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Cherdonna Shinatra to Perform at Velocity Dance Center this Month

Seattle's Cherdonna integrates feminism—and dessert—with drag

A woman in a yellow costume posing on a blue background.
A woman in a yellow costume posing on a blue background.

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

 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.

For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.

Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair.  I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.

Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…