ODR [Ode to Radical Performance]

Info

ORP is based primarily on the performers’ personal experiences, and it references lesser or better known LGBTQ+ histories.

Can you include in a show all the eternal gratitude and appreciation for the non-conforming bodies that, through the resistance of the dance, built the scene on which you are moving now? It’s impossible, but you will definitely have to pay trib-ute to them. Repeat after me: “The arms become the tool. The tool that will tell a sto-ry! ”- thanks Javier Ninja! “Let your mane continue your sentences” – thanks Leiomy Maldonado! “Forget your ego!” – Thanks Willie Ninja! Bow down in front of every-thing that means icon and everything that was in front of you, “because even those who left, walk on the catwalk among us” – thank you Benji Hart!

ORP deals with the ballroom culture, focusing on its roots, heritage and the ways in which it was born and has worked ever since as a resistance movement. It deals a lot with matters of cultural appreciation and appropriation, allowing the au-dience to partake in an exercise of self-questioning. The show itself is self-aware and questions its own validation given the mostly white context it has been brought to life, while drawing on black and latinx LGBTQ+ communities’ heritage. 

It contextualises on the basis of trans and queer experiences in Romania and shows how much the night and dance scene give these communities a sense of belonging, a sense of family and home. Flashy and professional dance moments of Waacking and Voguing intertwine with powerful text insertions that build on per-sonal experience and empirical research. It may often break your heart and force you to pick up the pieces on the floor while dancing to electronic beats.