(M)IMOSA is a work by four choreographers: Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Trajal Harrell. It is part of the series by Trajal Harrell Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at The Judson Church created in five sizes (from XS to XL).This series is based on a historical fiction: what would have happened in 1963 in New York if a figure of the voguing scene in Harlem had gone downtown to dance alongside the pioneers of post-modern dance? (M)IMOSA is the "Medium" version of it and reshapes this question through the meeting between the four choreographers. Created in the marginal neighbourhoods of Harlem, New York, in the beginning of the 1960s, voguing is a form of social performance practiced mainly by gays, lesbians and transsexuals of African-American and Latino origins, gathered into different communities ("houses"). Voguing imitates social types connected to the world of fashion, luxury and business, by replaying the categories of genre and race that founded them. (M)IMOSA explores the intensity of the rift between the desire and the inability to become someone else, bringing the four choreographers, virtuoso and passionate soloists face to face, at the collision point between the questions raised by their encounter with the New York voguing scene and the other components of their personal and artistic identities.
Distribution
conception and interpretation Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Trajal Harrell, Marlene Monteiro Freitas
lighting Yannick Fouassier
Production
production VLOVAJOB PRU
coproduction Le Quartz Scène nationale de Brest, Théâtre national de Chaillot (Paris), Centre de développement chorégraphique-Toulouse, The Kitchen (New York), Bomba Suicida, FUSED French US Exchange in Dance
avec le soutien de La Ménagerie de Verre-Paris, des Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers et du Lower Manhattan Cultural Council