HARD/FEMME DANCES
The Boof Quadrille
The Boof Quadrille is a loving spoof, pastiche, and homage to the grand social dances of the Gilded Age.
Utilizing the structures of social dances such as the waltz, the quadrille, the tango, the polka, and contemporary dance-making modalities and vocabularies, the Boof Quadrille is a latter-day cotillion where desire, jealousy, and one-upmanship are on full display.
The performers weave, bob, and sashay their way around the stages as alliances are forged and shattered, reputations are ruined, and bitter rivalries are reconciled,
all in the ultimate quest to become the Belle of the Ball.
Short Films
After You've Gone (2019)
Starring Kelsey Rondeau and Hunter Sturgis
Shot by Ben Goelz
Directed by Phyllicia Salzgaber
Edited by Melanie De Souza
Shot on location at Bizarre Bushwick
You Don't Bring Me Flowers (2021)
Starring Nate Carter III and Kelsey Rondeau
Shot by Steve Prue
Edited by Nate Carter III
Special Thanks
Many thanks to the wonderful team at Triskelion Arts, the Nates, Zane Sipotz, Maxi Canion, and Thomas Waller for their support throughout this process.
Much gratitude to those who donated to the GoFundMe Campaign:
Anonymous, Evan Spigelman, Jacqui Dugal, Susannah Ryan, Sam Zuckerman, Philip Karjeker, Fernando Moya, Stephanie Schwartz, Ariel Cantrell, Cameron Ebrahimian, Jihaan Karjeker, Shaukat Karjeker, Lily Tanner, Olive TuPartie, Elizabeth Tanner, Louisa Nyman, Oleg Mindiak, Thomas Hootman, Lisa Van Court, Alexa Hendrickson, Adrien Allred, Allison Dyke, Chelsey Ng, Joseph Giampetro
Cast
Lead Company Dancer | Manatsu Tanaka
(Sneer)
Our
Story
Manatsu Tanaka (they/them) is a bicultural multi-disciplinary performing artist; 13 years in Japan and 13 years in the US! Their career spans from Dance/Immersive/Musical Theater to Burlesque, Aerial Silks, and have been training in Stage Combat and Japanese Sword Fighting, Tate.
Regional: The Nosebleed (U/S, Woolly Mammoth DC) Recent: Dis-Orientalism Part 3 at Joe’s Pub, BIPOC Immersive Murder Mystery The Art of Killin’ It (Swing), Hard/Femme Dances Works, Einstein on the Beach (Japan Revival 2022), Elisa and the 11 Swan Princes (Nissay Theater & Japan Regional Tour)
www.manatsutanaka.com @manatsu.tanaka
Artistic Director | Kelsey Rondeau
(Miss Priss, The Housekeeper)
Kelsey Rondeau (they/them) was raised in Northern California, and fell in love with dress-up and make-believe at an early age. They received their BFA from UT Austin in August 2014, followed by the year-long dance intensive at Tanzfabrik Berlin. Since 2016, they have lived in Brooklyn, and in that time, have worked as a freelance dancer with AnA Collaborations, Kelly Ashton Todd, Thryn Saxon, Arthur Avilés, Johannes Wieland, and Third Rail Projects. When not in the studio, you can find them dancing on the bar at the House of Yes as their alter ego, Ava Lanche.
@avalanche_of_beauty
Company Dancer | Cody Pickens
(The Old Colonel)
Cody Pickens (he/him) received their BFA from ASU in 2018. Coming from a heavily competitive background, modern performance art and dance theater have always interested them the most. Since then Cody has moved to NYC and has been working with hard/femme since the production of **disco biscuits**. Rediscovering a new love and relation to dance and movement, they're here to shake things up and have a little more fun doing it.
Company Dancer | MJ Markovitz
(The Rake on the Make)
MJ Markovitz (they/them) is a performer based in Brooklyn, NY. They currently work as a freelance artist, dancer for Ballez, and collaborates with their sexysmartamazingreallycoolandgay friends. MJ attends Columbia University part-time, trying to make some sense of the contemporary American context–like why exactly hasn’t Taylor Swift come out as a raging homo yet?
markovitzmj@gmail.com | @mjmarkovitz
Company Dancer | Piper Makenzie Dye
(Surely Temple)
Piper Makenzie Dye (she/her) is originally from San Diego, CA, where she attended the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts and trained at Stage 7 School of Dance. She holds a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Arts Management from SUNY Purchase. Piper has danced as an Apprentice/Company Dancer with Eveoke Dance Theater, a Soloist with Ballet Nepantla, and a Guest Artist with A-Y Dancers, and her choreography has been presented in NYC and PA. Her performance history includes works by Crystal Pite, Doug Varone, Shannon Gillen, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Christopher Huggins, Kelly Ashton Todd, Andrea Guajardo, Jennifer Archibald, Jose Limon, Heidi Latsky and Donald McKayle. Piper has also provided administrative support for Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Doug Varone and Dancers, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, The Field Center, and JavechMovement, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. She is thrilled to join Hard/Femme Dances for The Boof Quadrille.
Our
Story
Co Founder | Hunter Sturgis
(Snide)
Hunter Sturgis (he/him) is a queer dance artist, filmmaker, and Pilates teacher from south Texas currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Hunter creates to subvert and challenge oppressive power structures that have taken root systemically, historically, and thusly, corporeally. He uses the power of disruption to open up new spaces where there is deep, uncharted territory of the heart.
@mercury___007
Connor Sale (Lighting Designer)
is a New York based lighting designer who was raised in Arizona, but recently moved from Chicago. Recent design credits include “Earth Temple” (in collaboration with Nocturnal Medicine at SMUSH Gallery); Summation Dance/Sikora+Dance Double Bill (Gibney Dance); “This is How We Remember” (Triskelion Arts); “Queen of the Night” (Victory Gardens); and “Sea Change” (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago). He has worked as an Assistant Lighting Designer with the Juilliard School of Drama, The Feath3r Theory, Pig Iron, Urban Bush Women, McCarter Theater Center, JACK, and many more. Additionally, he has been touring with Sadler’s Wells’ production of Pina Bausch’s “The Rite of Spring”. Connor’s interested in the organic way that light moves, especially by the way light affects movement and the way movement affects light.
www.connorsale.com || @connorsalelight
Anna Wotring (Director of Production)
a Pittsburgh native, is a community-minded dance artist, designer, and production stage manager committed to the practice of collaborative leadership. She currently works with Annie Heath, Lauren Horn, Jennifer Nugent and slowdanger as a technical design consultant, dancer, and production stage manager. Wotring obtained her BFA in Dance at the Five College Dance Department in Western Massachusetts. She has had the privilege of working with a multitude of dance organizations, including Alvin Ailey Studios, Attack Theater, Ballet Des Ameriques, BalletNext, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Company, the Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Dance Place, H2O Contemporary Dance, Monica Bill Barnes and Company, New York Live Arts, the Pillow Project, Prayers of the People, RoseAnne Spradlin, Scapegoat Garden, Time Lapse Dance, and many others. Wotring is beyond excited to begin working and imagining with the Trisk team. @annaissupercool