by Sean Dorsey Dance
Photos: Lydia Daniller
“lush, expansive dance … poignant”
(PBS-KQED)
“a visually stunning, emotionally rich, and profoundly timely examination of masculinity and gender by one of the nation’s most visionary choreographers”
(Bay Times)
“poignant … Dorsey’s signature mix of happiness, heartbreak, confessional dialogue, salty language, goofy humor and gorgeous partnering”
(San Francisco Chronicle)
BOYS IN TROUBLE is a timely and urgent commentary on contemporary masculinity – these powerful dances place a trans and queer lens onto intersectional questions of embodiment, violence, Black queer love, whiteness, shame and posturing. Trailblazing transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey led his company on a 17-city international tour of this work from 2018 through 2020.
BOYS IN TROUBLE is a fusion of full-throttle dance, risk-taking theater, raw emotion, irreverent humor, exquisite queer partnering and intimate storytelling … all performed with Sean Dorsey Dance’s signature technical precision, guts and deep humanity.
In turns powerful, explosive, irreverent, devastatingly honest, sensual and humorous, BOYS IN TROUBLE is a groundbreaking trans and queer examination of American masculinity’s deep roots in Trouble.
BOYS IN TROUBLE is performed by: Sean Dorsey, Brian Fisher, ArVejon Jones, Nol Simonse and Will Woodward. Original music composed by: Alex Kelly, Ben Kessler, Anomie Belle, Jesse Olsen Bay and LD Brown. Lighting Design by Clyde Sheets. Costume Design by Tiffany Amundson. Technical Direction by Emily Paulson.
Dorsey created BOYS IN TROUBLE over a 2-year period, after visiting communities across the US where he hosted community forums on Masculinity, recorded interviews, and taught free movement workshops for transgender, gender-non-conforming, cisgender, gay, bi, and queer people on the masculine spectrum.
Sean Dorsey is celebrated as the nation’s first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer. His works have been praised as “exquisite…poignant and important” (BalletTanz), “trailblazing” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “evocative, compelling, elegant” (LA Weekly). Sean Dorsey Dance has toured to 30 cities across the US and internationally.
BOOKINGS:
Contact Sean Dorsey Dance’s Production Coordinator at production@freshmeatproductions.org with booking, teaching and residency inquiries about our current projects.
SUPPORT:
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to Sean Dorsey Dance, please contact our Production Coordinator: production@freshmeatproductions.org or make a donation online.
BOYS IN TROUBLE – Community Sponsors:
San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center (LYRIC), TGI Justice Project (TGIJP), Openhouse, San Francisco Women Against Rape, Community United Against Violence, TRANS:THRIVE, The Shanti Project, SF LGBT Center.
BOYS IN TROUBLE was created with generous support from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project (with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), National Performance Network, California Arts Council, Creative Work Fund (a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation), Fleishhacker Foundation, Queer Cultural Center, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
BOYS IN TROUBLE was commissioned by Bates Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington, DC), Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles, CA), Maui Arts & Cultural Center (Maui, HI), 7 Stages (Atlanta, GA) and the Queer Cultural Center (San Francisco, CA).
BOYS IN TROUBLE – past tour-residency locations
VENUE | DATES |
---|---|
University of Southern California - Visions & Voices (Los Angeles, CA) | February 8, 2020 |
New York Live Arts (New York, NY) | January 12-14, 2020 |
San Jose State University (San Jose, CA) | November 14-15, 2019 |
Velocity Dance Center (Seattle, WA) | October 17-20, 2019 |
Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX) | September 27, 2019 |
7 Stages (Atlanta, GA) | September 12-15, 2019 |
Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles, CA) | May 17-18, 2019 |
Maui Arts & Cultural Center (Maui, HI) | April 11, 2019 |
Z Space - Sean Dorsey Dance’s 15th Anniversary Season (San Francisco, CA) | March 14-16, 2019 |
John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI) | Feb 11-15, 2019 |
APAP showcase at Live Artery @ New York Live Arts (New York, NY) | January 6, 2019 |
Young Auditorium (Whitewater, WI) | October 16, 2018 |
Kulturhuset Stadsteatern (Stockholm, Sweden) | August 2, 2018 |
Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME) | July 12-14, 2018 |
Dance Place (Washington, DC) | May 19-20, 2018 |
Reston Arts Center (Reston, VA) | May 16, 2018 |
Z Space (San Francisco, CA) | April 19-21, 2018 |