ARTIST BIOS

The Bonnies

Kaitlin McCarthy and Jenny Peterson have been making strange performance works together in Seattle, WA since 2013. Often performing as “The Bonnies,” they gravitate to the grotesque/off-kilter/marvelous like moths to the flame. They have performed at WET’s Six-Pack Series, Velocity’s NextFest, OTB’s Open Studio, Boost Dance Festival, NEPO 5k, Seattle Intl Dance Festival, High F@ggotry, and other underground art salons and nightlife performance venues. In 2024 they premiered their first evening-length work, DRIVE WOLVES MAD, and toured it to Portland, OR and San Diego, CA. 

One of us is tall, one is short, both are Type A weirdos. Jenny is a Seattle artist working in dance, photography, and music/sound. She grew up a competitive gymnast in the Chicago suburbs and has never recovered. Jenny boasts 17 years of performing professionally in Seattle, including with the Pat Graney Company since 2008. She holds a B.A. in Dance and Visual Arts from UC Irvine and is a licensed massage therapist. Kaitlin is a Seattle-based dance artist, teacher, and journalist. She has performed with countless local choreographers since 2010, including regularly with Alice Gosti/MALACARNE. A prominent dance writer about town, she edits the publication SeattleDances and has a decade of experience specializing in teaching adult beginning dance. You can find out more at their respective websites: jennypeterson.com and kaitlinmccarthy.com.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

I’m on Fire, You’re on Fire, We’re on Fire is a multidisciplinary dance project investigating the moment action transforms fantasy into reality, and the way personal rebellion can inform social revolution. 

Inspired by the 1966 Czech New Wave film, Daisies, where mischief and feminine excess are used to undermine and criticize both social and political power structures, we harness ‘silly’ as a way to opt out of imposed expectations, and use unabashed joy-seeking as a pathway to autonomy. Movement vocabulary emphasizes what is often disregarded because of its perceived femininity–the unserious, slutty, trivial, or excessive.

But what happens when acting upon fantasy is taken to criminal extremes? When womxn’s bodies are increasingly criminalized, what does it mean when women commit crimes against their oppressors? We use a Daisies-inspired lens to dissect historical incidents of women outlaws, revenge fantasies, and the cultural phenomenon we remember from childhood, the John and Lorena Bobbitt trials.

A candy-colored fantasy world of impulse and freewheeling femme chaos, this work grapples with the morally complex territory of rebellion, violence, and self-actualization, cloaked as a ditzy comedy routine.

HOW TO SUPPORT

To join the community of support, please contact erin@velocitydancecenter.org, or make a gift at the link below. As a fiscally sponsored project, all gifts to this project made through Velocity Dance Center are tax deductible.