Cherdonna Shinatra to Perform at Velocity Dance Center this Month
Seattle's Cherdonna integrates feminism—and dessert—with drag
By Jim Demetre May 31, 2016
This article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.
Cherdonna Shinatra, the “drag/dance bio-fem” creation of Seattle-based dancer, choreographer and performance artist Jody Kuehner, is one of a growing number of drag personas nationwide performed by women. Rather than striving for catty perfection, she aims instead for discombobulation.
Staggeringly tall in her platform heels and lop-sided, sky-high bouffant, and adorned with costumes and makeup that exceed the farthest parameters of the genre in their disruptive flamboyance, the comic Cherdonna displays a vulnerability and impulsiveness on stage that inevitably gives way to heartbreak and regret.
Clock that Mug or Dusted, a new work commissioned and produced by Velocity Dance Center’s new Made in Seattle dance development program, is the second part of her three-part suite titled one great, bright, brittle alltogetherness. While Cherdonna’s work has consisted of pure gender-bending physical comedy, this is described as an homage to feminist performance artists such as Janine Antoni and the avant-garde dance artist Anna Halprin, who used the body as a canvas for social change, rebellion, community and personal expansion.
The performance— which will result in cake smeared upon a huge canvas—promises to combine classic feminist ideals with present-day queer drag vision. 6/2–6/5 and 6/10–6/12. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary. Velocity Dance Center, Capitol Hill, 1621 12th Ave.; 206.325.8773; velocitydancecenter.org
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