The performance “Sticky Fingers Club” was invited to the Fringe Festival in China

Sticky Fingers Club is a play about failure, where the characters are always in the background. They constantly come in fourth place, and in the fight for an Oscar they compete with the unmatched Meryl Streep. In the face of constant failures, they create a space of celebration in which they are the stars. They celebrate being imperfect on their own terms, support each other and challenge each other. Among the expressive characters, there is an opera singer who loves music without reciprocity, a neurotic lady, a faded star and a dancer who was never allowed to dance a solo on stage.

Both in the sphere of movement and in the expressive, frontal attitude of the performers, the play refers to queer culture, ballroom and vogue dance itself. Here, space is opened for social exclusion and non-normativity to reveal a colorful identity. Pop culture references to the queer mainstream, popular fashion shows, and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody add a huge dose of humor and self-irony to Sticky Fingers Club. The performance addresses the broader issue of failure and the exclusion and oblivion that come with it, without resorting to generalizations or moralizing. It uses theatrical and choreographic tools, which makes it difficult to pigeonhole and classify. By questioning social norms, it becomes critical choreography.

The show is a witty, self-ironic, but not without a bitter aftertaste, procession of losers. It touches on the subject of the opposition of success and failure, or rather the sensitive issue of being “just behind.” Just behind the winner, just behind the podium, just below the line. That annoying, touching-on-the-heart situation of being in a narrow group of nominees, but ultimately forced to do without, and finally forgotten, because who remembers the runner-up or who finished fourth?

Natalia Szafrankiewicz | taniecPOLSKA.pl

Creators:

Concept, choreography, performance: Daniela Komędera, Dominika Wiak, Dominik Więcek, Monika Witkowska
Drama support: Konrad Kurowski
Lighting director: Krystian Koźbiał
Music: Przemek Degórski
Costumes using designs by: Krystian Szymczak, Edvard Kuzmich, Roman Marchewka
Producers: Gdańsk Dance Festival / ŻAK Club, Lublin Dance Theatre
Premiere: 3 September 2020 / 12th Gdańsk Dance Festival

The performance was created as part of the “Przestrzenie Sztuki” programme financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance and the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute.