October 2020
Bad Dog Levee, New Orleans
Photo by a.r. havel
In a vacant outdoor lot by the Mississippi River, audience members drive their cars into formation, instructed to keep headlights pointed at the stage. With the pandemic in full effect, patrons stay in their vehicles and tune their radios to a designated pirate station. Music swells and sets the mood: mysterious, seductive, eerie.
An exquisite and strange dancer emerges between the red velvet drapes and graces the stage with regal, yet peculiar sweeps of motion. She wears a full rubber mask and layered formal dress, backwards. Galavanting through the illusion of a lush mansion, she performs the illusion of her body orientation. The movements become disturbing, anatomically incorrect. Another masked character emerges from a painting on the wall. They dance to the death.