DeNada Dance Theatre Seeks Dancers for the International Tour of Mariposa: a Queer Tragedy Inspired by Madame Butterfly

DeNada Dance Theatre (chor Carlos Pons Guerra) seeks five dancers with excellent contemporary and strong classical technique for the International tour of Mariposa: a Queer Tragedy Inspired by Madame Butterfly.

DeNada Dance Theatre (choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra) seeks dancers with excellent contemporary and strong classical technique for the international tour of Mariposa: a Queer Tragedy Inspired by Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, to take place between autumn 2024 and spring 2025. We are looking for diverse, unique, highly skilled, theatrical and articulate dancers; with experience of physical character work, who have strong stage presence and good partnering skills, to join the company for the restaging and touring of our full-length narrative production. An audition, by invitation only, will take place on Sunday Aug 4th 2024 at Fabric, Birmingham.

Mariposa is a queer dance adaptation of Puccini’s seminal opera, Madame Butterfly. The production transports the narrative of the original from Japan to post-revolution Cuba, to a dockland world of troubled sailors, faded showgirls, hopeful rent boys and santería spirits. Telling the story of a local rent boy and a troubled sailor who fall ominously in love, this production is a highly dramatic and vigorously physical exploration of the sacrifices we are ready to make to be loved and accepted, and represents the struggles that queer minorities have historically experienced.

Mariposa addresses the orientalist, colonial and gender issues of Puccini’s original opera from a queer perspective. Inspired by Peter Brooks’ multicultural Mahabharata, the production creates a world of queer identities of diverse cultural heritages. As such, we are keen to hear from dancers of diverse cultural backgrounds (particularly Latinx, Black descent, Asian) to better portray the narrative of the production and offer wider queer representation on dance stages.

We welcome applications from dancers of all ages, with at least two years of professional experience (playing ages of characters range from 18 to 60+). We are keen to hear from dancers of any gender identification who are confident with pointe work, and also welcome dancers with skills in drag, queer forms of dance, Afro-Caribbean and Latin dance.

We are able to offer five freelance contracts. Of these, one will be for a male presenting dancer with at least basic pointe work, and one will be for a female presenting dancer with confident pointe work. The remaining three contracts do not require pointe. Conceptually, Mariposa draws heavily on the idea of gender construction and the impact of colonialism on gender and sexual identity, which is why we make these specifications.

Dates:

You must be available for all the dates below:

Rehearsals (Barnsley Civic)

Sept 4- Sept 20

Tech rehearsal and preview: Sept 23 and 24

Second preview: Oct 4

Tour

2024:

Oct 8

Oct 15

Nov 4-5

Nov 13-17 (Gran Canaria)

Nov 22-23

Nov 26

2025:

Feb 13-14

Feb 25-26

March 14-15

March 21

(Further tour dates TBC, to be agreed with selected candidates)

All applicants must be based in the UK, have right to work in the UK and be able to travel within the EU.

Contracts follow Equity/ITC standards including rest/holiday pay. All travel and accommodation will be covered by the company.

More details: http://www.denada-dance.com/news/2024/6/27/audition-denada-seeks-dancers-for-the-international-tour-of-mariposa-a-queer-tragedy-inspired-by-madame-butterfly

To apply, please send your CV, link to recent footage of your dancing, and a brief expression of interest (in writing, audio or video form) to audition@denada-dance.com by July 26. For dancers with skills in pointe work, please send footage en pointe.

We will inform all candidates by July 28.

Application close date: 26th July 2024