A social somatics experiment.
An emo lecture-dem that reflects an intersubjective experience of trans-gendering and trans-relational kinds of ways. Adding to a body of work exploring gender performativity and the merging of queer thinking and somatic processes in performance practice.
are masculinities hardening games or soft realisations?
Created by val smith and performed by samiam
Old Folks Association Hall, Auckland - Friday 11.11.2011
Theatre As Is, Dunedin - 03.02.2012
My obnoxious statement that 'This is a Trans-World' reflects my naive excitation around trans thinking and theory at the time of making this piece. i was fantasising about a utopic trans world, a genderqueer utopia. the title also reflects my attempt to embody the concept of trans as a prefix (trans-mission, trans-formation, trans-mutation, trans-cendental...), a kind of fluid state of embodiment (whatever that is), and the potentiated space of the hyphen ( - ) as an in-between-ness. seeing the hyphen as a relational statement of the flow between us: performer, spectator, environment
this performance project involved the bringing together of a social politics re gender and embodied movement practice and resulted in experiments with nonbinary expressions of my being at the level of sensing and feeling. a shifting dynamic of shame, seeing/being seen, hope/hopelessness felt between performer and spectator.
in some ways, i'm fighting against the cisheteronormative views that prevail in the 'contemporary dance' scene here in Aotearoa New Zealand - where gender and sexual behaviours, expressions and preferences still predominantly reflect hegemonic norms and a white western cultural paradigm. white viewpoints seem to uphold the same old annoying ideals of straight coupled relationships, white beauty standards, athleticism as successful and healthy, abled upright bodies as 'normal' and 'natural' etc. we are bombarded by such norms in everyday life, and as we walk through the world. it is an ongoing project of mine to challenge these norms and to reconnect with and uphold ways of living and being that are more open ended, more expansive, and keep them close to my heart
in particular, i work towards the vision of dance and performance scenes where diverse genders, sex characteristics, sexuality expressions and relationship forms are valued, seen and respected,
perhaps even understood...
photos mark currie lovely
