Maria F. Scaroni & Olympia Bukkakis
Somatic Drag

Somatic Drag is a fusion of deep somatic competence and Drag, thoroughly infused with the belief in holding onto sanity through deviated normalcy. It draws on the re-use of techniques aimed at mutual empowerment and the profound appreciation for any expression of aliveness. Olympia (the queen) and Maria (the witch) bring to life a queer child made of exquisite interoceptive authenticity, politicized felt sense, real personas, cunty Marxism, and heretic prayers. Where too much will never be enough, we humbly serve by multiplying and keep refusing mere reproduction.

This is not research, nor does it ask a question; we are not scientists. We are artists, magicians, caretakers, and intellectuals who do, organise and create. This is an invitation to follow a rebirthing process through collective belonging and individual invention, to create creation. Our methodologies encourage negotiation, self-respect, and consent, guiding with mindfulness to balance safety and risk.

Maria brings attention to subtle sensations and patterns to ground and centre the physical body, proposing improvisational games to awaken energy and lean into the connected sense of ecstasy that belongs to dancing. Somatic competence increases our capacity to remain resilient in resistance. Dancing is a queer matter – an exquisite form of misbehaviour. Contemporary postmodern dance, despite the label, holds a very queer soul. It is preoccupied with sensations as images, ambiguous scripts or inner voices, alchemical witchcraft, or the physics that alters our chemistry and consciousness, intimacy, unruliness, affects, and affection. The shapefulness of somatic movement is a place for holding the complexity of both joy and grief – a joyful militancy.

Olympia, with 16 years of experience in experimental Drag and contemporary dance, helps participants integrate techniques and knowledge gained from queer nightlife performance into their own practices, while respecting and understanding the subcultures that produce them. She teaches basic Drag techniques as well as more experimental and unconventional approaches, including: lip sync, persona creation, applied/embodied (gender) theory, gendered movement, and short-form performance development (making a number).

Under tutelage of Olympia and Maria, each participant will have the opportunity to forge and present a number that draws from the ecstasies of queer nightlife and the interoceptive queer body.