Tag: Austin Diaz

Pillow Prep: MADBOOTS

Above: studio showing of (SAD BOYS), the newest work from MADBOOTS; photo by Travis Magee

Thursday July 9th, 2015 – MADBOOTS, the daring and unique all-male dance company founded by Austin Diaz and Jonathan Campbell, will be presenting their newest work (SAD BOYS) from August 26th – 30th, 2015, at the Doris Duke Theatre at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Tickets and more performance information here. Support this production by donating here.

Today MADBOOTS hosted a studio showing of (SAD BOYS) for friends of the Company; my photographer/friend Travis Magee met me there to document the event. Joining Austin and Jonathan for (SAD BOYS) are dancers Robbie Moore, Dan Walczak, and Chuck Wilt.

Performed to a deftly assembled musical suite, (SAD BOYS) runs nearly an hour and unfolds in sequences of madly passionate movement laced with interludes of reflective stillness. It explores so many facets of the transition from youth to manhood: the desire for companionship, the hesitant awakening of sexual awareness, and the harsh lessons of mistaken affection. Tenderness, amiable horseplay fraught with desire, betrayal, brutality, and soul-rending despair are all elements of this journey which so many of us have made over the years. (SAD BOYS) resonates with both the wary pleasures and the terror of self-discovery.

The choreography is space-filling, alternating raw physicality with unexpected passages of lyricism. The five dancers are unabashed in the athleticism of their dancing and in the intimacy of their interaction. As the dance progresses, the boys gradually shed their clothing, leaving themselves in a state of touching vulnerability by the end.

Without giving away anything more about (SAD BOYS), here are some of Travis Magee’s images from the studio showing:

Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz

Austin Diaz and Dan Walczak

Dan Walczak

Chuck Wilt

Robbie Moore, Jonathan Campbell, Austin Diaz

Dan Walczak, Austin Diaz

Dan Walczak, Jonathan Campbell

Dan Walczak

Jonathan, Chuck, Dan, and Robbie

Jonathan Campbell, Chuck Wilt

July 11, 2015
MADboots Prepare for ACADEMY

Tuesday November 12, 2013 – Photographer Matt Murphy and I dropped in at New York Live Arts today to watch the MADboyz of MADboots working on their latest creation, ACADEMY.

Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz, the founders of MADboots, were joined last season by Eli Bauer; and now the trio have embraced another new dancer, Garth Johnson, and also have a guest artist for this work: David Norsworthy. ACADEMY will be presented at the 92nd Street Y on December 7th and 8th, 2013. Information here.

ACADEMY will stand as a counterpoise to the boys’ most recent previous creation, blue, which will be sharing the bill at the 92nd Street Y. Whereas blue is lyrical and intimate, ACADEMY is dynamic, intense and madly physical.

My first thought when I heard that the MADboys were creating ACADEMY was that it would be about life at a prep school or first-year college – like something out of Maurice or Another Country – where young men would be experiencing both academic and athletic competition whilst at the same time grappling (sometimes literally) with their awakening sexuality and forming their first relationships. But in fact, it’s more like a military academy or a police training program: rigorous, sweaty, boisterously masculine, and highly competitive.

Calisthenics and running dominate the action, laced with poignant or disturbing moments of physical contact in which a transient glimmer of tenderness can be followed by almost violent abuse. The five dancers gave a full-tilt run-thru of the piece for me and Matt, and their generosity was much appreciated.

Here are some of Matt’s images from the studio:

David, Austin and Eli

Jonathan

Austin, David

Garth

Jonathan

Garth

David, Austin, Eli

David, Eli

David

Garth (foreground)

My thanks to Austin and Jonathan for giving me a preview of ACADEMY, and to Matt Murphy who managed to find a free hour in his madly busy schedule to come and photograph this rehearsal.

November 18, 2013