DeNada Seeks Dancers for International Tour of Mariposa: a Queer Tragedy Inspired by Madame Butterfly
DeNada Dance Theatre (choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra) seeks dancers with excellent contemporary and strong classical technique for the international tour of Mariposa: a Queer Tragedy Inspired by Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, to take place between autumn 2024 and spring 2025. We are looking for diverse, unique, highly skilled, theatrical and articulate dancers; with experience of physical character work, who have strong stage presence and good partnering skills, to join the company for the restaging and touring of our full-length narrative production. An audition, by invitation only, will take place on Sunday Aug 4th 2024 at Fabric, Birmingham.
Mariposa is a queer dance adaptation of Puccini’s seminal opera, Madame Butterfly. The production transports the narrative of the original from Japan to post-revolution Cuba, to a dockland world of troubled sailors, faded showgirls, hopeful rent boys and santería spirits. Telling the story of a local rent boy and a troubled sailor who fall ominously in love, this production is a highly dramatic and vigorously physical exploration of the sacrifices we are ready to make to be loved and accepted, and represents the struggles that queer minorities have historically experienced. Find out more about the production here.
Mariposa addresses the orientalist, colonial and gender issues of Puccini’s original opera from a queer perspective. Inspired by Peter Brooks’ multicultural Mahabharata, the production creates a world of queer identities of diverse cultural heritages. As such, we are keen to hear from dancers of diverse cultural backgrounds (particularly Latinx, Black descent, Asian) to better portray the narrative of the production and offer wider queer representation on dance stages.
We welcome applications from dancers of all ages, with at least two years of professional experience (playing ages of characters range from 18 to 60+). We are keen to hear from dancers of any gender identification who are confident with pointe work, and also welcome dancers with skills in drag, queer forms of dance, Afro-Caribbean and Latin dance.
We are able to offer five freelance contracts. Of these, one will be for a male presenting dancer with at least basic pointe work, and one will be for a female presenting dancer with confident pointe work. The remaining three contracts do not require pointe. Conceptually, Mariposa draws heavily on the idea of gender construction and the impact of colonialism on gender and sexual identity, which is why we make these specifications.
Dates:
You must be available for all the dates below:
Rehearsals (Barnsley Civic)
Sept 4- Sept 20
Tech rehearsal and preview: Sept 23 and 24
Second preview: Oct 4
Tour
2024:
Oct 8
Oct 15
Nov 4-5
Nov 13-17 (Gran Canaria)
Nov 22-23
Nov 26
2025:
Feb 13-14
Feb 25-26
March 14-15
March 21
(Further tour dates TBC, to be agreed with selected candidates)
All applicants must be based in the UK, have right to work in the UK and be able to travel within the EU.
Contracts follow Equity/ITC standards including rest/holiday pay. All travel and accommodation will be covered by the company.
To apply, please send your CV, link to recent footage of your dancing, and a brief expression of interest (in writing, audio or video form) to audition@denada-dance.com by July 26. For dancers with skills in pointe work, please send footage en pointe.
We will inform all candidates by July 28.
About DeNada Dance Theatre:
DeNada Dance Theatre is an independent LGBTQ+ dance company fully committed to the promotion of diversity and inclusion of non-normative identities. Our purpose is to voice underrepresented narratives through high quality dance, performing work in a variety of contexts to offer visibility and representation to the LGBTQ+ community. Stemming from our Hispanic and Latinx heritage, the company also promotes transcultural relations and celebrates the cultural diversity of the audiences we perform for, and the artists we work with.
We fully believe in the transformative power of dance: its capacity to mobilise change, to heal and to cause reflection.
We seek to entertain through extravagant theatricality, kitschy physicality, and accessible narratives.
Based in the North of England, the company tours internationally to theatres, outdoor and unconventional spaces. Nominated as Best Independent Company by the UK Critic’s Circle, DeNada has taken a unique place in the UK dance sector as a company offering poignant, innovative and exciting work that places the underrepresented at the fore.