RAS - Carl Aquilizan: Flower Boy

Childhood fantasies such as being a princess or a mermaid were interests he later became ashamed of. In the solo, he fortunately cultivates them again and explores how traditional gender norms in a Filipino-Norwegian upbringing have shaped and limited him - and how he can take back his childhood dreams.

Flower boy is inspired by transformative methods from the Japanese dance tradition butoh. Butoh has a long history of thematizing queerness, gender norms and taboo subjects. The way in butoh uses images, distortion, exploration of tension and extremity, opened up a safe space to explore personal and difficult feelings through an abstracted expression, says Aquilizan.

Cast: Choreographer and performer: Carl Aquilizan Costume: Chris Le Producer and inner eye: Anders Engebretsen Outer eyes: Geir Hytten, Huy Le Vo, Magnus Myhr Music: Robin Crafoord Lighting design: Kjetil Moslåtten Set designer: Nemanja Cado Photo and film: Joshua Jacob and Antero Hein Participating in the preliminary project: Marit Meløe (inner eye), Lou Ditaranto (inner eye), Reem Hassan (carpet design), Harald Beharie (outer eye) Co-producer: Bærum Kulturhus – Dans Søreast-Norge, TekstLab Collaboration partners: Fotogalleriet and CODA Oslo International Dance Festival Supported by: The Norwegian Cultural Council, FFUK and TekstLab