Dances > Stage
As professionally-trained ballet dancers, we have a deep love for the classical form. And as queer artists, educators, and scholars, we feel that ballet is desperately out of step with progressive thought about race, gender, class, and ability. So we’ve set out to make dances that marry ballet with post-modern processes, lovingly “queering” traditional forms - that is, bending them without breaking them - as a way of (re)imagining what ballet is in the 21st century, and who it is for.
The Spell (2024)
The Spell is an adaptation of a duet Adele & Brian made in 2021 as a gesture towards reimagining what contemporary expressions of intimacy and partnership could look like on stage in a classical context. This dance expands the original cast of two to a multi-gendered cast of five, and borrows material and conventions from the original “Rose Adagio” choreography in The Sleeping Beauty, in which four suitors vie for the hand of Princess Aurora. Performed at Sam Houston State University in 2024.
Steps (2023)
Steps was created with the students of Skidmore College in 2023 and takes the ballet class itself as its subject. When ballet was first codified in the 18th century it was built upon 7 simple steps: bending, falling, gliding, beating, turning, jumping and rising. Steps moves through each of these foundational steps as a way to investigate the enduring ritual of ballet class and its conventions and culture. **Note that Steps includes a “false ending”
Loose Ribbons (2021)
Loose Ribbons is a post-modern reimagining of the seminal romantic ballet Pas de Quatre. It embraces Jules Perrot's original 1854 choreography as its "text," then dramatically departs to offer a 21st century interpretation of ballet celebrity culture, costuming, and technical excellence. Performed at the 2024 ACDA South-Central gala.
Bow & Curtsy (2021)
Bow & Curtsy investigates the classical pas de deux form - adagio, male solo, female solo, coda - by bending its conventions without breaking them, marrying Adele and Brian’s love of ballet with a post-modern process. Pictured in dress rehearsal at the Mind the Gap festival at Dance Source Houston in 2021.