Yahoo News The North East LGBTQ+ dance group telling queer stories through 'mesmerising' shows
A North East-based contemporary dance company is returning to the region this week just in time for Pride Month with a "mesmerising" show celebrating LGBTQ+ spaces.
Rendez-Vous Dance is on a mission to bring LGBTQ+ themes and voices to the main stage, with performances made by the community for the community - and for everyone - telling queer stories through captivating dance and music. Their latest show, The Monocle, is stopping off in Hexham this Thursday (June 13) as part of a nationwide tour, having previously been at Newcastle's Northern Stage, and is inspired by the true story of a pioneering queer venue that was lost to history eight decades ago.
Based in Wallsend, Rendez-Vous was set up by artistic director Mathieu Geffré - who knew exactly where he wanted his career to go next when he moved to the UK from France in 2012, having previously trained at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris. "I realised that in my journey as a performer, and as an openly gay man, I had in majority been offered parts where I had to be on stage depicting heteronormative stories, which made me acknowledge the lack of representation for my community in the narratives and roles offered within the dance world," he told Chronicle Live.
"For me, it became an absolutely priority to create a company which would dedicate its artistic action to visibility for LGBTQIA+ narratives - but also for artists who want to work from a place of authenticity," he added.
Matthieu therefore went on to set up Rendez-Vous officially in 2021, with the aim of creating work that holds values of equity, diversity and representation at its heart through the boundary-transcending medium of dance. The company is now home to a team of 25 talented North East artists, all of whom are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
"We all share a common history that has been taught to us at school, and of course history has always been told through the eyes of certain people," Mathieu explained. "So one of my passions is to look into the cracks of our history to find the stories of our community. For me, there is a necessity to bring these stories to a broader audience, because I believe they inform us about the world we live in now."
The Monocle tells the story of lesbian cabaret bar Le Monocle that existed in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s before being closed down during the occupation of France by Germany in World War II. One of the first clubs of its kind in the city, Le Monocle had a reputation as a safe space for women and often had long queues to enter - although, like all lesbian venues, the women who worked there were "constantly monitored by police".
When Mathieu first began researching Le Monocle in 2016, the devastating mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, had just taken place, leaving 49 people dead and 53 more wounded. "History kept on repeating with different queer spaces being attacked. So I wanted to address the idea of a safe space - is it really safe?" Mathieu asked.
His show, therefore, invites audiences to spend a night at The Monocle in a show full of smooth jazz and passionate dances, which Attitude Magazine branded "mesmerising" in a five-star review last month. "I want people to feel that they've learned something about the world when they leave the show," Mathieu shared - and that applies just as much to the wider audience as it does to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
"What's important to me in celebrating queer stories is that when I was a child in the nineties, I had no role model to tell me that feeling a certain way, feeling not necessarily as normal as would be defined within pop culture, was ok," Mathieu said. "I never had those role models within cinema, within music, to identify with.
"I hope what the company does is provide those role models, and show these stories to people who may feel like they need this representation in order to face within themselves. So we are celebrating, of course, work made by the queer community for the queer community - but the work also has to resonate with a broader audience," he added.
The world may have come a long way in many respects since the era of Le Monocle - but today, it remains important than ever that spaces like Rendez-Vous exist for the LGBTQ+ community, Mathieu insisted. "History will only repeat itself if memory is erased," he said.
"We live in a time that is extremely vulnerable for our community. I believe our voice needs to be louder, and louder, and louder, in order to continue existing; to continue fighting for values of equity and representation."
Tickets for The Monocle at Queen's Hall Arts Centre in Hexham on Thursday, June 13 are available to book here.
