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GHOST PORN

2/5 & 2/6 at 7:30pm

2/7, 2/8, 2/14 & 2/15 at 8pm

(Video Installation and Go-Go dancing begins 30 minutes before every performance)

 

Part I: Slut Pop

Part II: A Room of Compartments 

Part III: Dark Room Gothic

 

Directed by Brendan Drake, in Collaboration with the Performers

Cast: Matthew Bovee, Brendan Drake, Ollie Iturrieta, Nikkie Samreth, Marcus Serjeant, and Jace Weyant.

Video Installation: Ian Lewandowski

Music: Original Soundscore by Brendan Drake; additional music by, Morton Feldman, Stephen Sondheim, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Kim Petras.

Text: Brendan Drake

Costumes provided by the dancers with additional pieces by Brendan Drake

Co-Presented by Kestrels and Amanda + James

for beverages, Merch, and for tipping the Go-Go dancers:

Venmo: BDrake-Choreography

Brendan Drake is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and currently, the Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at The Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University. Their work uses disparate movement forms, erotic imagery, text, and sound manipulation to interrogate issues surrounding gender, vanity, and queer power dynamics. Brendan was a 2017-2018 Fresh Tracks Artist at New York Live Arts and has been awarded grants and residencies through the Brooklyn Arts Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, CUNY Dance Initiative, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Monira Foundation, The Tank, and Chez Bushwick. Their recent work has been presented at Danspace Project (Draftwork), Movement Research, The Brick, La MaMa, PAGEANT, Joes Pub, The Wild Project, AUNTS, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, JrHigh (Los Angeles, CA), Fowler Museum (Los Angeles, CA) and The Dance Complex (Boston, MA). In addition to their work for the stage, Brendan choreographed the fall 2014 “Equality = Love'' campaign for Adidas Originals/Pharrell Williams. They were the movement coordinator for editorial shoots with Vogue, Porter, V, and Elle Magazines (photographers: Liz Collins, Ryan McGinley, Collier Schorr). They have guest taught at UCLA, Columbia University, the University of Massachusetts, Muhlenberg College, DeSales University, Ball State University, Skewl, Peridance, SCDT, Loculus, and the New York Film Academy. Brendan holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA.

 

Matthew Bovee: Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Matt is a theater, dance, and music artist based in Brooklyn. He has performed and created for over a decade in NYC ("superb" -Timeout). His diverse experience contributes to an eclectic, multi-disciplinary approach to storytelling, drawing from a broad palette of influences and aesthetics. He was the 2022 Fulbright recipient to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. MA Classical Acting (LAMDA), BA Theatre/Dance (UC San Diego).

 

Ian Lewandowski is a photographer from Northwest Indiana. His second solo exhibition in New York, The Colossus, was exhibited at CLAMP in 2024. The Ice Palace Is Gone, his body of large-format color portraits made from 2018-19, was published as his first monograph by Magic Hour Press (Montréal) in 2021. My Man Mitch, his body of photographs and photo-based material native to his home state of Indiana, was published by Kult Books (Stockholm) in 2022. He also teaches undergraduate photography courses at The New School and FIT, and continuing education courses at Gowanus Darkroom and the International Center of Photography (ICP). Ian’s work negotiates picture and body histories. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband Anthony and dog Seneca.

 

Ollie Iturrieta: Hello, I’m Olie (he/they) and I'm originally from Miami Florida, now NYC. I have had training all around the US with programs like PDI / Professional Dance Institute, Santa Fe New Mexico, Joffrey in New York, and Miami City Ballet, now a graduate class 2024 of the Alvin Ailey School. I danced in a premiere work by Jamar Roberts via the Knight Foundation at the Olympia Theatre titled “The House of the Most Loved” as well as many other works . What might make me different from other dancers with my background is that all of these achievements were made while in the gender transition from female to male . The life experiences that come with my transition and everyday discoveries i further make about my gender expression have pushed me towards more alternative styles of dance to better express myself. I consider myself an “artist” before a “dancer”, as I create in every aspect of my life.

 

Nikkie Samreth (They/Them) is a first-generation Cambodian-Chinese multidisciplinary artist originally from Dallas, TX. They have a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch and studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. They also graduated Summa Cum Laude at FIT with a Bachelor of Science in International Trade & Marketing and a triple minor in Economics, Creative Technology, and Ethics & Sustainability. Nikkie worked as a professional dancer/performer/model in various music videos, campaigns, films, editorials, and companies such as Vogue, HBO Max, The Feath3r Theory, Company XIV, and other artists.

 

Marcus Sarjeant is a 24-year-old dancer from Southern California where he trained with Westside Dance Project, as well as attended the Orange County School of the Arts. In 2022 he graduated Summa Cum Laude from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance. He has performed the works of choreographers such as Annamari Keskinen, Connie Shiau, Kayla Farrish, Hofesh Shechter, and Johannes Wieland. In addition, he’s danced for New York-based companies Verbal Animal, and Decent Structures Arts, and most currently he is a member of Cardinal Movement and Company. He has been awarded honors such as being selected to be a part of SUNY Purchase’s Adopt-a-Dancer program and awarded the Spotlight Grand Prize for Non-Classical dance in 2018. Marcus is excited and eager to keep performing and creating work in New York and abroad.

 

Jace Weyant is a transgender multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from high school at UNC School of the Arts with a concentration in Contemporary Dance, and she has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied Dance, Mathematics, and Computer Science. She has worked as a dancer for Amanda Hameline, Evan Ray Suzuki, Katherine Fisher, and John Jasperse. She has worked as a creative technologist for Salsa Stories and Safety Third Productions. Her own creative work stands at the intersection of the emotive and the mathematical, using both dance and technology to create otherworldly environments in which bizarre and fantastical scenes play out. She has shown her work at Theater Mitu, Chez Bushwick, Summer Happenings Festival, Standard Vision Studios, Mono no Aware, and Astoria Film Festival. She has accepted residencies at Theater Mitu, Chez Bushwick, and Impulstanz. She has also accepted awards from the Youngarts Foundation, Astoria Film Festival, and Montreal Film Fest.

Amanda + James is a New York-based company dedicated to producing the work of young artists. We provide a space for this community to follow creative impulses, refine ideas into projects, and collaborate and learn from their peers.

 

In this open environment for interdisciplinary collaboration, the company is sparking conversations between rising artists across as wide a range of artistic disciplines as possible, encouraging multifaceted perspectives throughout the creative process. It is the company’s mission to see these projects fully realized.

A+J is a fully accredited 501(c)3 Organization.

Kestrels is a home for performances, practices and rehearsals.

Small but agile and flexible by design, we offer space and time for artists to be able to show and share their work in an artist-friendly space. Please reach out if you are curious, inspired or have a question!

Kestrels has two studios available for rent by the hour, day or longer:

rehearsal rental info here

Acknowledgments

Ghost Porn was created with residency support from the Monira Foundation, as well as an emergency grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and from individual donors (many of whom are in the audience tonight… hi). Additional developmental support for Ghost Porn was provided by the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance MFA Upstart Series. Endless gratitude to my MFA thesis committee Susan Foster, Miguel Gutierrez, and David Rousseve, for shepherding and championing this work's first iteration and challenging me to “stop trying to impress Daddy and get to work.” Thank you to past Ghost Porn collaborators Robbie Button, John Crim, Bailey Davies-Mahaffey, Wesley Gates, Kylee Miller, Nattie Trogdon, and Reba Thomas for bringing your talent and thoughtful collaboration to this three-year creative process. Thank you to Nattie and Hollis for your creative input, for helping with the casting of this project, and for continuing to be beacons of heterosexual excellence.  Thank you to the Production company Amanda + James for producing this work, and especially to Amanda Hameline, who has been working hard on this show right up to the end of her third trimester. Thank you to the goddess on earth, Katie Workum for providing space for this work to flourish, for being a champion enabler of my artistic affliction, and for just being generally rad AF. Thank you to my dancers Ollie, Jace, Nikkie, and Marcus for dancing right on the edge of a cliff with this work, to Matty for saying funny and then jarring, and then tender things in my ear onstage each night, to Ian for your beautiful video work and to Darrin, whose technical direction gives this work a heartbeat. Finally, this show would not have been possible without my sweet, charitable friends who provided spare rooms and couches to crash on while I was up and down the eastern seaboard building this show between DC and NYC: Alex Bedder, Sam Corbett, Sammy Eath, AJ Burdge, James Grasso, Daniel Quay, Ashton Evans, Sean Dougherty, Phillip Pettiford, Tucker Claxton and Peter Sather.

 

This show is dedicated to the gay boys who share their secrets and bodily fluids with one another; to the T-Boys and Dolls whose glorious insistence on corporal autonomy is truly a reason to love and celebrate the human experience; To the faggots dealing with harsh realities —and speaking from the heart as if it were not so. To the working girls navigating thick loads of multi-modal splooge during tax season, and to the daddies whose shoulders I stand on whilst cruising the rectum and the grave.

 

*Credit to Agnes Borinsky for some of this text

Its a hot thing we do. dance and performance is an expensive endeavor (made ever more expensive with increased cuts to arts funding. If you feel so inclined, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Brendan Drake Choreography. You support helps make work like Ghost Porn possible:)

Donate via Fractured Atlas at: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/brendan-drake-choreography

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