Last summer season Makisig Akin and Anya Cloud, co-directors of The Love Makers Company, got here to the Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation and offered the duet <\/span>We Are (nothing) Everything<\/span><\/i>. This yr Akin (a queer, trans Filipino choreographer and activist) and Cloud (a queer white artist dedicated to radical aliveness), return to work with a Seattle forged at King road station (July 19 at 6pm). Since they\u2019ll be again to current one thing new, it looks like an excellent time to share some ideas on their work from final summer season and what to anticipate from their upcoming present.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start the place all good queer issues start: the membership. Not the metaphorical one \u2014 I imply the true, bass-thumping, no-words-just-vibes type. That\u2019s the primary soundscape we\u2019re dropped into in <\/span>We Are (nothing) Everything<\/span><\/i>, a duet by Makisig Akin and Anya Cloud that crashes by means of classes like a sweaty physique on a slippery dancefloor\u2026 besides this isn\u2019t an ensemble. This is 2 folks. Just two. Dancing. Together. In a room stuffed with every thing. And nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n Makisig and Anya are already dancing within the house once I enter to take my seat. They are each merely wearing denims and tank tops, barefoot and actual. No costumes, no distractions. Their fingers are clasped \u2014 actually. Not metaphorically. In a singular grip that jogs my memory of thumb wrestling however the thumbs are down, the remainder of the fingers locked collectively. A dedication. A process. A promise. They maintain on for as long as they dance-moving out and in of the ground, with and on every other-it turns into a form of sacred absurdity. They dance with the partitions. They dance with exhaustion and affection.<\/span><\/p>\n This duet is superbly, intentionally tiring. They sweat. They flap. They fling themselves into motion. At one level, I tune out \u2014 my mind goes \u201cwow this is nice\u201d and floats off \u2014 after which I tune again in and somebody is balancing on one leg whereas the opposite is curled up on the ground and out of the blue springs to life, kicking. It\u2019s playful. It\u2019s bodily. It\u2019s love. But not in an indicator card method. In a \u201cI\u2019ll follow you, or you follow me \u2014 just don\u2019t let go\u201d form of method.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, a shift.<\/span><\/p>\n The handhold breaks. They crouch and sit collectively on the ground in a sweaty tangle of denim. They caress one another\u2019s ft with their faces (sure, actually). Then \u2014 like some horny queer Cirque du Soleil \u2014 they strip one another\u2019s tank tops off with their ft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now shirtless, denims nonetheless on, they start to stability, carry, and climb each other. Akin lounges on Cloud\u2019s again like a chaise lounge. Cloud foot-presses Akin into the air. They kind a literal pillar when Makisig climbs Anya\u2019s shoulders and stands ten ft tall, surveying the room like a glistening, denim-clad lighthouse. Somewhere alongside the way in which, the music fades right into a distant thump. The queer membership is now in one other room. Or inside us.<\/span><\/p>\n Welcome to the full-spectrum queer contact zone \u2014 the place intimacy turns into a sport, choreography a dare, and vulnerability a superpower. There\u2019s an extended second of wrestling, of grappling\u2026that is contact improvisation that owes as a lot to the lineage of Nancy Stark Smith (who I first noticed Cloud carry out with at a Velocity contact improvisation second in 2016) because it does to highschool fitness center class. There is a repeated phrase on the diagonal, a second of straightforward and exhaustive set unison, crawling shoulder to shoulder operating and a leap, then crawling in reverse all the way in which again throughout the diagonal simply to do it \u2026 10 extra occasions? !? Contact not for spectacle however for sensing, for sweating, for enduring. They lean into one another, our bodies wrapped like vines, after which \u2014 essentially the most radical second of all \u2014 they only\u2026 cease.<\/span><\/p>\n Makisig spoons Anya.<\/span><\/p>\n Nothing occurs. Except every thing.<\/span><\/p>\n They breathe. We watch. No dramatics, simply their breath slowing down from the very bodily first half of the efficiency. You can hear their post-exertion panting settle right into a deep relaxation. It\u2019s essentially the most radical second of the night time. A dance of restoration. Of parasympathetic nervous system regulation. Of being, not performing. Of nothing. Could\u2019ve been 5 minutes. Could\u2019ve been twenty. Honestly, I might\u2019ve stayed till dawn.<\/span><\/p>\n Then \u2014 simply while you\u2019ve absolutely unclenched \u2014 they\u2019re wrestling once more. The vibe is now sizzling, uncooked, and positively bringing huge butch vitality. Akin will get Cloud in a chokehold. Cloud pins Akin. It\u2019s sweaty, it\u2019s actual, it\u2019s bordering on intercourse. Or sport. Or each. Is this wrestle about dominance? Desire? Communication? Consent? Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s additionally the place the uncomfortable pleasure kicks in \u2014 watching the viewers squirm as two queer folks present what it seems wish to <\/span>actually<\/span><\/i> need one another, to the touch with objective and pleasure. I\u2019m giddy. We don\u2019t see this sufficient \u2014 not in dance, not in public, not with such generosity and readability from such skillful transferring and pondering people as these.<\/span><\/p>\n Then they transition right into a form of absurd boy band fantasy. Akin begins to ham it up with muscle man-like poses, glistening, whereas Cloud tenderly caresses them. She\u2019s singing \u2014 or possibly simply mumbling and Akin joins \u2014 however then their buzzing resolves into what appears like a 90s boy band monitor. A wink to the truth that, for a technology of queer and trans youngsters, these had been the closest factor to genderqueer icons we had. It\u2019s playful, it\u2019s nostalgic, and it\u2019s one other layer on this ever-expanding portrait of queer embodiment.<\/span><\/p>\n They return to earth to rearrange the fitness center mats which have made up the dance ground for your complete efficiency previous this second into sculptural chaos: constructing, toppling, rebuilding. A gentle structure. The type you make with somebody you belief sufficient to knock down your partitions and nonetheless wish to maintain your hand after.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, they climb a ultimate stack of mats.They witness one another. The lights pulse. The DJ drops the beat. They take turns dancing solo as the opposite perches excessive on a mat mountain witnessing. The membership beat grows stronger and sooner (shout out to DJ <\/span>Stevie Gunter <\/span><\/a>for a tremendous set that enhances all elements of the efficiency). Now they\u2019re dancing aside however collectively \u2014 related with out touching. A displaying off that sure they’ll contact however sure they’ll additionally keep in sync and in relation when not touching in any respect.<\/span><\/p>\n And then \u2014 they begin kissing. Rather a lot. Like, <\/span>making out<\/span><\/i> kissing. And dancing. And climbing by means of the viewers. Still kissing. They scale the rows, they climb up two ladders going up the again wall into the lighting grid above till they disappear. Still. Kissing. The total theater, reworked right into a queer utopia the place affection is endurance and kissing is choreography.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s how <\/span>We Are (nothing) Everything<\/span><\/i> ends: mid-kiss, mid-flight, mid-beat. An enormous, unapologetic, full-body YES to queer love, to tender danger, to horny mess, to the audacity of resting on stage and sweating on somebody you belief.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a imaginative and prescient of what efficiency may be when it doesn\u2019t ask for permission. It\u2019s not for everybody \u2014 however truthfully, it\u2019s not making an attempt to be. It\u2019s for the queer, the trans, the passionate, the curious, the courageous. For anybody who\u2019s ever puzzled if possibly, simply possibly, holding somebody\u2019s hand might change the entire world.<\/span><\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t only a duet. It was a relationship. A revolution. A sweaty and candy reminder that we \u2014 queer, trans, wild-hearted we \u2014 are (nothing) every thing. So thanks, Makisig Akin and Anya Coud, for displaying us {that a} dance of connection, vulnerability and shifting energy dynamics is a marvel to observe and that possibly \u2014 simply possibly \u2014 everybody must be allowed to take their shirt off with out it being an enormous deal, not simply cis dudes.<\/span><\/p>\n Like <\/span>We Are (nothing) Everything<\/span><\/i>, I anticipate their upcoming efficiency <\/span>SWITCH: Post-Failure Potentials<\/span><\/i> to problem us by witnessing the novel revolutions doable in relationships with different folks. I\u2019m excited to see how they develop their concepts to incorporate a big group. They tease that they may ship the thrills you\u2019d discover watching the Olympics or a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match. They\u2019ll be enjoying with the energies of profitable and shedding, drawing from martial arts, dance and improvisation. <\/span>SWITCH<\/span><\/i> additionally guarantees to incorporate the viewers as lively spectators! I\u2019m excited to witness this collective reimagining impressed by the novel vulnerability and energy present in queer communities. They\u2019ll problem us by asking the query: What if failure wasn\u2019t the top \u2014 however the starting of making a greater world collectively?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We Are (nothing) Everything by Makisig Akin + Anya Cloud was<\/span><\/i> offered at SFD+I August 2024 on the Mainstage at twelfth Ave Arts. More details about that present at <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/velocitydancecenter.org\/events\/di-anya-makisig\/<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Makisig Akin + Anya Cloud\u2019s SWITCH: Post-Failure Potentials will premiere JUL 19\u00a0 at 6 PM at\u00a0 King Street Station (303 S Jackson St Top ground, Seattle, WA) as a part of Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation | Velocity Dance Center in partnership with ARTS at King Street Station. Tickets out there right here: <\/span><\/i>velocitydancecenter.org\/occasions\/switch-post-failure-potentials<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] Last summer season Makisig Akin and Anya Cloud, co-directors of The Love Makers Company, got here to the Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation and offered the duet We Are (nothing) Everything. This yr Akin (a queer, trans Filipino choreographer and activist) and Cloud (a queer white artist dedicated to radical aliveness), return to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1824,1775,511],"class_list":{"0":"post-146921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dance","8":"tag-queer","9":"tag-revolution","10":"tag-seattledances"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Akin](\"https:\/\/seattledances.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Makisig-Akin-Anya-Cloud-Photo-5-by-Jim-Coleman-scaled.jpg\")
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