The Principle of Pleasure

It is a solo dance piece inspired by CitiBar, the Montreal bar that catered to male-to-female trans sex workers and their male blue collar admirers. Choreographed and performed by Gérard Reyes, the solo draws from the codes of conduct and ways of being within that bar to reimagine the relationship between audience and performer within the theatre. Gérard plays with voguing and striptease to revisit the same issues that led Yvonne Rainer to write the seminal No Manifesto - issues such as interrogating the value system of performance as a practice and questioning the relationship between performer and spectator. Unlike the No Manifesto, which rejects 'spectacle', 'glamour', 'eccentricity' and the 'seduction of audience', The Principle of Pleasure celebrates virtuosic dancing, transgressive costuming and dramatic lighting. Set to original music remixes of pop icon Janet Jackson, this piece explores the joy and liberation that can come through breaking down the conventional hierarchies that structure human interaction.