Butch Tribute – a triple bill of works celebrating queer masculinity
The performance series Butch Tribute is an artistic and political work exploring what a butch is and can be, with and by the Norwegian dancers and choreographers Marte Sterud and Ann-Christin Kongsness. The term butch is used about masculine women in the queer community – a group that is often marginalized or made invisible. With this project, Sterud/Kongsness wants to diversify the representation of butches, by embodying different representations of queer, female masculinity.
Butch Tribute consists of the three dance pieces; Flirt, Roses, Flannel Dream (2021) and the text-based performance A Butch is a Butch is a Butch is a Butch (2023).
Flirt
In the performance Flirt, Sterud/Kongsness are surrounded by the audience as they take full ownership of the stage. They are active, flirtatious and contact seeking as they thrive on attention and response from the audience. It is about insisting on being the gaze and not only the spectacle.
Roses
The hard hitting performance Roses is inspired by making a butch version of the choreography Rosas danst Rosas (1983) by Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker, a piece that unites a feminine gender expression with the minimalistic dance tradition.
Flannel Dream
The performance Flannel Dream is an intimate duet between two butches, set in a landscape of flannel shirts. Butch-on-butch relationships finally get the epic love story they deserve.
The triple bill performance Flirt, Roses and Flannel Dream has toured extensively throughout Norway, and has also been performed in Sweden, Iceland and Italy. (www.butchtribute.com)
Credits:
Dance, choreography, artistic directors: Ann-Christin Kongsness, Marte Reithaug Sterud
Music: Kari-Helene Blystad, Ragnhild Nelvik Bruseth
Song: “Vrimmel” by Anne Grete Preus, Vocals: Frida Ånnevik
Light design: Elisabeth Kjeldahl Nilsson
Costume design: Alva Brosten
Graphic design: Ylva Greni Gulbrandsen
Producers: Hanne Frostad Håkonsen, Maria Lothe
Artistic guidance: Loan Ha, Per Roar, Hanne Frostad Håkonsen, Desiree Bøgh Vaksdal
Supported by: The Norwegian Arts Council, The Audio and Visual Fund, The Fritt Ord
Foundation and FFUK
Production: Sterud/Kongsness
Co-production: DansiT, Black Box teater, Kunsthuset Wrap, RAS
Photo: Ingrid Styrkestad, Eirill DeLonge
Bio:
Marte Sterud and Ann-Christin Kongsness (Sterud/Kongsness) connect through their personal and theoretical interest in the relationship between dance and the body, gender and performativity. In their performance Soft Manifesto (2015), they explored the androgynous and ambiguous body, with a playful and fluid relationship to gender expression, moving in and out of different bodily states. In 2018, they organized Queer Dance Art - a conversation series (www.skeivdansekunst.no) during Oslo Pride, with contributions from sixteen dance artists who actively take a stand on questions around gender expression and sexuality. In 2021 they premiered the ongoing performance series Butch Tribute - a celebration and exploration of queer, female masculinity.