Tackles Toxic Masculinity, Trans Tales and Queer Love
Fans of dance, theater and live performance are already scrambling to buy tickets for the highly-anticipated world premiere of the newest production from trailblazing transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey.
Dorsey’s award-winning all-queer dance company, Sean Dorsey Dance, returns to Z Space April 19–21 with Boys in Trouble—an evening of dances that unpack masculinity with unflinching honesty, from unapologetically trans and queer perspectives.
Boys in Trouble is an extravaganza of full-throttle dance, raw emotion, irreverent humor, exquisite queer partnering and super-vulnerable storytelling … all performed with Sean Dorsey Dance’s signature technical precision, guts, and deep humanity. This powerful new work is a visually stunning, emotionally rich, and profoundly timely examination of masculinity and gender by one of the nation’s most visionary choreographers.
“The show is a riotous celebration of trans and queer gender expansiveness as well as a wake-up-call about toxic masculinity,” says Dorsey.
“We dance about a huge spectrum of topics,” he continued. “True transsexual confessions. An unabashed love letter between Black queer men. A sendup of all things macho. A queer spin on butchness. Real talk about whiteness. An invitation to look deeply at shame. Giving witness to hurt and heartbreak. A roadmap for another way.”
With stark honesty, powerful storytelling and breathtaking dancing, Boys in Trouble is in turns powerful, explosive, devastatingly honest, humorous, and sexy.
After the four San Francisco performances, the company takes the show on a 20-city national tour. Boys in Trouble will be performed in cities including Washington D.C., Atlanta, Maui, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Boys in Trouble is performed by Sean Dorsey, Brian Fisher, ArVejon Jones, Nol Simonse and Will Woodward. The original music was composed by Alex Kelly, Ben Kessler, Anomie Belle and LD Brown.
Dorsey created Boys in Trouble over a 2-year period, after visiting communities across the U.S. where he hosted community forums on masculinity, recorded interviews, and taught free movement workshops for transgender, gender-non-conforming, cisgender, gay, bi, and queer people on the masculine spectrum.
Sean Dorsey is celebrated as the nation’s first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer. Dorsey has toured his work to 29 cities and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions and the annual Fresh Meat Festival of trans and queer performance (June 14–16 in San Francisco).
Dorsey recently took time out of his hectic schedule for a Q&A with the San Francisco Bay Times about the new work—and about performing and touring as a transgender person in the current political climate.
San Francisco Bay Times: What inspired you to undertake this project?
Dorsey: As a dance artist, I feel called to undertake projects that will really spark transformation and healing in my audiences and the communities we visit. I wanted to unpack some of the deeply unhealthy aspects of the very constructs of gender and masculinity—which are so toxic for all of us, trans or cis, queer or straight. As a company, we have also talked a lot about racism and white supremacy in relation to masculinity—and as a white trans guy, I wanted to center an honest conversation there, too.
San Francisco Bay Times: We have a feeling that there is some signature Sean Dorsey humor in the mix?
Dorsey: Oh my, yes! There is a lot of humor in the show! We allow ourselves and our audiences to really laugh at the more ridiculous parts of “performing” masculinity, and to also totally revel in wonderful, uniquely queer and trans sass and cheek as we unpack things like being “macho” or “butch enough.”
San Francisco Bay Times: And the dancing?
Dorsey: We dance a lot in this show—we dance ourselves to exhaustion! We sweat through tons of costume changes, which I think is satisfying for the audience … I always love seeing dancers dance really hard!
San Francisco Bay Times: What are the central themes of Boys in Trouble?
Dorsey: Well, there’s the up-front issue of the pressure to “succeed” at masculinity. But it goes deeper. All of us—every single one of us—feels like we’re not “enough.” Whether it’s queer enough, trans enough, masculine enough, Black enough, strong enough, smart enough. We unpeel a lot of layers in the show in order to get to those deep feelings of difference, of shame, of hiding. How can we reconnect with each other? What would it look like to touch each other without shame? What would it feel like to love our own body?
San Francisco Bay Times: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
Dorsey: Come to the show! This is powerful, moving, hilarious, touching and healing work. These dances will hit you in the gut, make you laugh out loud and open your heart … whether you love dance or think you “don’t understand” modern dance. This is beautiful dance that’s also accessible and relevant to our communities. We can’t wait to share it!
Boys in Trouble (world premiere)
Sean Dorsey Dance
April 19–21 (Thurs/Fri: 8 pm + Sat: 4 pm & 8 pm)
*ASL interpretation offered at Sat 4 pm matinee*
Z Space (450 Florida Street, San Francisco)
Tickets: $15–30
Info/tickets: www.freshmeatproductions.org
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