May 5, 2006
Dance New Amsterdam
August 18 - 30, 2004
Metro Gilded Balloon
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
April 15, 2003
Joyce SoHo
April 8, 2003
Unusual Beauty Contestants Tour
June 15, 2002
HERE Arts Center
May 13, 2002
Dixon Place
|
Dixie Fun Dance Theatre
Presents
The Thinnest Woman Wins
YOU DECIDE IF SHE'S TOO FAT TO PERFORM NAKED!
NYC Choreographer Dixie FunLee Shulman appears in Europe
for the first time with her one-woman show, The Thinnest
Woman Wins, a laugh-out-loud, activist dance performance
spectacle that includes a beauty pageant, baton-twirling,
and inappropriate body hair.
The Thinnest Woman Wins explores how the Western
homogeneous image of the female body and face has resulted
in life-taking eating disorders, in multi-billion dollar cosmetic,
diet, and plastic surgery industries as well as an overall
lack of self-esteem in modern women. The stylistically eclectic
choreography covers a spectrum from daring to raunchy to poignant.
The hour is a non-stop barrage of vignettes, including "At
Home Beauty Pageant" where Shulman is a woman on the
verge that slips into many characters, including a beauty
pageant host and several contestants such as "Miss Bulimia,"
"Miss Botox" and "Miss Breast Implants."
"Twirl" is probably the world's only talking, baton-twirling,
modern dance piece. Shulman reveals first-hand experience
with many common but seldom talked about beauty pageant secrets,
such as padded bras, taped buttocks and weekly weigh-ins.
The show ends with "Nude Solo #73" where Shulman
dances and talks about what the audience's experience is of
seeing a full-bodied dancer with saddlebags and cellulite
performing naked.
"BY THE TIME THE PIECE ENDS--SILENTLY--SHULMAN HAS
BECOME A POWERFUL, BEAUTIFUL WOMAN." Village
Voice
"DIXIE FUNLEE SHULMAN'S CHOREOGRAPHY IS FUN, INDEED."
Back Stage
LISTING INFORMATION
Venue: Metro Gilded Balloon [Teviot Billiard
Room]
Dates: 18th - 30th
Tickets: £8 (£7) £9 (£8)
Times: 13.30 (14.30) use 24hr clock
Box office: 0131 226 2151/ online www.gildedballoon.co.uk
PRESS CONTACT:
Dixie Shulman
Phone: 917 693 7299
Email: dixiefun@nyc.rr.com
Gilded Balloon Press Office:
Fraser Smith/ Ellie McDonald
Phone: 0131 668 9483
Email: press@gildedballoon.co.uk
Dixie FunLee Shulman directs Dixie
Fun Dance Theatre, whose mission is to create dances
that are reminiscent of pop art, political cartoons and expressionist
painting all combined and expressed physically. The choreography
typically combines outrageousness and humor with serious subject
matters. The result is provocative theatre that is entertaining
while promoting social and political change. DFDT's choreographic
process begins in the library. Movement is never for movement's
sake only, instead, all of the choreography directly reflects
the specific ideas and imagery generated by the research.
Dixie FunLee Shulman relocated to NYC in
late 1999 and soonafter created Dixie Fun Dance Theatre. Web
was the company's first full evening of dance/theatre
in NYC, performed at the Merce Cunningham Studio in 2001 and
BAX in 2004. Since 2002, Shulman performed her signature solo,
"Twirl," in Dance Theater Workshop's Fresh Tracks
series, PS122's Avant-Garde-Arama, the Dancenow/NYC Festival
at Joe's Pub and the John Jay Auditorium, WAX, University
Settlement, and the Estrogenius Festival at Manhattan Theater
Source. Also in 2002 Shulman premiered her one-woman show,
The Thinnest Woman Wins, at Dixon Place and Sal Anthony's
Movement Salon, with later performances at the Philadelphia
Fringe Festival, First Glance Festival in Atlanta, and Canopy
Studio in Athens, Georgia. This year The Thinnest Woman
Wins appears at the Gilded Balloon in the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival as well as in Milan and Civitanova Marche, Italy
in October. Excerpts of The Thinnest Woman Wins were
performed at Studio 303 in Montreal, New Dance Alliance's
Performance Mix at HERE Arts Center and at BRIC Studio in
Brooklyn. The company performed http://www.media-verse.com
at HERE Arts Center, a piece that had its start with the help
of the Seattle Arts Commission. In 2003 the Open Meadows Foundation
and the Puffin Foundation supported the NYC creation of The
Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins at Joyce
SoHo. This production also began in Seattle with the support
of the King County Hotel/Motel Tax and the On The Boards Artist
Access Program. In 2004 the beginning of The Money Show
was premiered at Symphony Space in the Dance Sampler.
In 1998, "Twirl" was toured with the King County
Performance Network, a collaboration between the King County
Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and eleven
local venues. Dixie graduated summa cum laude with an M.F.A.
in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University
of Colorado in Boulder. Since 2002 Shulman has been a guest
artist with David Parker and the Bang Group.
Other Quotes
"Dixie FunLee Shulman's creative wit and talent shine
in "The Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins",
a culturally poignant tour de force about female body issues
in the 21st century. Dance, like theater, sometimes uses a
combination of confrontation, humor and skill to create a
transcendent experience that leaves the audience feeling more
human and more connected. Dixie Fun Dance Theatre accomplished
this at their Joyce Soho concert while addressing the topic
of being a woman in a way that made both men and women see
a little further." Quinn Batson, offoffoff.com,
2003, on The Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins
"She dances Rubenesquely...Shulman's bravery and ease
with herself and the audience...struck a chord with the packed
crowd..." Merilyn Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer,
2003, on The Thinnest Woman Wins
(Shulman) "has an incredible way of using humor and
clever visuals to make a very serious and important statement,
in this case the subject of body image. There are many wonderful
and uplifting moments in the show…that stay with you
long after the show has ended." Sherry Lewis, Dance
Fitness West, Jan/Feb 1998, on The Thinnest Woman
with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins
Read and see more at www.dixiefundance.com
|
