Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG)

This project shows selected early videos and a recent film production by the Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG).
This group of Swiss dancers is fluid in its set-up and performs in club venues as well as in major art institutions- most recently at the Athens Biennial. However, Young Boy Dancing Group prefers to present and choreograph their work online, especially YouTube, regarded as ‘New Theatre’, free of booking fees, travel, bureaucratic restrictions and/or norms.
The performances of Young Boy Dancing Group challenge notions of gender and sexuality and constantly question institutionalized settings, norms, taboos and the specifics of locations and audience expectation. Each dance performance changes depending on the venue and improvisation, but explores scenes that address contemporary “sexuality, authorship, institutionalisation, digital age, fetishes, contemporary dance and visual culture.”

One of their main themes is queerness, often expressed in happening-like dances and movement theatre, striking a careful balance between improvisation and rehearsed choreography.

For this project, PS² has chosen examples of early videos, footage from home dance sessions, before the group formed itself under the name YBDG.  
Often filmed in intimate settings at home, these short videos to pop songs develop movement organically into mini- performances full of anarchic energy, trans- sexual power and improvisation.
The most recent production ‘Fortress Europe’, filmed on a sandy beach, is the result of a more professional approach, yet still retains the wildness and queerness of the early work.

For more informations see Facebook and an interview with Manuel Scheiwiller, see.

Image top: still from- FORTRESS EUROPE by Young Boy Dancing Group & Dan Bodan, 2018
With Michell Rizzo, Nadja Voorham, Maria Metsalu, Manuel Scheiwiller, Alexis Martinez.
Music: Dan Boden, Fortress Europe.