Antigone Sr./Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church [L]

Voguing and classical Greek theatre

New York, early 1960s. In Greenwich Village a group of dancers and choreographers – Lucinda Childs, Steve Paxton and others – invent postmodern dance. The artists are white, middle-class members of the artistic elite. They introduce everyday, ‘authentic’ movements into the dance idiom. At the same time, the voguing dance style starts in the ballrooms of Harlem, a form of dance practised by African-Americans and Latinos, gays and transsexuals. Although voguing is very ‘pop’ and trendy it is also looking for ‘real’ movements.

Since 2001 the American dancer and choreographer Trajal Harrell has been obsessed with the question of what would have happened if the two had actually come together? This has resulted in a series of wonderful performances, Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church, in seven ‘sizes’: Extra Small (XS), Small (S), (M)imosa (in March 2013 in Kaaitheater), Antigone (Jr.), Antigone Jr. (Plus) Plus, Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure), and Antigone (Sr.).  

Antigone Sr. is the culmination of Harrell’s work. He examines the relationship between the voguing tradition and classical Greek theatre, in which men play both male and female roles.