Maxine Segalowitz + Mohammadreza Akrami

MAXINE SEGALOWITZ
Ad-Hoc Dimension
As a queer artist who worked as a stripper for many years, Maxine sees similarities between the negotiation of power in the performer-audience relationship and the interaction between stripper and client. Several characters embody different roles within the club: “the girls” with each other, the clients and the monster of masculinity, the bouncers in the background. Ad-Hoc Dimension aims to take on stripper tropes: the drunk with power, the blasé, the Bambi-on-ice who needs saving… Whose fantasy is being constructed? Who is empowered to make choices and who gets the final say? Decision-making is but a starting point to explore power dynamics, trust, self-affirmation and the acceptance of the consequences of our actions.

MOHAMMADREZA AKRAMI (MONTRÉAL/TORONTO)
Tan[ha]
“Tan[ha]” refers to the Farsi word for solitude, which translates to “alone”. However, separated, the words “Tan” and “ha” translate as “bodies”. Tan[ha] – these many bodies carried in solitude – hopes to investigate agency. Two nude performers laugh non-stop. Can our body sustain an action for as long as we want? What happens when we want to stop laughing, but can’t? What does it mean to laugh with your whole body, but without producing a sound? As their laughter subsides, the dancers’ bodies produce a back-and-forth movement that remains between two spaces, never reaching either. Do we have agency over our bodies or do our bodies have agency over us?