LEADER/SHIP

Leader was first presented by Silke Grabinger at Movement Research in the Judson Church in New York. It plays with the audience’s expectations, but also deals with the expectations in other social contexts, such as meeting someone for the first time. When social interaction unexpectedly happens, we are granted the chance to reflect on our own habbits. Interactions that take place wihtout us consciously registering them, such as giving a handshake, move into the foreground and become the center of attention. What are our expectations towards a LEADER/ship? What gender do we associate with someone who takes the liberty to direct a situation, to assign roles? Do these perceptions change when looked upon by the older generation? Are we a product of our culture? Our family background?

What if the audience is given a tool to intervene, to stop, to change what is happening on stage? The development of expectations about first meetings. What do these meetings look like in our society, with our partner, our lover or our father. The latter being the patriach embedded in traditional family structures?

The performer shows the transformation of a transgender person: a young woman in the role of a leading man who directs the situation on stage. We have the wish to be treated equally. We are programmed within our individual education. The volunteering participant is given a tool to change or stop the scene while it is happening on stage.
Movement Research is a free, high visibility low-tech forum for experiments, emerging ideas and works-in-progress showings usually held in the Fall and Spring seasons. Artists are selected by a rotating committee of peer artists, and join Movement Research Artists-In-Residence and international guests each season in performing at the historic Judson Memorial Church.

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