Friday, July 31, 2015

The (Same-Love) Dance Goes On


The Wild Reed's 2015 Queer Appreciation series concludes with dance troupe Full Frontal Freedom's powerful sequence of "emotions in movement" performed to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' 2013 hit song "Same Love," a song that has become an anthem for LGBT equality.

The title of this post comes from the fact that even as we celebrate recent marriage equality victories (see, for instance, here and here), much of what the Full Frontal Freedom dance group said in 2013 about the ongoing struggle for justice remains as true and important today as it did two years ago.

We were so grateful that Mackelmore and Lewis took a stand and loudly cheered for marriage equality. But, our work as a community is far from done. . . . This song – which honors our movement's struggle – is so compelling that we thought it a fitting tribute to express our emotions in movement as a contemporary dance.


"Same Love Dance" is choreographed by Emrhys Cooper and Ryan Hanson with assistance provided by "The Ninja Twins," Nick and James Aragon. The dancers featured in the video are Nick Aragon, James Aragon, Nicole Bondzie, Filippo Calvagno, Ryan Hanson, Emrhys Cooper, Charlotte Price, and Hannah May Evans.

Oh, and one last thing: Despite what the dance troupe's name may imply, there is no "full frontal" nudity in the video below.





Related Off-site Link:
The Challenges That Remain After Marriage Equality – The Editorial Board (The New York Times, July 29, 2015).

For previous installments in the 2015 Wild Reed Queer Appreciation series, see:
Vittorio Lingiardi on the Limits of the Hetero/Homo Dichotomy
Reclaiming and Re-Queering Pride
Standing with Jennicet Gutiérrez, "the Mother of Our Newest Stonewall Movement"
Questions for Archbishop Kurtz re. the U.S. Bishops' Response to the Supreme Court's Marriage Equality Ruling
Clyde Hall: "All Gay People, in One Form or Another, Have Something to Give to This World, Something Rich and Very Wonderful"

For other Wild Reed dance-related posts, see:
A Beautiful Collaboration
The Dancer and the Dance
The Soul of a Dancer
Five Takes on Five Dances
Gay Men and Modern Dance
Recovering the Queer Artistic Heritage


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