I could sell my dream house, move to Switzerland, get fat, grow old and die.
Barbie on her 60th birthday
Barbie, the outwardly glamorous and perpetually perfect plastic icon, on the brink of physical and mental collapse. Long after her 60th birthday, this dance satire asks: what does she actually want for herself?
Drawing on music videos, advertising and comedy sketches from the 90s and 2000s, the piece presents a vulnerable, fallible and ultimately very human Barbie. She channels anger and resistance, parodies pop-culture-influenced sexuality, stumbles, doubts, screams, laughs, maintains her image and wrestles with herself – just like the rest of us.
When refusal sets in, her image crumbles. In a tragicomic manner, „Elefantin“ reveals the tension between performance and self-determination, control and surrender in contemporary culture.
Credit:
Performance: Alessia Ruffolo, Cree Barnett Williams
Costumes: Angela Roudaut
Direction, sound editing, projection design: Cree Barnett Williams
Co-production (Resolution 2020): Cara Louise Horsley
Language: English
Duration: 60 min
Cree Barnett Williams is a Berlin-based choreographer, director, curator and performer. Her work explores mental health, wellness culture and the political body, presented internationally. Born UK, Jamaican-Irish, trained at Rambert School, former Johannes Wieland Company member, she works across stage and film. She is a moderator and co-curator of Deep Space (B12 Festival).