In “FRANK”, Cherish Menzo explores the monster as a mirror of societal fears and desires. Blurring the lines between ritual, horror, carnival and decay, a physical performance emerges, characterised by distortion and resistance – a dance in a world spiralling out of control.
“We are in an alien world. Only awkward movement is possible.” (Bayo Akomolafe)
Choreographer Cherish Menzo examines the figure of the monster in “FRANK” —short for Frankenstein. More than (re)producing a physical or visual portrayal of the monster, she is researching the monstrous as an embodiment of beliefs and narratives that terrify and horrify, and yet also attract us. Distortion is a choreographic leitmotif used to generate movement material and as a tool to devour the dance and loosen its structure. Cherish Menzo investigates the action of decay and how something gradually breaking down and becoming less or worse can affect one’s gestures.
photos: Bad de Brouwer
The performance space fabulates on the Baka Gorong, a place located at the back of the former plantations and in front of the wetlands, where enslaved people in South American Suriname secretly went to carry out Winti rituals – demonized under Dutch colonial rule – and to consider fleeing.
Cherish Menzo is joined by Omagbitse Omagbemi, Mulunesh and Malick Cissé – artists from different generations. Together they construct a performance between the ritual, the apocalypse, and the carnival, where narrated identities are challenged, where flesh can deviate and be corrupted until it bursts and becomes unbearable. The dancers express their standing in the world with incoherent, broken-down movement in a scenery that collapses around them. In an increasingly unstable world of hiccups and unlikely events, often gruesome and violent, we are reminded of early horror movies and this eerie feeling, the flicker in the dark.
If we can understand the monster, won’t we also understand the people who invented it? In their respective times and narratives, historical eras and social constructions?
All performance texts, (audio-)visual material, and more infos about “FRANK” in English, French and Dutch can be found on this website: enterfrank