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Hideous Progeny
Monique Jenkinson's dance piece Hideous Progeny was
inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the 19th Century
writer whose own identity has almost disappeared within the
shadow of her most famous creation, Frankenstein. Shelley
was more than just the wife of a poet, whose legacy she ensured,
and the daughter of a free-thinker, who promptly rejected
her when she eloped; she was also pioneering feminist as the
first woman to delve into the genre of science fiction.
For Hideous Progeny, Monique had commissioned me to build
several mobile props that could not only endure the abuse
from a dance troop but also manifest metaphors of monstrosity
and horror. Specifically, these were two functional structures:
one being a simple gurney / medical examination table, the
other being a dress which increased the height of the dancer
who wore it by four feet, and could also hide a dancer within
its flaring base.
The piece ran for three nights in April, 2002 at ODC Theater
in San Francisco, California.
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