Solo Performance (2023)

In 2023, Lenio Kaklea was commissioned to create a performance based on the iconic song I’m Coming Out, written and composed by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, and performed by Diana Ross. Having never experienced a coming out herself, she initially found the invitation perplexing. Turning to the work of queer artists who have deeply influenced her — including filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, poet Jill Johnston, writer Jean Genet, and neo-realist painter and scenographer Yannis Tsarouchis — she began to trace connections between the performative dimension of coming out and questions already present in her choreographic practice. With Untitled (Figures), Kaklea embraces what is queer within her practice through a catalogue of danced figures. The piece unfolds as both an exploration and an affirmation, paying tribute to the capacity of queer cultures to transform perception and to teach us new ways of loving the female body.

Duration: 40 minutes