TOMBOY (CHŁOPCZYCA)

by Anais West

In Development

​

Developed as part of Dumb Instrument Dance's CONJURE Residency at MORROW Studio

January 27 - February 3, 2023

​

Tomboy (Chłopczyca) is a dance-theatre performance using contemporary movement and Polish folklore to investigate gender and memory. By reclaiming cultural beliefs and practices (including folk dance), Tomboy interrogates the violent legacy of patriarchy, then imagines new, trans masculinities. 

​

A non-binary university student learns that a boy from their Polish immigrant community committed a disturbing act of violence. This revelation forces them to re-examine their shared adolescence in an insular and tradition-bound culture. But with each remembering, the sequence of events becomes more ambiguous, the choreography of memory more complex, unravelling the narrative they’ve constructed of themself, their gender and the boy's culpability. Were his actions his own, or was he cursed by a monstrous and mythic inheritance? By reimaging folk traditions, Tomboy seeks to be both an unflinching autopsy of masculinity, as well as a vision of queer metamorphosis.

​

Residency Creative Team:

Writer: Anais West

Co-Choreographers: Tanya Marquardt and Oksana Augustine

Performers: Rae Takei and Kami Reed Schuyler

Dramaturg: Joanna Garfinkel

​

Photography: Kimberly Ho