In Alex Baczyński-Jenkins’s Us Swerve (2014), performers on rollerblades orbit one another while reciting, remixing, and reformulating fragments of poetry that meditate on the subject of desire. This polyphonic choreographic “score” is perpetually altered by the performers’ movements, attitudes, and affects. As the performers circulate, they begin to channel a queer archive of verses and inflections, including lines from writers such as Essex Hemphill, Eileen Myles, and Langston Hughes. These articulations of desire and the sensuality of repetition both set the rollerbladers in motion and create a tableau for them to move through.

CREDITS

Us Swerve (2014)

Choreography
Alex Baczyński-Jenkins

Originally developed in collaboration with and performed by
Zacharia Fletcher, Joseph Funnel, Imma Mess, Karl Fagerlund Brekke

Also performed by
Carlos Maria Romero, Jake Sherwood, Alonas Kreivaitis, Felipe Faria, Freddy Gutierrez Cifuentes

Duration
2 to 3 hours

A production by
ABJ Studio

Originally commissioned and produced by Liste – Art Fair Basel

Previous presentations include
Liste – Art Fair Basel (2014); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2016); Swiss Institute, New York (2016); Do-Disturb, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017); Les Urbaines, Arsenic, Lausanne (2017); Serralves Museum, Porto (2018); 57th October Salon, Belgrade, (2018); ImPulsTanz, mumok, Vienna (2018); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, as part of Alex Baczyński-Jenkins solo exhibition Such Feeling (2019); OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni, Turin, Italy (2023).