Candy

“Candy is a feminine and brutal duet between ex-prostitute and striper, activist and writer Metje Blaak (68) and dancer and choreographer Branka Zgonjanin (37). Candy is an imaginary superhero, born from the intersection of the mighty alter-egos of Metje and Branka. Candy is a lively statement about the taboos around sex-work and the ageing female body. In this artistic dialogue with 'La Blaak’ Zgonjanin has elaborated her fascination for the social unwillingness to take sex-work seriously. The handcrafts of Metje, her tips & tricks, her professional skills become dance artefacts that constitute Zgonjanin's conceptual dance-theater. The concreteness of sex-work, entertainment and activism get to be incorporated in the abstraction of choreographic interventions. Candy is a groundbreaking collaboration between female artists from different generations and from different parts of Europe, with a wide range of body practices as a basis. In Candy, freedom, self-awareness and the role that art and creativity play in it, are central and translated into a comic role-play and mysterious transformations. Beyond spectacular seduction scenes, happy tunes, missed statements and reluctant jokes, Candy is ultimately about the vulnerable side of its performers.”
                                                          Fransien van der Putt, dramaturge

With: Metje Blaak (performer), Clous van Mechelen (song-writer), Fransien van der Putt (dramaturge), Nikola Jeremic (composer), Maria Mavridou (dancer), Stefania Petr (dancer), Manuela Lucia Tessi (dancer), Jet Kragt (assistent/hostes), Adam S. Beni (sound), Anita Lugomer (poster), WIP (artistic support)

Photos: Roman Zotter, Anita Lugomer, Annelies Verhelst

Amsterdam Fringe Festival 2017, CREA Theater, Amsterdam

See also OP-POSITIONS