Gender Fucked Productions’ dance ensemble, “Queer Dance Freakout,” returns with “Spring Fling” at Elastic Arts on April 5-7. Last year, this company of diverse artists surprised audiences with their combination of skits, solos, duets, group numbers and audience interaction, presented in a format which has the audience voting for what comes next. In “Spring Fling,” QDF retains their unique choose-your-own-adventure formula but with a few tweaks.
As you enter the performance space, dancers are already busy warming up on stage and engaging in light patter with attendees. While traditionally gauche, the QDF crew flip conventions by maintaining a sense of high energy from (before) start to finish.
The show uses technology to involve the audience in the performance. A large projection screen displays three musical playlists: “Lofi Beats to Fight Capitalism to,” Family Road Trip,” and “The Heat, The Passion, The Moment.” Spectators are encouraged to vote through an app on the order in which each playlist is performed. The process is similar to last year’s of having people shout out individual numbers, but this time the method is more refined— there are a few “wild cards” thrown in to keep dancers and audience on their toes.
There are twenty individual numbers, which seems like a lot, but they fly by quickly.
Queer Dance Freakout's "Spring Fling," with Patty Roache; Photo by Jenn Udoni
Patty Roache’s “Letter to my Grandmother” is a touching tribute to the artist’s deceased grandmother. Roache whips their arms backward, the momentum carrying their body into a lofty tour jeté in front of projected images of their departed family matriarch. Later joined by the ensemble in a brisk canon of lunges while grabbing their heads, the piece reverberates with anyone who has lost a loved one.
Roache also knows when to hold back, as in “The Data Speaks for Itself,” which has dancers spinning and twirling on the edge of the stage, centering the focus on projections of graphs, memes and charts related to the unreasonable intolerance exhibited toward trans-identifying people.
Ryan Eykholt choreographs and performs the most enthralling works in the show. In “Quick to Acquiesce,” Eykholt remains static and stoic while being verbally berated by another; meanwhile, dancer L’Raven embodies Eykholt’s despondency and rage through frenetic movement, a superb metaphor for the psychological damage done by insensitive strangers, friends and partners.
Eykholt and dancer Mash Bandouil perform a two-person cello solo in “I Bow Before You.” Eykholt performs bow strokes as Bandouil presses the fret board, producing comedically dissonant screeches from the instrument. Failing that, they flip the cello over and bounce the bow atop the strings, then invert the cello and engage in a saltatorial waltz. How many ways can two people NOT play a cello? Several ways, all lovely.
Other works are more traditionally presentational, as in “I Can Catch Hold of You but I Can’t Hold You,” a duet to guitar and digital flute featuring Dawn Heilung and Virginia VanLieshout, where the duo engage in symbiotic weight sharing that evolves into over-the-shoulder lifts and jaunty jigs as the tempo of the music speeds up.
A metaphor for the therapeutic effect of opening oneself to others is in Bandouil’s “Life Imitates Art Imitates Art Imitates Art” as dancers Megan Davis and L’Raven rotate around each other suspiciously, hands pressed and guarding their pockets. However, they overcome their suspicions and reach into said pockets to reveal their inner selves, smearing their souls on each other like a healing salve.
A sultry solo by Amethyst Rose, “And I Will Always Love Him,” combines hip-swiveling burlesque with jazz technique, resulting in an in-the-air double spin and a dead drop into the splits, a fantastic display of energy despite coming late in the program.
Comedy percolates throughout the show. Two times the audience is invited to the stage to participate in a Wario-themed dance-a-long—WAHHH!—and a meet-and-greet community slow dance. “Pasta Freestyle” has the audience shouting out different types of pasta as the dancers imitate them through movement in the style of the “Soul Train Line.” A pre-show opening act by YAZ ostensibly proves how all Disney musicals are really about the characters coming out as trans by sampling lyrics to movies suggested by the audience—“Little Mermaid!” shouts the audience; YAZ sings, “Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think I’m a girl…”
The ensemble of Queer Dance Freakout
The evening concludes with the whole company dancing full out to Queen’s “In the Lap of the Gods,” the lyrics made especially poignant when put through the filter of the LGBTQ experience—"I can see what you want me to be. But I'm no fool!”
Impromptu technical difficulties show the quick-wittedness of the company, as a technician yells “Hold please,” which results in the company taking a break while collectively taking deep, long held breaths. What might dampen other’s spirits is here turned into a moment of mirth.
In “Spring Fling,” Queer Dance Freakout maintains their high-energy and spontaneity while fine-tuning their process of audience participation. Once again, the company exhibits a one-of-a-kind aesthetic evaluation of slay.
Gender Fucked Productions’ “Queer Dance Freakout” continues April 7 at 3pm and 7pm at Elastic Arts, 3429 W Diversey Ave #208. Tickets are $15-$40 at genderfucked.org or by clicking the event link below.
