras theme. Monday night beginner classes continue until May 20 from 7:30-9 p.m.

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HRC releases ‘Queer Renaissance Syllabus’

Beyoncé’s hit album inspired curriculum

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Beyoncé performs at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on Aug. 6, 2023. The Human Rights Campaign has released a curriculum that her "Renaissance" album inspired. (Washington Blade photo by Isabelle Kravis)

In a move aimed at celebrating the beauty, brilliance and resilience of the LGBTQ community, the Human Rights Campaign unveiled the “Queer Renaissance Syllabus” that Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album inspired. 

Curated by Justin Calhoun, Leslie Hall and Chauna Lawson of the HRC’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program, the syllabus includes a variety of academic articles, essays, films and other media rooted in Black queer and feminist studies. Each piece is directly inspired by the tracks on Beyoncé’s Billboard 200-topping dance album, “Renaissance.”

Beyoncé’s album “Renaissance” stands as a cultural milestone, celebrating the Black queer roots of dance music while shedding light on overlooked Black queer artists. Inspired by her late-Uncle Johnny, the album not only garnered critical acclaim but also shed light on the often marginalized contributions of Black queer artists. Winning four Grammys and yielding chart-topping hits like “Break My Soul” and “Cuff It,” the album sparked discussions about economic impact and cultural representation.

Amid its success, legislative challenges arose, with Florida and Texas enacting bans on DEI initiatives in public colleges. Recognizing the album’s transformative potential, HRC developed the “Queer Renaissance Syllabus” to leverage its impact for education and activism.

Tailored for educators, youth-serving professionals, DEI practitioners, higher education leaders and admirers of Beyoncé’s artistry, the syllabus aims to encourage meaningful discussions, enrich lesson plans, and explore innovative ways to honor the vibrancy and significance of LGBTQ individuals and their culture.

With six themes anchoring the syllabus, ranging from “intersectionality and inclusivity” to “social justice and activism,” it provides a comprehensive exploration of various facets of LGBTQ experiences and expressions. Fan-favorite tracks from the album are paired with scholarly readings, offering insights into empowerment, self-acceptance and the transformative power of artistic expression. The syllabus also reinforces HRC’s efforts to highlight, amplify and re-center Black and queer voices.

By providing links to articles, books, podcasts and interviews, each associated with a song from the album, it celebrates the rich cultural heritage and contributions of the Black queer community.

The concluding section of the syllabus includes Beyoncé’s tribute to O’Shea Sibley, a young Black queer person who was murdered in Brooklyn, N.Y., last July while voguing to “Renaissance” songs at a gas station. HRC also includes a statement that condemns hate crimes.

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Movies

Neo-noir ‘Femme’ offers sexy, intense revenge fantasy

A work of real and thrilling cinematic vision

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George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett star in ‘Femme.’ (Photo courtesy of Utopia)

They say “revenge is sweet,” and it must be true. Why else would so many of our popular stories, dating all the way back to “Medea” and beyond, be focused on the idea of getting “even” with the people who have done us wrong?

It’s a concept with obvious appeal for anyone who has felt unjustly used by the world – or, more accurately, by the people in it – but that has particular resonance, perhaps, for modern queer audiences, long used to being relegated to the status of “victim” in the narratives we see on our screens. In “Femme” — the new UK indie thriller helmed by first-time feature directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, now in limited theatrical release and expanding wider over the next two weeks — it provides the irresistible hook for a gripping tale of calculated vengeance in the face of anti-queer violence. Like the best of such stories, however, it’s as much a cautionary tale as it is a wish-fulfillment fantasy.

Set in London, it centers on Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), aka Aphrodite Banks, a popular drag performer in the city’s queer club scene who, after a performance one night, steps out in full costume to buy a pack of cigarettes and becomes the victim of a traumatic “gay bashing” incident at the hands of a young man goaded to violence by a thuggish gang of friends. Months later, though he’s recovered from his physical injuries, he is still deeply affected by the inner scars that linger. Robbed of the confidence that allowed him to perform, he’s withdrawn into a reclusive life, until concern from his friends and housemates prompts him to finally venture out into the world for a night of cruising at a gay sauna – where he encounters his bully doing the same thing. 

Unrecognizable and anonymously masculine out of his drag persona, Jules finds himself beginning a dangerous and duplicitous game in which he plans to “out” his former attacker – whose name, as he learns, is Preston (George MacKay) – in the most humiliating way possible. As his scheme begins to play out, however, he encounters an obstacle: in getting to know the closeted Preston, he is surprised to discover not only empathy for someone living their life in terrified camouflage, but a mutual attraction that develops despite the horrific history between them.

Framed as a self-described “neo-noir” story, a designation that implies a certain flavor of moral ambiguity as much as it does a tense and shadowy tale of intrigue or a psychologically complex tone, it’s a movie that relies heavily on style in order to sell its conceptual premise. Realistically, we might question the boldness that permits our protagonist to enact such a potentially hazardous scheme, but in the context of its genre trappings we are lulled into accepting it. And while most of us are likely “jaded” enough to question the possibility of tenderness between its two leading characters, the accepted conceits of the film noir form are enough to sell it to us – or at least allow us to grapple with it alongside Jules, whose righteously Machiavellian master plan is threatened by the feelings he “catches” in spite of himself.

That, of course, is part of the whole point. “Femme,” though it establishes itself by virtue of its very title as a testament to the struggle to “pass” for straight in a world that places a value judgment on perceived adherence to a strict norm for gender and sexuality, hinges on the idea that such things aren’t quite as clear-cut as we want to make them. Despite the black-and-white certainty we cling to when it comes to the subject of abusive or toxic relationships, there’s an emotional component that can only be ignored or dismissed at our peril, and even our most resolute intentions can be undermined by the shades of gray we discover in our hearts. 

Freeman and Ng – who also wrote the screenplay, adapting their own BAFTA-nominated short film from 2021 (starring Harris Dickinson and Paapa Essiedu) into a feature-length expansion – seem bent on challenging our snap judgments, on forcing us to sympathize with our oppressors by showing us the ways in which they, too, are prevented from living a fully authentic life by the expectations of their cultural environment. Even more challenging for many modern audiences, perhaps, may be the unavoidable observation that, in enacting his plan of revenge, Jules crosses the line between being a victim and being a victimizer – a fine point that may trigger uncomfortable implications in a social environment that has become marked by divisive moral constructs and hardline ethical posturing.

Before we scare you off with discussion of high-concept themes and “culture war” rhetoric, however, it’s crucial to bring up the elements that lift “Femme” above and beyond the level of so many such narrative films and makes it a somewhat unexpectedly potent piece of cinematic storytelling – and all of them have to do with the skill and intention behind it.

As to the former, the movie’s first-time directors manage a remarkable debut, steeping their film in moody, genre-appropriate visuals and murky morality. They pave a path beyond the easy assessments proscribed for us by conventional thinking, and force us to follow our sympathies into a disquieting confrontation between what we “know” as right and what we feel as true; at the same time, they push back against any natural sentimentality we might have about the situation, stressing the toxicity of the relationship in the middle of their film, the ironically-reversed insincerity of its dynamic – and, perhaps most importantly, the reality of the defining circumstances around it. While we might find ourselves longing for a happier resolution than the one we expect, the film makes no pretense that these two men might overcome the deep denial and traumatic associations – not to mention the calculated lack of honesty on the side of its de facto protagonist, to achieve some kind of “happy ending” between themselves. Nevertheless, we hope for it, in spite of ourselves.

That delicate dynamic works largely because of the movie’s lead actors. Both Stewart-Jarrett (“Candyman”) and MacKay (“Pride”, “1917”) deliver fully invested, utterly relatable performances, finding the emotional truth behind their interactions with as much palpable authenticity as they bring to the chemistry between them. They force us to abandon our preconceived ideas about each character by finding the human presence behind them, and it makes the story’s final outcome feel as heartbreaking as it does inevitable.

As for intention, “Femme” – which premiered at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival and went on to gather acclaim across the international film fest circuit – might be a little hard to take for the easily triggered, we won’t deny it. Still, it’s a work of real and thrilling cinematic vision that goes beyond easy morality to highlight the tragedy that comes from being forced to live behind a mask for the sake of societal acceptance. It’s also exciting, smart, and unexpectedly sexy – all of which make it a highly- recommended addition to your watchlist.

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Out & About

Trans Day of Visibility is here and here’s how to celebrate

Howard County LGBTQIA Commission to host Columbia event

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Howard County LGBTQIA Commission will host its inaugural event celebrating Trans Day of Visibility on Sunday, March 31 at 4 p.m. at Busboys and Poets in Columbia, Md.

The purpose of this inaugural event is to create a welcoming and inclusive space that celebrates and amplifies the voices of the trans community and its allies, highlights the joy and resilience of trans and non-binary individuals everywhere, and elevates their voices and shares their diverse experiences. 

This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite

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