CHŁOPCZYCA (TOMBOY)

by Anais West

In Development

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

January 27 - February 3, 2023

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Chłopczyca (Tomboy) is a new work of physical theatre incorporating Slavic legend and Polish folk dance. The show uses cultural mythologies to investigate the violent legacy of patriarchy, and to imagine new masculinities through a trans lens.

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After learning that a boy from their folk-dance troupe committed a disturbing act of violence, Aleks re-examines their shared adolescence in an insular community of Polish immigrants. But with each remembering, the sequence of events becomes more ambiguous, the choreography of memory more complex, unravelling the narrative Aleks had constructed of themself, their gender and the boy's culpability. Were the boy's actions truly his own, or was he cursed by a monstrous and mythic inheritance? By reclaiming folk ritual, Chłopczyca seeks to present an unflinching autopsy of white manhood, but also a vision of queer metamorphosis.

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Residency Creative Team:

Writer: Anais West

Co-Choreographers: Tanya Marquardt and Oksana Augustine

Performers: Rae Takei and Kami Reed Schuyler

Dramaturg: Joanna Garfinkel

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Photography: Kimberly Ho