REVIEW: Chewed Pink & Oluwaseun Olayiwola at Resolution Festival

Reviewing two works at Resolution 2023:
I Can’t Take My Body Off by Chewed Pink
Holehead by Oluwaseun Olayiwola

Excerpt below, full article HERE:

”It must have been fate that brought these two pieces to premiere at The Place’s Resolution festival on the same night of June 8th. Either fate or some really excellent programming. I would have a hard time believing this was just a happy coincidence when these two works mirrored each other so beautifully in their explorations of femininity/masculinity, queerness, tenderness/aggression and intimacy. With their own unique movement styles, the works exist in the same world of wonder and curiosity, leading to a rich contemplation of gender expression made even stronger by their comparison.

Up first, I Can’t Take My Body Off tackles ideas of femininity and asks what our bodies are capable of meaning and how that meaning is built. The piece begins with two bodies carefully approaching each other in silence before entering into a wrestling match. Punctuated by the sounds of their grunts, the two performers wearing frilly, white dresses insert surprising moments of tenderness between the aggressive pulling, twisting and dropping of each other. Two more run in to join them and they begin a series of tableaus, demonstrating scenes of quirky aggression entertaining enough to elicit amused giggles from the audience.

After the last black out transition, the four are left kneeling as “Blue Velvet” comes over the speakers. To the iconic 50s tune describing the singer’s love as an object of desire, the dancers brush their shoulders sensually and bite their fingers while also distorting their bodies in back bending contortions and flopping their limbs around in the transitions. In these moments of fracture the unison of the group breaks, as does the image of the flirtatious girl existing for our gaze (did we build that in our heads or did they?).”