Cherish Menzo
Presented by Under the Radar and Performance Space New York
“This piece makes you curious to see and know everything about Cherish Menzo, who imposes a presence on the stage that borders on that of a video game. She blurs the lines and makes our eyes bug out.” – Amélie Blaustein Niddam, – Toute La Culture
In DARKMATTER, Cherish Menzo and her onstage partner Camilo Mejía Cortés explore ways to detach their bodies from public perception and their daily reality. Among other references, they look up to the sky, at dark matter, at black holes that meet and collide to give birth to a new, (afro)futuristic and enigmatic body. Menzo rids themselves of biased ways of looking at one’s own body, at that of the other, and at the stories we attribute to bodies in general. Together, Menzo and Cortés throw their bodies into complex conversations that they want to both enter into and transcend—a duality that feeds the performance. As in her previous project, JEZEBEL, Menzo stretches her movement vocabulary further by “Chopping and Screwing” her choreography via the Houston, Texas hip-hop remix technique in which the tempo of a song is sharply reduced and the pitch is lowered. By stretching the notions of time, the performing body generates new readings and perceptions. In DARKMATTER, Menzo aims to create a thorough reshuffling of our atoms, looking for a new form for—and way of looking at—our body and the complex outside world to which it relates.
Note: This performance includes stroboscope effects, extensive black-outs, regular nudity. The music in this work is loud and can be perceived as intense; earplugs will be available at the door.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Cherish Menzo is a choreographer and dancer working from Brussels and Amsterdam. In 2013 she graduated from The Urban Contemporary (JMD) at the ‘Hogeschool voor de Kunsten’ in Amsterdam. In her work, Cherish mainly looks at how the body can transform itself on stage and physically represent different ideas. Implementing distortion, decay, and dissonance, Cherish attempts to detach bodies from forced perceptions and their daily corporeal realities, underlining the complexity and contradictory nature of images that seem recognizable at first glance. Glitching the “common” lexical, the lexical of the speaking being, she seeks the Uncanny, the Enigmatic, and the Monstrous to give shape to – and materialize speculative forms and fictions.
Camilo Mejía Cortés grew up in Cali, Colombia, and moved to Spain at age 14. After a dance education in Barcelona, he started at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. He was later part of Sound of the Trap, a production by the Bodhi Project and Cecilia Bengolea, and L’incoronazione di Poppea, directed by Jan Lauwers. Jan subsequently invited him into his Needcompany, where he participated in War and Turpentine, Isabella’s Room, All the Good, and PIE (Probabilities of Independent Events). In 2020, he collaborated on The Sadness (Ula Sickle), Draconis Lacrimae (Pablo Esbert Lilienfeld and Federico Vladimir), and Spheres & Circles, Circles & Spheres (Isaiah Lopaz). Since May 2022, Camilo has been touring internationally with DARKMATTER, a project by Cherish Menzo, with whom he shares the stage. He is currently working on a personal project that explores the influence of salsa music in the construction of his artistic discourse by diving into this genre’s artistic, socio-political, and spiritual aspects. By doing this, he will contribute to the archive of the experiences of the African Diaspora.
CREDITS
Concept and Choreography:
Cherish Menzo
Creation and Performance:
Camilo Mejía Cortés, Cherish Menzo
Lighting Design:
Niels Runderkamp
Musical Composition:
Gagi Petrovic, Michael Nunes
Mastering:
Gagi Petrovic
Music List:
www.grip.house / www.frascatitheater.nl
Scenography:
Morgana Machado Marques
Costume Design:
JustTatty.com
Dramaturgy:
Renée Copraij, Benjamin Kahn
Text:
Cherish Menzo, Camilo Mejía Cortés, BOИSU, Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong
Vocal and Delivery Coaching:
BOИSU, Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong
Artistic Advice:
Christian Yav, Nicole Geertruida
Technicians on tour:
Niels Runderkamp, Sander Cools
Voices Distorted Rap Choir:
www.distortedrapchoir.com
Acknowledged References and Inspirations:
Act I of the American Opera Troubled Island by William Grant Still (1949); BLACKSPACE: ON THE POETICS OF AN AFROFUTURE by Anaïs Duplan; We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar; “Throw It Back” (2019) by Missy Elliott; mythology of the American electronic music duo Drexciya
Residencies:
STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, FR), Frascati (Amsterdam, NL), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l’accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (FR), Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam (NL)
With Financial Support from:
the Flemish Government, The Performing Arts Fund NL, Ammodo, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Cronos Invest, Dutch Culture USA
Special Thanks:
Eric Cyuzuzo, Jan Fedinger, Dries Douibi, Khadija El Kharraz Alami
FUNDING + SUPPORT
Supported by Dutch Culture USA, a program of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United States.
Production: GRIP, Frascati Producties (Francisca Alves, Hanne Doms, Anneleen Hermans, Eryn Kelly, Sam Loncke, Rudi Meulemans, Lize Meynaerts, Klaartje Oerlemans, Jennifer Piasecki, Charlotte Roosblad, Dominique Sikkema, Sylvie Svanberg, Mark Timmer, Ruud Van Moorleghem, Heske van den Ende, Petra van der Meulen, Pauline Van Nuffel, Nele Verreyken)
International Distribution: A Propic – Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent
Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, BE), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l’accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (FR), actoral festival (Marseille, FR), STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, FR), Festival d’Automne à Paris (FR), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE), De Coproducers (NL), Perpodium (BE)
In Collaboration with Trill (Leuven, BE), WijzijnDOX (Utrecht, NL)
VENUE NOTES, ACCESS & DIRECTIONS
By Subway: L to 1st Avenue, 6 to Astor Place, F to 2nd Avenue, R/W trains to 8th Street, 4/5/6/N/Q/R trains to Union Square (Wheelchair Accessible), 6/B/D/F/M trains to Bleeker/Broadway-Lafayette Street (Wheelchair Accessible). By Bus: M8 at St Marks Place/ 1st Avenue, M14a at Avenue A/ East 9th Street, M15 at 1st Avenue/ St. Marks Place.
Performance Space New York is ADA compliant with a no-step entry. We have level access from the sidewalk and an elevator that leads to the fourth floor spaces. Public restrooms are located on the same floor as the performance spaces and are multi-stall, gender neutral, and wheelchair accessible with handrails on the left side. Assisted Listening Devices are available on the ground floor at the Box Office. Service Animals are gladly welcomed. For more accessibility information, please visit https://performancespacenewyork.org/visit.
SOCIALS
SCHEDULE + VENUE
Tuesday, January 13 @ 7 PM
Wednesday, January 14 @ 7 PM
Friday, January 16 @ 7 PM
Saturday, January 17 @ 7 PM
Sunday, January 18 @ 7 PM
Run time: 90 minutes
Intended for mature audiences.
Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue (Fourth Floor)
New York, NY 10009
SCHEDULE + VENUE
Tuesday, January 13 @ 7 PM
Wednesday, January 14 @ 7 PM
Friday, January 16 @ 7 PM
Saturday, January 17 @ 7 PM
Sunday, January 18 @ 7 PM
Run time: 90 minutes
Intended for mature audiences.
Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue (Fourth Floor)
New York, NY 10009
For Access and directions, click here
