If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution

26 Sep 2008
9 Nov 2008

In 2006, de Appel formed a long-term partnership with If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, a travelling platform for performance-related practices in the visual arts. ‘If I Can’t Dance…’, a famous statement attributed to the anarchist Emma Goldman, typifies the unique capacity of art to make political and critical statements about the world while also celebrating that same world. With this ongoing collaboration, de Appel refers indirectly to its own roots (1975-1983, under director Wies Smals) and to the fact that notions like ‘the performative’ and feminism continue to play an important part in de Appel’s programme.

In 2008-2010 during the third edition If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution embraces the theme of ‘Masquerade’. The exploration of this theme may be seen as an extension of earlier research conducted by If I Can’t Dance… into theatricality (Edition I, 2005) and into the heritage and potential of feminism (Edition II, 2006- 2007). In Edition III – “Masquerade”, which consists of a prologue and four episodes, If I Can’t Dance… aims to investigate, together with artists and other mediators, how we handle ideas about identity and public space today.

Edition III lasts two years, during which period it will examine the theme from different perspectives and present it for consideration at different moments in the context of institutions in several cities. Following the prologue at the Overgaden arts centre in Copenhagen in August 2008, episode 1 will take place in de Appel in the form of an exhibition, an archival presentation and a performance programme. This project will touch on subaspects of the main theme, such as rituals, gestures, normalized as opposed to transgressive behaviour, covert as opposed to manifest action and differing approaches to role playing, power positions and appearances.