MELTED RIOT: SPECTRA(L)
BY Fox Whitney / GENDER TENDER
TUE, JUN 21 | 7 – 10 PM
On the Boards – Merrill Theater | Map
Under 30 – $18 | Senior – $21 | General Admission – $25
This is an in-person show with space limited to 100 people per performance. Proof of vaccination or negative Covid test within 24 hours will be required for entry. Patrons are required to wear masks during the entire event.
MELTED RIOT: SPECTRA(L) uses tactics rooted in dance, punk music, durational performance, and visual art to investigate the effects peaceful and violent forms of support and sabotage have on the bodies, minds, and spirits of the transgender and queer community. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969, seances and apocalyptic cinema, this Gender Tender performance event happens on the summer solstice celebrating the longest day of the year and the journey we travel physically and spiritually from the darkness into the light.
The ongoing MELTED RIOT performance series is a surreal protest song, a queer meditation, a psychedelic research project, a punk prayer. Fox and his Gender Tender collaborators unearth the queer and transitional qualities of a longtime experimental performance collaboration centered on investigating the nature of queer relationships, transgender histories and the surreal nature of transformation that are the foundation of the Gender Tender approach to performance making. MELTED RIOT:SPECTRA(L) haunts us from its previous iterations: MELTED RIOT: Stonewall Edition presented by Velocity in 2019 in person, MELTED RIOT: ROYGBIV and CHROMATIC supported by On the Boards online in 2020 and MELTED RIOT: RGB, CMYK + SATURATION presented by the Henry Art Gallery online) in 2020 transmuting into the SPECTRA(L) iteration of the ongoing experimental performance series.
MELTED RIOT: SPECTRA(L) is co-produced by Velocity Dance Center and On the Boards.
ARTIST BIOS
Fox whitney
Fox Whitney’s transgender and queer point of view is at the heart of his performance project, Gender Tender, founded in 2012. He creates experiences that investigate the nature of queer relationships, trans histories and the surreal nature of transformation. GT engages a team of artists trained in Fox’s unique methods modeled on cults, sitcoms, pandemic parties and riots. He is also a musician, filmmaker, actor, dancer, teaching artist and is the Artistic Director for Velocity Dance Center based in Seattle WA . Melted Riot, a Gender Tender performance inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969, was presented at Velocity Dance Center on the 50th anniversary of the uprising. His work has been commissioned and produced by the Henry Art Gallery, On the Board’s NW New Works Festival and Solo Festival; Velocity’s Next Fest NW and Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation; the Seattle International Dance Festival; Yellow Fish Epic Durational Performance Festival and was selected for the inaugural season of Seattle’s Gay CIty Arts. He has performed in work by Will Rawls, Heather Kravas, keyon gaskin, Morgan Thorson, CommonForm Dance Project, Malic Amalya and Gabrielle Civil, is the drummer for the bands The Gender Tender Experiment and Rachaels Children and has exhibited his dance films and visual art nationally.
Gender Tender
SPECTRA(L) features The Gender Tender Experiment, the collaborative band iteration of Gender Tender started by Fox (band director, dancer + drummer) during the darkest days of the pandemic with his household pod: artist collaborators Will Courtney (vocals, dancer), Moonyeka (vocals, dancer) and Otto (saxophone, bass, synth). Inspired by the restrictions of the pandemic the band channels messages from QT ancestors and predicts the future via photographs taken during the Stonewall Riots in 1969. This event will not only feature the band but will feature guest appearances from longtime and brand new Gender Tender artist collaborators of all disciplines.
PRESENTING PARTNER
