An icon is in the house - and it's about to go down Sophocles style!

Tickets

Venue

Main stage, Barnhusgatan 12-14

Duration

115 minutes

6 March

19:00

7 March

19:00

How is history written through the body? Antigone Sr. / Twenty looks or Paris is burning at the Judson Church (L) is a choreographic renegotiation of Sophocles' classical tragedy, in which Trajal Harrell allows the stylised expression of voguing to meet the restraint of postmodern dance. For almost two hours, a distinctive stage language emerges, packed with references - as precise as it is unpredictable, as vulnerable as it is powerful, as serious as it is humorous.

This is where Antigone's story takes shape - a gesture of resistance that echoes through history and is embodied anew. Gazes become stories, and the body bears traces of both struggle and beauty. Antigone Sr. opens a catwalk into the performative context of antiquity, where poses, transgender expression and exaggeration were strategies to reflect the state of the city-state.

Winner of a Bessie Award for Best Production, this is the most comprehensive instalment in Harrell's series Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at The Judson Church - and a kind of exploration of what might have been and what might still be.

Background

What would have happened if, in 1963, someone from the Harlem vogue ball scene had stood up and performed alongside the early postmodernists at Judson Church? Through this question, Trajal Harrell has created a multi-layered work that distinguishes him in contemporary international dance.

In the spring of 2012, the fifth (of seven) part Antigone Sr. in the series Twenty looks or Paris is burning at the Judson Church was presented at Dansens Hus in a work in progress - and now it returns fourteen years later to our Main Stage.

In his work, Trajal Harrell combines dance styles that may seem distant from each other: voguing, modern and postmodern dance, and butoh. But, above all, his work is imbued with a distinctive humour and vulnerability.

 Antigone Sr. / Twenty looks or Paris is burning at the Judson Church (L) premiered in April 2012 at New York Live Arts. This version, known as "Antigone Sr. (L)", is the largest in the series and is characterised by a fusion of attitudes, challenges and expressive looks that challenge traditional norms around race and gender.

The Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at The Judson Church series consists of several versions in different sizes, including Extra Small (XS), Small (S), Medium (M)*, Large (L) and Extra Large (XL). Each version offers a unique interpretation of the meeting of several distinct dance worlds.

*Also known as (M)imosa.

The work is co-produced by Dansens Hus.

Trajal Harrell [USA] | Antigone Sr: Twenty Looks, Or Paris Is Burning At The Judson Church (L)
Trajal harrell photo bea borgers

About Trajal Harrell

Trajal Harrell made an international impact by creating a series of works that merge the tradition of voguing with early postmodern dance. He is considered one of the most important choreographers in contemporary dance today. In his latest works, Harrell also combines theoretical and formal ideas from Butoh dance and early modern dance. Weaving together links between different dance histories, he places the body at the centre of his research, exploring how it becomes a container for the memories, speculations, past, presence and historical figures that have inspired his work. By interweaving notions of time, historical imagination and transcultural references, Harrell uncovers the many layers that make up the riches of art and dance history.

For five years (2019-2024), Harrell was the resident director at Schauspielhaus Zürich. He is currently the founder and artistic director of the Zurich Dance Ensemble.

Harrell's work has been presented at the Whitney Museum in New York, Festival d'Automne in Paris, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Triennale di Milano, Roma Europa Festival, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Tanz im August in Berlin, among many other festivals, performing arts centres, museums.

His work Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure)/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M2M) had the honour of being the first dance commission by MoMA PS1. He has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Impact Award, a Bessie Award for Antigone Sr./Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (L), and grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Art Matters, and the Saison Foundation, among others.

He was particularly recognised for Hoochie Koochie, the first retrospective (1999-2016) and performance exhibition of his work, which was presented by The Barbican Centre Art Gallery in London during July-August 2017. In 2023, Harrell was invited to create The Romeo for the prestigious Cour d'honneur at the 77th edition of the Festival d'Avignon. Later that year, the Festival d'Automne in Paris dedicated a portrait to him and presented eight of his works in Paris.

In 2024, Harrell was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale. Along with works such as Antigone Sr. (2012), Dancer of the Year (2019), The Köln Concert (2020) and Deathbed (2022), his latest creation Tambourines (2023) - based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel about Puritan condemnation in colonial America - joins the ranks of critically acclaimed masterpieces in Harrell's oeuvre.

Tickets

Share the event:

After-call 7 March

Trajal Harrell talks to an invited guest.