Event

antithesis: Denver Practice

Gesel Mason Performance Projects' newest work, antithesis, collides the genres, bodies, and cultures of postmodern dance and erotic dance in order to challenge how female sexuality is perceived, performed, and (re)presented. The project, which builds upon poet Audre Lordes essay, "Uses of the Erotic," is an embodied attempt to explore the erotic as a source of power and creative possibility. With performers culled from both the postmodern and erotic dance worlderotic dancers, pole dancers, burlesque, etc. antithesis challenges the pornographic gaze and embraces the sometimes messy, gritty, tactile, growling, chaotic, passionate, and tender edges of female expression; what Lorde refers to as "the yes within ourselves."

GMPP is a project based dance company that seeks to create meaningful, relevant, and compelling art events as a way to encourage compassion and inquiry. As a choreographer, Gesel Mason utilizes dance, theater, and storytelling to bring visibility to voices unheard, situations neglected, or perspectives considered taboo. Vulnerability, humor, and visceral physicality are hallmarks of the work. The Washington Post commented, "Gesel Mason understands how to move her audience to tears and laughter. Though trained as a dancer, it's her talents for blending video, text and movement that make her company, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, so engaging to watch."

Images by Kelly Shroads Photography.