Two rows of twenty-five chairs face each other, prescribing a performance space in the middle and seating for an intimate audience. Here, a trio of dancers address the underlying competition, evaluation, and support at the core of artistic production and distribution. In this new choreographic work entitled Showpony , the American choreographer Trajal Harrell, known for his signature combining of 1960’s and 1970’s postmodern dance aesthetics with the voguing dance tradition, creates a platform of observation where performers, audience, and community operate as a system of bodies blurred by a constantly shifting production of values — visibility/invisibility, recognition/non-recognition, attention/inattention. Showpony conceptualizes the possible glamour and romance of contemporary dance and this eventness into a lifestyle and a performance in the theater of the aesthetics of cool.

Choreography and Concept Trajal Harrell (US)
Dancers Katy Hernan (CH/NL), Christina Vassiliou (GR), and Trajal Harrell
Visual Art (set) assume vivid astro focus
Set Erik Flatmo
Lighting Thomas Dunn
Costumes Shoplifter/Steel and Knife Style, Stamatia Alexiou, and dancers
Photo Editing David Bergé
Dramaturg Nanako Nakajima

Showpony was created, in part, with funds from the Danspace Project 2006-2007 Commissioning Initiative with support from the Jerome Foundation. Residency support has been provided by TanzWerkstatt-Berlin with additional support from The James Robison Foundation, The Zacks Family Foundation, and production support from The Trust for Mutual Understanding and FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance), a program of the National Dance Project/New England Foundation for the Arts, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, Culturesfrance, and FACE (French-American Cultural Exchange) with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitiable Foundation and The Florence Gould Foundation. Major Support also generously provided by The Alfred Meyer Foundation

photos by David Bergé