The Sissy's Progress

The Sissy's Progress is on the 20th of Febuary at The Tom Thumb Theatre

Nando Messias was beaten up on the street in an act of homophobic hatred. After years of dreaming up his response, he presents The Sissy’s Progress, a spectacle of provocation, celebration and hyperflamboyance.

Part dance-theatre, part walking performance, The Sissy’s Progress leads its audience out onto the streets with a live marching band playing original music composed by Jordan Hunt. The Sissy’s Progress confronts the harsh contradictions of gender and violence of city life, standing up for sissies everywhere.

 ‘Queer promenade brilliance’

Ben Walters, www.nottelevision.net

‘A brave and brilliantly performed meditation on identity politics and the dynamics of power’

La JohnJoseph, boyfriendrobotique.blogspot.co.uk

Nando Messias is a Dance Art Foundation Associate Artist: Choreography. The Sissy’s Progress is produced by Dance Art Foundation and funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council England, developed with the support of Movingeast and Artsadmin.

  

‘Full of powerful ambiguities, The Sissy’s Progress will always be remembered and treasured’

Phil Smith, Associate Professor, Plymouth University

‘Stylish subversive… winning over the audience with his dangerous and dandy sketches’

Simon Casson, Duckie 

BIOGRAPHY:

Nando Messias’ work straddles performance art, dance and theatre. Informed by queer ideology, his performances combine beautiful images with a fierce critique of gender, visibility and violence. He has performed at V&A, Hayward Gallery, Tate Tanks, Gate Theatre, Toynbee Studios, Riverside Studios, Roundhouse, Royal Vauxhall Tavern and ICA, among other spaces in Britain. He has worked internationally in France, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, the United States and Japan.

With Biño Sauitzvy, his long-term collaborator, Nando has developed critically acclaimed dance-theatre pieces (Grand Genet: Our Lady of the Flowers, Sissy! and OH!). Nando’s solo work has been curated by the Live Art Development Agency as part of the programme Just Like a Woman (Ljubljana, New York and London). He has appeared numerous times at Duckie, having had a whole evening dedicated to his work in 2012. Nando performed in Bruce LaBruce’s theatrical production, The Bad Breast. As well as a practitioner, Nando is a movement director, choreographer and an academic of queer theory and performance.