DANCE QUEERDO DANCE
Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day!
And yesterday things went on just as usual.
I wonder if I've been changed in the night?
Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning?
I almost think I can remember feeling a little different.
~ Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
With Dance Queerdo Dance, we stumble down the rabbit hole to encounter a series of queer creatures that will change forever our perspective over reality and over the face of Rotterdam, a city that has a lot to offer to those who look closely and are brave enough to search for uniqueness.
It seems just so strange that what they call “normality” is a series of wildly accepted limitations that are immune to questioning and critical thinking: one can speculate that these very obstructions are a manner to level out and negate all those outliers that dare to act differently. The result, therefore, is a reality that does not allow individuals to express their identity completely: “you’re too loud/too bright/too difficult/too different”, it says, fighting back with its immense greyscale.
With her project, Alice Lucchinelli instead creates another version of reality, a series of pocket universes chock-full of weirdness and queerness. Dazzling microcosms to explore that have the power to intrude in the minds of the visitors to question all the securities and misconceptions imposed daily by heteronormative society.
These universes act as utopian realities that represent and affirm all the elements constituting them and make them so incredibly beautiful. They are inclusive worlds that dare to show themselves openly, differently and boldly with all the determination and recklessness that characterize them.
The photographs and videos featured become a portrayal of individual identity and self-expression: they are testimonies to the wonderful possibilities at hand once we are able to break free of all the limitations, of all the shackles imposed by the norms of society. Norms that separate us from the splendour of queerness, which in this exhibition are unlocked through the use of music and movement too.
Music and movement are two constituting elements of the universes that Alice Lucchinelli creates along with her models. Thus, the process of evocation becomes a synergic dance that sees Rotterdam as a backdrop and has the power to change the city with the unique swirling gestures that the models make. These are active factors that allow them to reach a transcendental -almost primal- state of connection to their identity; a vibrating link expressed at its fullest and unencumbered by external factors.
Rotterdam makes for a good platform to start an open dialogue on queerness and the chance for creatives to explore and represent it more. The wide spectrum that queerness embraces and safeguards deserves to be featured publicly much more often because representation is a crucial part of acceptance. In this case, though, representation is not merely visualization: it’s also the creation of a contemporary archive of the varied and wonderful identities that characterize the city, a witness to their resplendent beauty.
Dance Queerdo Dance wants to be a podium that celebrates the queerness and weirdness of all individuals, from those who feel confident to show themselves boldly and brightly, to those who still have to discover all the reaches of their identity. And, without a doubt, all are entitled to be at the centre of the spotlight, where they shine the brightest.
So, step into a unique universe and feel free to express yourself however you feel comfortable.
But- queer up before going in! Glitters, stickers and all the shiniest additions will be your perfect allies under the gleams and you’ll shine brighter as a queer of Rotterdam!