Flannel Dream – a Butch Tribute

Sunday Oct 5 / 18.30 / Slakthuset – Graffitisthlm – Hallvägen 5

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 demonstrating 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).

The dance installation 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 dance installation Flannel Dream has toured throughout Norway. (www.butchtribute.com) 

Credits:
Dance, choreography, artistic directors: Ann-Christin Kongsness, Marte Reithaug Sterud
Music: Kari-Helene Blystad, Ragnhild Nelvik Bruseth
Light design: Markus Tarasenko Fadum
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, Atle Auran

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.