Untitled (Figures)

In 2023, Lenio Kaklea was commissioned to create a performance for La Peniche La Pop in Paris, based on the legendary song I'm Coming Out, written and composed by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and performed by Diana Ross. Having never performed a coming out herself, she was rather perplexed by this invitation. Looking at the work of queer artists that are dear to her, such as Ulrike Ottinger, Jill Johnston, Jean Genet, or the neo-realist painter and scenographer Yannis Tsarouchis, she realised how this coming-out performance relates to a situation she had been led to explore in her work. For Untitled (Figures), the choreographer decided to embrace everything that is queer in her through a catalogue of danced figures (the cowgirl, leather culture, disco and the figure of the sailor) and pay homage to the capacity of queer cultures to teach us to love the female body.

Choreography and Performance: Lenio Kaklea

Sound and technical direction: Éric Yvelin

Lighting: Jean Marc Segalen

Costumes: Olivier Mullin

Δραματουργία: Lou Forster

Voice: Jill Johnston

Music: Hornpipe en do mineur by Henry Purcell, interpreted by Martin Fröst, Express Yourself by Madonna

Administration and Production: Olivier Poujol

Production: abd

Coproduction: Peniche La Pop for the festival (Re)Mix 2023, WEILS Centre d’art de Bruxelles, Festival + Genres/KLAP Maison de la Danse de Marseille

In the performance, Lenio Kaklea dances short extracts from Rodeo (1973) by Agnes de Mille.

Lenio Kaklea

Lenio Kaklea is a dancer, choreographer, director and artist born in Athens and based in Paris. She studied at the National Conservatory of Contemporary Dance in Athens. In 2005, she moved to France, where she studied at the CNDC d'Angers and collaborated with leading figures on the European dance scene. In 2011, she completed the SPEAP programme , a master's degree in experimental arts and politics in Paris. Since 2009, her work has been presented by institutions and festivals in Europe and the United States, including the Centre Pompidou, Sadler's Wells, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Festival d'Automne, Serpentine, Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi-Pinault Collection, New York Live Arts, ImPulsTanz - Vienna International Dance Festival, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Greek National Opera and Les presses du réel. Alongside her personal choreographic work, she has collaborated with other artists, such as the American choreographer Lucinda Childs to the music of Ryoji Ikeda (2013) and the Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta (2022). In 2019, she received the Dance Award from the Fondation Hermès Italia and the Milan Triennale, and in 2024, she received the 25th Pernod Ricard Award . Her latest stage work for seven performers, The Birds, premiered at the Festival Montpellier Danse 2025 and is on tour in Marseille, Brussels, Kortrijk, Los Angeles and Paris, among other cities.

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