If you’d have asked me the year 2000 how often I’d be going to The Ballet in 2009, I would have told you to step off my combat boots, dude. Thankfully, my better half has schooled me in the ways of performance, and I can now go on forEVER about how the dance community is my new 2nd art-home. Fast forward to this week and I’m flailing my nelly wrists over Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo, or The Trocks, a drag ballet company making its seasonal stop in Chicago on Wednesday January 27th at the Harris Theater. Traditional ballet WILL piss me off, and the BF will frequently shush my feminist disgust when some tanorexic starlett gets onstage and I want to throw a sandwich at her. This will be my first time seeing the Trocks, but if Sid Smith’s right about the degree of muscles at this show, I’ll get shushed because I’m still talking about sandwiches. From the website:
Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form. The original concept of LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO has not changed. It is a Company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance.
So, apparently I’m in for some serious athleticism in classic forms, HOWEVER this time, I won’t need to snarl at a starving sack of bones passing off as a breathing person. The Trocks tickets aren’t cheap, but neither are these dance moves. Tickets here.
Oh man, thank the gay stars for our new lives, constantly blogging and taping our every move for the world to see. Obvs, most people are boring (despite what Oprah says), but sites like this pink-your-brain are in charge of showcasing the people who are not boring: the divas in the rough, if you will. So it is with my pleasure that I post two high quality videos of cute, gay Asian boys dancing. They both have a certain degree of artful flair, the first in concept, the other in execution. I almost can’t believe the gaysian realness on display here, just more proof that visibility is power!
This Friday, Insight Arts is having a show here in Rogers Park Chicago, and I couldn’t be more excited. Insight Arts is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to increasing access to cultural work that supports progressive social change. This event, Queering the Night, will follow a standard open mic format and then segue way to a featured artist. Friday, April 10th starting at 7pm, Queering the Night will feature new work by J’Sun Howard, a Chicago-based choreographer and dancer who is currently exploring crying “to find fearlessness and freedom.” J’Sun Howard will also be starting a LinkUp residency at Links Hall this year, this show is to be a preview.
The blogs are all finally catching on to Palms Out discovery Fagget Fairys. When the first round of 12″s came out, I didn’t read about them too much, despite it being an important step in digital music history that an mp3 blog was putting out a vinyl record. Long since sold out, you waiters are getting a break because at the end of this month, when Fagget Fairys’ debut Feed the Horse comes out, Palms Out will be reissuing the “Samo Ti” single. WOOOOO! On March 30th the myth that lesbians don’t like dance music will finally be laid to rest, you’ll be able to buy (yes, PURCHASE, with cash dollas) it via Music For Dreams. Until then, you can get the first single below.
You know how Chicago is slightly plagued with having its local talent bleed away to the coasts? Well Peter Carpenter is one of the gems that is here and has stayed here, to our benefit. This week’s roster for the Other Dance Festival has more than a few must sees, and Carpenter might be the unofficial headliner. Having been awarded a Chicago Dance Makers Forum grant, 2009 will get a full-length work about ex-president Ronald Reagan. For ODF, we get to see where he’s at with the whole process. Since the final production is so far away, what we see this weekend might be just another step in the road, and be assured it will arrest your sensibilities. I mean, a brilliant dance scholar making queer performance art about a former president who is still shaping the U.S.’s reality is can’t-fucking-miss, right?
Thursday and Friday, 7:30pm at Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater (3035 N Hoyne Ave, 773-880-5402, for tickets go to chicagomovingcompany.org).
Long lacking a place for alterna-peeps, East-Lakeview’s newest watering hole is Wang’s, and it’s begging for regulars. It’s the nicest bar on Broadway, right by the Closet, and the martini’s are extra tasty. You walk in and feel like you are in Chinatown and the bar snacks are appropriately dumpling-centered.
September 12th also marks the first opening reception at Golden, Lakeview’s newest art gallery. Showing Jill Frank’s photography, the show is called Psychodrama and “expands on the form of psychotherapy by asking her subjects to sit before the camera to record & memorialize some of their most traumatic, awkward, and embarrassing moments. The creation of these missing pictures negates the generally accepted custom of employing photography to anchor memories of happy times & celebration.” More information at golden-gallery.org and jillfrankphotography.com.
Psychodrama’s opening reception is Friday, September 12 from 7-10pm and the after party will kick off the first Think Pink Friday at Wang’s 3317 N. Broadway from 9pm-12am with DJ Stinky Pinky.
All of you, listen UP! DV8 Physical Theatre have announced their 2008 tour in support of their new show, “To Be Straight With You.” According to the press release, it is a “poetic but unflinching exploration of tolerance, intolerance, religion and sexuality.” Doesn’t that sound really, um, cliché and uninteresting? Well, don’t be scared off by the uninspired tagline, DV8 has a history of producing some of the most creative and conceptually complete pieces of choreography and dance for camera I have ever seen. The trailer for “To Be Straight” is above and a snippet of their past work below. While their tour schedule is mostly overseas right now, their are some US dates in North Carolina. Book them now!
TPR buddy and contributor Gay Cousin Teddy posted this video of this cute gay guy signing the words, in rhythm, to Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” and I had to repost. Selfless endeavors, in a tank top none the less, will always get a shout out from me. If you like these, check out cutie’s channel for other vids including him signing to Kanye. Rihanna’s “Please Don’t Stop the Music” below.
