Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church (Jr.)

With Antigone Jr., Trajal Harrell picks up on the process of accumulation which was so dear to Trisha Brown, and adds new coordinates to its root equation, in order to scramble still more the dizzying points of reference and identification. By honing the Sophoclean drama in on the relationship between Antigone and her sister Ismene, and then putting it through the revelatory mill of voguing over and over again, a minimalist duo emerges in which the echoes of antiquity resound. If post-modern dance developed in opposition to the Martha Graham aesthetic, Antigone Jr. , pulled from head to toe in the direction of an imagined form of Greek tragedy, amounts to a side-step, an attempt at synthesis – slicing through the Gordian knot of historical references by the bringing to the forefront of different presences. Trajal Harrell and Thibault Lac are - against all odds - two moving and dancing bodies. Two contemporary figures that send these apparent contradictions whirling into space. They fully come to terms with the tragical and heroic dimensions of the Greek text, and of their own position, here and now.

Updating: June 2016

New-York based choreographer Trajal Harrell often works overseas. He is famous for his series of pieces called Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church where post-modern dance meets Voguing. His series Antigone Sr., with its various sizes, won the 2012 Bessie Award for best production. During the fall of the same year he presented the last part of the series Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure)/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church. Trajal Harrell is currently preparing a shorter piece for Cullberg Ballet and a new project for 8 performers – The Ghost of Montpellier Meets Samurai, which premiered during Montpellier Dance Festival 2015. He also created the first piece of a new series on Butoh based on Voguing. This creation called Used, Abused and Hung Out to Dry was shown in February 2013 in the MOMA.

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).