1.00 PM . TRAJAL HARRELL, ANTIGONE JR. ++ TWENTY LOOKS OR PARIS IS BURNING AT THE JUDSON CHURCH (PLUS)

Antigone Jr. Plus Plus is the PLUS size in Harrell’s acclaimed Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church series. In American and English naming tradition, a junior (jr.) is the son of a father with the same name. Thus, with Antigone jr., the New York choreographer Trajal Harrell purposely scales down Sophocles’ tragedy to playwright’s first scene depicting the relationship between Antigone and her sister Ismene; and their tragic fate.

Antigone Jr. confronts the postmodern antagonism against tragically dramatic dance epitomized by Martha Graham’s mythological Greek dramas by presenting this contemporary dance version of Sophocles’ “Antigone”. By imagining a theoretical meeting between Voguing and Post-modern dance, much of Yvonne Rainer’s 1965 “No Manifesto” is put into crisis. Most of the no’s become definite maybe’s: maybe to spectacle, maybe to transformations and magic and make-believe, maybe to the glamour and the transcendency of the star image, maybe to the heroic, maybe to involvement of performer or spectator, maybe to style, maybe to trash imagery, maybe to camp, maybe to seduction of the spectator by the wiles of the performer, and maybe to moving or be moved. The only thing we know for sure is yes to the heroic and we’re adding yes to the tragic.

Here we have Antigone Jr “plus” a surprise additional fifteen-minute epilogue.

SUN JAN 11, 1:00 PM + 7:00 PM

Run time: 50 minutes

RONALD FELDMAN GALLERY
31 Mercer Street / FREE / RSVP: AmericanRealness@gmail.com