BALDY

At a party, some guy asked me: “Are you a man or a woman?” And I said: “I am your question.” Queer poet jayy dodd notes that when we speak of post-gender experience, language often fails us. But words and labels are not the only language we use. In the performance BALDY, we employ choreographic tools to create a space that opens perception to the potentiality of bodies, detached from the habitual assigning of traits. How can bodies appear in space, communicate with each other and with the audience beyond binary codes? Balancing between what is familiar and recognizable in the body and what is ambiguous, we explore the possibilities and limits of post-gender dance. In our collective work on the material for the performance, we follow the notion of opacity, which we understand as a form of resistance to the demand to be categorized from the outside. Opacity is a refusal to define oneself on someone else’s terms, and an acceptance of the instability of one’s own identity. We are inspired by the figure of Noppera-bō from Japanese folklore, one of the many forms of the Yōkai. In myths, it takes on the shape of familiar people only to reveal the illusion of resemblance: when approached, it shows a face completely devoid of features. The empty space in place of an "all-telling" face brings awareness to the transient nature of human identity: we are what others see in us, what we are currently experiencing, a constant becoming of someone we believe we have always been. In terms of movement practice, opacity is explored through the activation of the back side of the body. This relates to the idea of baldness – the act of hiding the face and exposing the nape, the back, the non-facial dimension of performative presence – as well as to the buttocks, a body part intensely sexualized yet rooted in pelvic power. Drawing on Afro-Caribbean dance styles such as dancehall, soca, and twerk, we engage the buttocks on our own terms: in BALDY, it’s the ass that speaks, not the face – so, do you feel like listening?

Ana Szopa (they/them/Onx/her), born in 2000 in Katowice. Performer, dance host, aspiring choreographer, and facilitator. A scholarship holder of the ATLAS program – ImpulsTanz in Vienna, a graduate of the queer experimental school KEM in Warsaw, and an unfortunate graduate of the Academy of Music in Katowice. They cultivate non-violent communication, collective problem-solving, reprogramming, and de-compositing. Inspired by work with mysticism, spiritualism, camp, healing through art, and patching budget holes under precarious artistic labor conditions. Currently participating in the PACAP 8 program with Ana Rocha and Meg Stuart at Forum Dança in Lisbon. They challenge the concept of authority and reflect on their presence in the art world and the agency of dance in relation to power structures. They love shaking their pelvis, seek solace, and explore interspecies relationships. In their practice, they search for performing queer personas and states generated beyond the perception of human experiences. Member of the collectives PLUR, Trevoga, the one vivid orange wall. They have performed in, among others: Free Bodies – dir. Marta Ziółek Exit through the inside – chor. Katharina Simons Hair Story – original performance by Ana Szopa Susan Sontag – dir. Agnieszka Jakimiak and Mateusz Atman As a choreographer and co-creator, they have worked on: ŁYS – Łaźnia Nowa Theatre (collectively) M4G1C BL0W – Komuna Warszawa (collectively) Their performances have been presented at: BWA Bielsko-Biała Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw Labirynt Gallery, Lublin Rondo Sztuki, Katowice Lokal_30, Warsaw ION, Portugal Opus 1, Slovenia ATLAS – ImpulsTanz, Vienna