FAWN

FAWN as in baby deer

FAWN as extreme affection to ensure safety

FAWN as in low-key brilliant room reading skills

FAWN as in alone in the forest

FAWN as in FAUN (often confused for one another)

FAUN as in always already human and animal

FAUN as in Nijinsky, controversial afternoons, and scandelous performance endings

FAUN as in "alone in the forest" but as a gender, a myth, a promise

FAUN as in wild and feral forever

While the word “fawn” is most commonly used to refer to a baby deer, another meaning of the word describes a trauma response in which someone tries to appease a threat and/or ensure survival through flattery or cringing. The word “fawn” is also commonly confused with “faun,” a human-animal deity and the protagonist of Nijinsky’s famously controversial ballet “Afternoon of a Faun.” In this 75 minute dance-theater performance Charli Brissey weaves various conjurings of “fawn” and “faun” into a haunting and beckoning queer dreamscape, encapsulating the audience in 5.1 surround sound and a shapeshifting set design.

Direction, Writing, Sound Design, and Performance: Charli Brissey

Lighting Design: Jess Fialko

Dramaturgical Support: Scott Crandall

Show Doula: Olly Greer

Show Duration: 75 minutes

Ages: 14+ for language and references to sex/sexuality. (May be suitable for younger children, please email cbrissey@umich.edu for further details regarding content and age appropriateness)

This performance is made possible through generous support from the University of Michigan Arts Research: Incubation and Acceleration Grant (ARIA), the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG), the Research, Catalyst, and Innovation Program (RCI), and the Department of Dance.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Charli Brissey (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher who works choreographically with various technologies and materials. This primarily includes bodies, cameras, soundwaves, language, genders, desires, instincts, and ecosystems. They make experimental video and performance to continue learning how to stay alive and present in a world that is wild, unpredictable, and often brutal beyond measure. Brissey's work centers choreography and artmaking as invaluable methods for illuminating social, political, and ecological phenomena. They often turn to non-human forms—scientifically, theoretically, poetically, literally, playfully, figuratively, sartorially—to complicate the stories we tell ourselves about the distinctions between “nature” and “culture.” Their work has been presented in various galleries, conferences, film festivals, and performance venues nationally and internationally. Their latest films Canis Major and Anything With a Switch have toured to over forty-five countries and won multiple awards, including Best Experimental Film at OUTFEST and the Richmond International Film Festival, among many others.

Charli is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Michigan where they have affiliations in the Center for World Performance Studies and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. They teach courses in physical practice, composition, graduate pedagogy, improvisation, dance and technology, and seminars integrating critical theory and art-making.

Jess Fialko (they/them) is a lighting, costume, and scenic designer. Regional credits include: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Theatreworks Colorado Springs, Penobscot Theatre Company, Promethean Theatre Ensemble, Riverside Theatre, Iowa Summer Repertory, Maples Repertory Theatre, Hollins University, University of Northern Iowa, Birmingham Children's Theatre, Davenport Junior Theatre, and Quad Cities Theatre Workshop. Jess is a clinical assistant professor of Theatre & Drama at the University of Michigan, where they teach lighting design and theatre production

Scott Crandall (he/they) is a performance maker, designer, and musician based in Detroit. Their interdisciplinary performances entangle the social shifts of climate change, late capitalist American culture, and queer disruption by wrestling with the challenge of incorporating these myth-sized changes at the human scale. An essential element to Crandall’s creative process is their movement practice. Physical improvisations often oscillating between technical and imaginative in-corporate the research. This practice spiderwebs from a mishmash of lineages: Grotowski, Lecoq, and contemporary dance improvisation primary among them. After earning an AA in Theater from Lansing Community College and a BFA in Theater Direction from the University of Michigan, Crandall apprenticed with the Hinterlands performance ensemble in Detroit, MI and continues to work and collaborate with them in a variety of ways. Scott recieved their MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan.