(Mas)culinity in the Throat

18 Nov, Wednesday, 8:00 PM

“(Mas)culinity in the Throat” (БРИНА, Belgrade)

Duration: 75 minutes

The dance performance “(Mas)culinity in the Throat” emerged from an artistic-research process that investigated, through choreographic and performance practices, the concept of toxic masculinity and its attributes (machismo, misogyny and femicide, (auto)homophobia, militarism and radical nationalism) that are contained in the body itself, as an archive of masculinity in the body and its influence on the body.

The piece presents a set of different perspectives on masculinity by five young men who, through continuous reflection, repeatedly offer alternative masculinities, playing with learned bodily actions and discourses, taking them to the point of absurdity, and sharing intimate accounts of their own upbringing tightly framed by social norms. The phenomenon is approached through the lens of stage documentation and speculation on specific situations, from the individual to the collective.

The performance focuses on bodily actions, narratives and operations that are incorporated during maturation into the male body and thus form the framework of specific behavioral patterns that the body, under societal pressure, produces; at the same time, that body is perceived as the author of the harmful consequences it has on contemporary society as a whole, on women, but also on men themselves — especially in patriarchal societies where the socialization of boys often normalizes violence. Masculinity and the body mutually shape each other, raising the question of how possible it is for the body (and in which life situations, at least partially) to resist toxic masculinity, and in what ways it yields to it.

• Authorship, text and choreography: Miloš Janjić
• Co-authorship and performance: Dražen Horvatić, Miloš Janjić / Mladi Šijan, Chad Spens, Lazar Tešić
• Dramaturgy: Andreja Kargačin and Nina Plavanjac
• Directing consultant: Ana Pinter
• Choreographic consultant: Isidora Poledica
• Scenographic consultant: Marija Pokrajac
• Music and sound design: Jana Baljak
• Technical support and scenography construction: Milica Babić
• Photo documentation: Vladimir Opsenica and Marija Stojković
• Video documentation: Tanja Drobnjak
• Production: БРИНА