(M)IMOSA
Four frenzied creatures plunge into extreme combat in a crescendo of extravagant numbers that freely mix sexual and artistic genres. An exuberant piece inspired by voguing.
They all claim to be Mimosa Ferrara and are ready to tear apart anything to prove it: taboos, performance etiquette, political correctness, aesthetic boundaries and the frontiers between genders and artistic disciplines. In a crescendo of furiously extravagant numbers, each one pushes the buttons of identity fantasies. The only limits to this astonishing excess are those of the imagination. Who, from the decadent lady from another century to the almost extra-terrestrial hermaphrodite creature or the boisterous pop star clone, will win the battle of the madcap incarnation on parade in this phantasmagorical (M)IMOSA?
Combining their choreography with the social performance codes of voguing, the choreographers and dancers Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Trajal Harrell and Marlene Monteiro Freitas plunge into extreme combat in defence of the freedom to play with personality, gender and identity. Ravishing, exuberant, wild and crazy.
PRODUCED BY VLOVAJOB PRU
CHOREOGRAPHY CREATED AND PERFORMED BY CECILIA BENGOLEA + FRANÇOIS CHAIGNAUD + TRAJAL HARRELL + MARLENE MONTEIRO FREITAS
COSTUME DESIGN IN ASSOCIATION WITH LA BOURETTE
LIGHTING DESIGN YANNICK FOUASSIER
COPRODUCTION LE QUARTZ – SCÈNE NATIONALE DE BREST + THÉÂTRE NATIONAL DE CHAILLOT + CENTRE DE DÉVELOPPEMENT CHORÉGRAPHIQUE (TOULOUSE) + LA MÉNAGERIE DE VERRE (PARIS) + THE KITCHEN (NEW YORK) + BOMBA SUICIDA (LISBON) + FUSED – FRENCH US EXCHANGE IN DANCE
WITH THE SUPPORT OFLABORATOIRES D’AUBERVILLIERS
PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH PLACE DES ARTS WITH THE SUPPORT OF SERVICE DE COOPÉRATION ET D’ACTION CULTURELLE DU CONSULAT GÉNÉRAL DE FRANCE À QUÉBEC
WRITTEN BY FABIENNE CABADO
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH
PREMIERED AT THE KITCHEN, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 9, 2011
CECILIA BENGOLEA + FRANÇOIS CHAIGNAUD + TRAJAL HARRELL + MARLENE MONTEIRO FREITAS (PARIS + LISBONNE + NEW YORK)
No Boundaries, No Taboos
Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Trajal Harrell met while participating in the DanceWeb program at the 2008 Impulztanz festival in Vienna, where they started high discussions together. Two years later the four of them joined forces for the co-directed adventure of (M)IMOSA, first presented in New York in 2011. The piece was the result of research that Harrell had been conducting since 2001. It is the (M) (medium size) version of his multipart work Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church that the New York choreographer and dancer has arranged in five formats, from (XS) to (XL). His work explores the possible hybrids that might emerge by combining the codes of voguing (which originated in Harlem’s homosexual and transsexual milieu in the 1960s) with the postmodern dance that also came about in Greenwich Village in that era.
Edition 2012
Performances
- Fri25May
- Sat26May
