Kultursommer Wien - Alex Bailey: Shirley Temple

For my solo dance piece entitled Shirley Temple, I will draw upon the dance experiences Ive had working for Choreographers Ian Kaler, Alix Eynaudi & Elizabeth Ward. The title shares it’s name with a non-alcoholic beverage, a child actress, singer, dancer, political activist & diplomat. Its about the things that share names & the lineage of knowledge transference through dance practice. A temple is a place of worship, a space to gather, something you enter. Shirley is a joke, Surely not?

The performance functions like a cocktail recipe.
- 1 part with the floor & work the wall, a body to slip in and out of surfaces
- 1 part ghosts & dancing demons
- 2 part humorous wiggles & the technique to drop dance material, to leave it behind
- A twist of a Rebus, a puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters
- With a dash of music & passionfruit provided by Yaeji
- Served in my shapeshifting, thrift shop acquiring, human shaped glass. With an atmosphere of fun & flintiness
The result is, a dirty Shirley Temple.