Seanshuuraku

My Spring 2022 thesis capstone project will investigate notions of gender and performance through improvisational, score-based, and choreographic modes of composition. Alternating between a cast of performers and solo work, Seanshuuraku intends to provide a working model of queer worldbuilding on stage. Carrying on from previous Independent Projects, this thesis presentation will be developed through creative research in the long-lasting tropes of diva worship in queer communities, insertion of trans narratives in the dance sphere, and the bleeding of international and transcultural pop aesthetics into aspirational living. Through working with a corps of dancers, this senshuuraku (千秋楽, lit: concluding performance) implicates not only the self (the Sean) but also their community and the greater populace as agents in prescribing a context in which to survive. This dance work looks toward glamour and transformation as primary definers of selfhood and the liminal capacities of performance as crucial for public manifestation.