Boca Tuya dance company presented a gay pas de deux that left me buzzzzzing tonight. It was so good.
Here’s a video of a performance from Jacob’s Pillow last year. “Like Those Playground Kids At Midnight”. That’s the choreographer in the pink shirt.
I love the slouchy outfits. I love the inclusion of gestures from various sex activities. I love the familiarity of grabbing each other’s arms and waists and necks ❤️
It’s a tiny section but I love how tight their unison is. I noticed it over and over in the whole program tonight — unison that good tricks your brain when you watch it. It makes the dancers seem physically connected
I have been going to at least 5 or 6 dance performances a year for the past 15 or so years and tonight was I think only the second gay duet I have seen?
Of course I have seen many same-gender pairings in many dance performances, but actual gay romantic dances? I think only two
And I go to gay dance shows! But often it is camp and drag. The sincere romance is pretty rare. I would attend an entire dance festival of gay romantic duets
The other actual gay romantic dance was in The Missing Generation by Sean Dorsey, an AIDS memorial piece that you can see part of in an early episode of Sense8.
My strongest memory is a section that fused contemporary dance and 80s house/club dance, set to house music and a recording of a survivor recalling pre-AIDS closeted hookup culture. Made me cry.
But it’s so important to see gay sex and romance outside of tragic AIDS stories too. Of course you know that ❤️