PREMIERE: May 16-18, 2013, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church
REPRISE: October 24-26, 2013, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church
EXCERPTS: June 7, 2014, Brooklyn Museum First Saturdays
EXCERPTS: January 10 & 11, 2015, American Realness at Abrons Art Center‍

The Firebird, a Ballez is a Ballez version of Mikhail Fokine and Igor Stravinsky's eponymous 1910 ballet. Pyle introduces a yearning Lesbian Princess and a Tranimal (part bird, part Prince) as they seek liberation in a magically perverse landscape of Polyamorous Princes and their Magical Sorceress. Using Fokine's journals to shape the narrative structure and aesthetic choices, Pyle found themself moved by his idea that "each ballet's movements should be specific to the culture it represents."

Accompanied by the Queer Urban Orchestra, a simulated landscape by Hedia Maron, costumes by Mikki Olson, and a cast of 15 queer performers, including Pyle, the work deconstructs balletic elements and reconstitutes them into a community-oriented, gender-fluid, queer utopian vision of what is possible in performance.

Broadway World says,

"(Pyle's) choreography utilizes the classical ballet vocabulary, but in novel and audacious ways, leaving (their) audience entertained and laughing out loud."

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credits

Performers:
Firebird: Jules Skloot
Lesbian Princess: Katy Pyle, Brooklyn Museum & AR- Evvie Allison
Sorceress: Cassie Mey, Danspace reprise- Regina Rocke, Brooklyn Museum & AR- Katy Pyle
Narrator: Sacha Yanow
Princes: Effie Bowen, Zari Esaian, Ariel "Speedwagon" Federow, L.N. Hafezi, Francis Rabkin, Mary Read, Lollo Romanski, Sam Greenleaf Miller, Londs Reuter, Silky Shoemaker and Nyx Zierhut
reprisals- Marian Ekweogwu, Lou Henry Hoover, Cherry Iocovozzi, Janet Werther, and Quori

Video: Hedia Maron
Costumes: Mikki Olson
Lighting Design: Carol Mullins, AR- Carrie Wood

WATCH "The Firebird, a Ballez" on Vimeo

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