The House of Trouble | Research residency in New York and Paris
Patricia Apergi / Aerites Dance Company
The latest work of the Aerites Dance Company, founded by Patricia Apergi, aspires to converse with the concept of identity through the violence each one of us may undergo or inflict in order to define ourselves, the world, and our freedom. It is a paean to individuals and their choices, to diversity and self-determination. It is the beginning of a show that is staged to present us everything that deviates from what we are used to, a show made in order to admire the different, that dares to put in the spotlight everything that is not counted as ‘average’ and that exists to remind us of the majesty and the beauty of each body, of each existence. Just like it happens in a circus.
In the course of her research for “The House of Trouble,” Patricia Apergi traveled to New York and Paris as an Onassis AiR Fellow, joining residencies in order to discuss with the pioneers of krump and voguing and understand up close their kinetic vocabulary. In December 2022, she visited New York, the city where voguing thrives through the tradition of ballrooms in Harlem. In January 2023, she visited Paris, which marks the European hotbed for the evolution of street dance culture, assimilating new kinetic forms and aesthetics. Apergi’s ‘educational’ tour brought her to Newyorkian and Parisian ballrooms, kiki balls, battles, and krump sessions, spaces where novel ways of expressing and determining a contemporary identity emerge.“The House of Trouble” is a party that adopts the ‘outbursts’ of the era to reveal to us that we can still have a good time despite our lack of harmony and disagreements. It is a love letter to the absurdity of the dipoles presented to us constantly by societies. A feast for the joy of transformation and multidimensionality of our bodies.
The aim of this residency in New York was to get to know the culture, essence, and sociopolitical context that created two of the most known American dance styles nowadays: Voguing and Krumping. How did these impactful and expressive dances come to life? What is it that somehow brings together these two very different dances, with such polar opposite energies and expression?
It is the need of dance to fight against and express the oppression that the US Black community has been experiencing since hundreds of years. Coming from very different backgrounds, both genres share the cry for identity, the shout out for recognition, the scream for acceptance.
During these 10 days in New York, we had the opportunity to meet some of the most incredible artists of the two scenes, from the pioneers to the new generation, some of them coming from very “notorious” Houses.
The structure of “Houses”, intended to operate as a chosen family unit, is a survival strategy in itself, creating spaces for historically marginalized bodies. These important spaces are hard-fought and celebrated epicenters of performance, nightlife, and queer culture. Houses compete against one another in voguing battles called “Ballrooms” or “Balls”, a practice that originated in Harlem in the 1970s and has since grown into a well-recognized global phenomenon. We have had the chance to be present at some of these Balls in the Brooklyn-based bar 3 Dollar Bill. The events were “OTA” (Open to All), which is quite representative of the inclusivity performed by this community.
“If you only knew the hell we go through just to be able to stand in the same room that you were born in”
We have entered this research with the highest respect and acknowledgment for these artists, treating the topic with carefulness and attention. The research was also meant to help us understand and analyze the differences and similarities between the two cultures, and get inspired to develop our own and singular expressions around the topics that they address.
Both Voguing and Krumping created a space for expression that would be safe enough for Black people to feel alive and heard after being marginalized by a predominantly white society. Yet this expression took opposite forms: Krumping is very much about aggressiveness and intensity in its use of the body, somehow evoking a very masculine energy through its ferocity. Voguing on the contrary is all about femininity, inspired by the fashion industry and the runways, coming from New York’s black trans community.The second part of our research for “The House of Trouble” with Aerites Dance Company was conducted in Paris. We were offered a studio space by the Théâtre de Vanves, where we worked on how to translate the information acquired in New York and the different discoveries that we had made through the classes, the people we have met, the ballrooms we have been to. How to develop a language that would be ours, drawing inspiration from the messages that both communities are expressing, the oppression that they have experienced, but without “stealing” their heritage in any way?
Paris is the European epicenter of the two genres coming from the United States. It is where Voguing and Krumping, in very different ways, started to spread into the European culture. For example, as Stan told us, voguing in France started from Willi Ninja and the Parisian underground club culture, sparking the interest of the local community in this new dance style. In New York, at the source of these cultures, we were already into discussions about how their development in Europe shifted from the original and traditional US approach. In Paris, it was very interesting to see how our information and views on the subject were enriched.
Having a lot more time in the studio was very necessary for me to dive deeper in the research that we started, to explore how to construe all the different experiences that we had in New York, and to be able to elaborate tasks and concepts that would be true to our practice and artistry. With Andrea, we developed various tasks and exercises that helped apply the different aspects of our research to a more idiosyncratic context.
The research in Paris really helped us consolidate and further explore the discoveries we had made in New York and supported us in being thrown into a culture that, even though it is very far from our own history, we can relate with in some ways. Having had time in between the two residencies was important for me to reflect and elaborate further on specific aspects of my own history that could guide me in connecting with our research topic. What do I have to say as a sociopolitical human being in a society that advocates a reproductive-straight-patriarchal hegemony? How can I use my body and its representation to convey an idea that might challenge this dominance?
Meeting all these different artists during the two residencies broadened my approach to dance, art, and society in many ways. I never imagined that it would have such a deep impact on me both as an individual and an artist.
