"The choreographic trilogy dragON, co-authored by Aleksandar Georgiev, Zhana Pencheva, and Darío Barreto Damas, a.k.a. STEAM ROOM (North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Spain, Sweden), deals with the protest and celebration of the body on drag scenes, exploring their relation within dance and choreography. It is structured in three choreographic pieces that deal with dance, sound, and location, respectively: dragON aka PONY (2018), dragON aka PHOENIX (2021) and dragON aka FOREVER (2023). dragON aka PONY is a choreographic work that undertakes creating a space of constant transition, unfolding intimacy and exposing a humble co-existence through dance references from the past and present arriving from Western and Eastern Europe. “Within a frame of contemporary Pop, the work revives geometrical choreography through the prism of classicism and the usage of folklore as a ritualistic form. That way dragON aka PONY offers a little bit of Isadora Duncan and a lot of MTV or VH1,” as the dancers say in an announcement for the piece. The second part of the trilogy, dragOn aka PHOENIX, also deals with the protest and celebration of the body on the drag scene, exploring the correlation between the drag/camp/ gay practice of reading and dance and choreography. Using a direct approach and the specifics of musical theatre as a form, the performance problematizes the potential absurdity in choreography and dance.
While the first two parts of the trilogy are inspired by and work with two specific drag practices—ballroom and reading, respectively—in the third part of the choreographic trilogy, DragOn aka FOREVER, STEAM ROOM turned their attention to the drag practice of lip-syncing in relation to choreography and dance, while staging a celebratory party-like atmosphere and a catwalk of masterpieces, failures, virtuosities, and vulnerabilities. Georgiev and Baretto Damas’s work has not been limited only to their dance projects. In the past couple of years, through a series of workshops, they have been working on ‘drag choreographies’ dedicated to the drag community in Skopje and everyone else interested."
