Batty Bwoy is a solo performance in collaboration with Karoline Bakken Lund, Veronica Bruce, Jassem Hindi and Ring van Mobius.
Through a reappropriation of the Jamaican term “ Batty Bwoy” (litteraly, butt boy), slang for a queer person, the work twists and turns myths to invoke demonic sensitivities and charming cruelties, unfolding vulnerable possibilities in an interplay of consciousness and naivety. The horror and joy of Batty Bwoy, inherent to queer blackness, is unmasked.
Scrutinizing the absurdity of a queer monstrosity, Batty Bwoy articulates the porosity of bodies and languages, their mouths swallowing and regurgitating the corporal fictions projected onto their skins.
Batty Bwoy attacks and embraces sedimented narratives around the fear of the queer body as a perverse and deviant figure. The expression "Batty Bwoy" is used to evoke an ambivalent being that exists in the threshold of the precarious body, liberated power, joy and batty energy!
The work has found inspiration in mythologies, disgusting stereotypes, feelings and fantasies of the queer body and identities, homophobic dancehall lyrics, 70s Giallo films from Italy, resilient “gully queens” and queer voices in Norway and Jamaica that have visited and taken part of the process.
The project is a co-production with Dansens Hus, Oslo and RAS, Sandnes and premiered January 20th, 2022.
CHOREOGRAPHY/PERFORMER
Harald Beharie
SCENOGRAPHY/SCULPTURE
Karoline Bakken Lund and Veronica Bruce
MUSIC
Ring van Möbius
SOUND DESIGNER
Jassem Hindi
OUTSIDE EYE
Ines Belli and Hooman Sharifi
CO-PRODUCERS
Dansens Hus and RAS
SUPPORTED BY
Norwegian Art council, Fond for lyd og bilde,FFUK, Sandnes Kommune and Tou Scene.
PHOTO
Julie Hrncirova (1) Margot Sparkes (2), Pietro Bertora (3)
Thanks to Tobias Leira, Torbjørn Kolbeinsen and Ingeborg Staxrud Olerud.
The project won the Hedda prize for best dance performance 2023 and was nominated for the Norwegian Critics Association Prize 2022.
DATES
Upcoming:
2025
Artdanthé - Theatre Vanves, Vanves(FR) - 22. March 2025
Festival Le Grand Bain, Robauix(FR) - 24. March 2025
STUK, Leuven(BE) - 27. March 2025
Bora Bora, Aarhus(DK) - 01 - 03. April 2025
Dansehallerne, Copenhagen(DK) - 8 - 9 April 2025
FTA, Montreal (CA) - May 2025 (date tbc)
More dates tba
2024
Nordwind Festival, Hamburg(DE) 06 - 07 December
Sophiensæle, Berlin (DE) 21 - 23 November
Emergentia Festival, ADC Pavillion Geneve (CH) 08 -09 November
Fierce Festival, Birmingham (UK) 16 - 17 October
Festival Actoral, Marseille (FR)08 - 09 October
Fabbrica Europa, Firenze (IT) 13 - 14. September
Theaterfestival Basel, Kaserne, Basel (CH) 30- 31. august
Dansstationen, Malmø (SE) 26. august
Skopje Pride 13 June
Switchover Festival, Tartu (EE) 21. May
ICE HOT, Oslo 14 & 15 Feburary
2023
Side Step Festival, Helsinki, Finland 09 -11 February
Donau Festival, Krems, Austria 28,29,30 April
MDT, Stockholm Sweden 05- 06 May
Spring Utrecht 26-27 May
Dansens Hus, Oslo 23- 25 June
Centrale Fies 02 July
Santarcangelo Festival 15-16 July
Impulstanz 24,25,26, 27th July
Vitlycke 02. September
Arendal på Skeiva 08. September
Salmon Festival, Barcelona dates 16 -17 September
Backslash Festival, Gessnerallee 25 - 26 November
2022
Dansens Hus, Oslo 20 - 23. January
RAS - Sandnes 17 February
Ice Hot, Helsinki (pitching session) 2 July
Ravnedans, Kristiansand 07 July
RAS, Sandnes - 28 August
Teater Innlandet, Hamar 04 September
Rosendal Teater- Trondheim 29 -30 September
Oktoberdans - BIT Bergen 23 -24 October
Les Urbaines, Lausanne Switzerland 02-04 December
