Salomania reconstructs a dance: the 'dance of the seven veils' from Alla Nazimova's 1923 silent film Salomé. Also shown and rehearsed are sections from 'Valda's Solo', which the choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer created after having seen Nazimova's film. The installation takes up Salome as a trans gender figure and the motif of a queer appropriation of the exotic. The performers are Wu Ingrid Tsang and Yvonne Rainer.
At the beginning of the 20th century there was a wave of excitement about the character of Salome, which soon earned the name Salomania. Women got together and imitated the dance of the seven veils. A series of dancers became famous for their interpretations of Salome. The figure of Salome stood for entrepreneurial independence and sexual freedom and became an icon of 'sodomite' subjectivity.
The script of the silent film Salomé is based on the play by the same name by Oscar Wilde and follows the Biblical story of the Jewish princess Salome. King Herod desires his youthful stepdaughter Salome. She in turn is interested in the missionary Jokanaan (the Baptist), who, however, rejects her. She gives in to Herod's desire to see her dance, then demanding the head of Jokanaan on a platter as her reward. She kisses the severed head.
The installation Salomania takes up motifs from the silent movie, such as gazes, the active desire of Salome, and the figure of the veil, but also elements of Art Deco, which the movie celebrates. This prevailing design style of the '20s and '30s applied modern materials and images of technological progress. But why have they been mixed with material and images of the "Oriental" such as ostrich feathers and palm trees?
While the images of 'farness' and of the technological can be seen as part of colonial politics, further familiarizing the spectators with the 'foreignness' of the colonies, but also seeking to justify colonial domination, at the same time they have been transformed by the film Salomé. Here they are established as images that make space for female or 'transvestic' fantasies and desires. A space between the genders and between Orient and Occident appeared to be possible.
Performers in the film Salomania:
Wu Ingrid Tsang is an artist, performer, and queer transgender activist. He is co-founder of the performance group "marriage" and part of LTTR, a feminist and gender-queer art magazine.
Yvonne Rainer is a filmmaker and choreographer. She studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. She was one of the organizers of the 'Judson Dance Theatre' in New York, a formation that produced a series of now renowned experiments of 'New Dance', and she also worked with her own dance company. Later she produced feature films and integrated choreography in her feminist film work such as the dance 'Valda's Solo', which became part of the film 'Lives of Performers' (1972).
Text: Renate Lorenz / Pauline Boudry
Link: www.boudry-lorenz.de
Additional funding: Bourse arts plastiques, Canton de Vaud, 2008; Stiftung Erna und Curt Burgauer
