Dates
| 04.09.2025 / 19:00 |
Information
my gentle wild squirts is a piece in which it inhabits spaces between dance, theatre, poetry and performance. It dares to bring out the full potential of the feminine voice and its vulnerability, kink, power and sensitivity. It attempts to exceed the muting stamps put out by society, letting all that has to come out, be out.
Inspired by the ideals of Radical Softness, Helena investigates its roots towards her own essence by singing and growling, offering an emotional feast which spills into a transformative and raw performance.
Radical Softness is a term coined by the artist Lora Mathis as a response to the pervasive control of patriarchy on shaming things that are thought to be excessively sensitive, emotional or related to femininity. It carries the conviction that sharing your own feelings and desires unapologetically is actually a political move, and a way to install care in spaces and relationships.
In my gentle wild squirts Helena expresses Radical Softness with finding the empowerment of being hyper dramatic, hyper emotional and hyper sexual. The audience is invited to a strident cave where imagination flows like water. It gets Yumi wet in all senses and Helena goes exploring the many voices that come through. She asks for her Goddess support and a little bit of kinkiness, the Goddess of it all becomes a very dominant figure. All is an attempt to challenge any considered norm of beauty, femininity and harmony and it results in a very visceral exchange with the space, Goddess and everyone around, a gummy reverberation until we touch.
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Performance and choreography: Helena Araújo
Performer: Claire Lefevre
Sound Designer: Marnix von Edge
Dramaturg: Ana Rocha
Artistic coach: Lisa Reinheimer
Lights: Wout Hoste
Co-produced by MakershuisTilburg
Supported by MakershuisTilburg, DeNieuwe Vorst, DeSingel and De Markten
Special thanks to Michiel Vandevelde, Anneke van der Linden, Robson Ledesma, Luiza Cascon, Evangelos Biskas, Eleni Ploumi, Elysia McMullen and Nick van der Heyden
Language: English / Length: 45 min
Warnings: Sirens, Gunfire, Explicit Sexual or Violent Scenes, Nudity
Helena Araújo is an enthusiastic femme maker and performer, lover of plot twists and a clown full of kitsch and bad jokes. She is originally from Rio de Janeiro and currently lives in Vienna. Helena, as a maker, is interested in leaving space for different artistic languages to coexist and blend together. In this space, the conventional values and expectations projected onto these languages, and how they are supposed to relate to each other, are free to be challenged.
As a good libra, Helena loves to please. Besides working within the traditional spaces of contemporary art she also adores to entertain feverous cabaret nights. Helena’s works have been shown in various places such as Studio Brut (AT), Radiant Nights Festival (BE), Moving Futures Festival (NL), FDS Festival (CH), Pinkbus Platform (CZ), Paradise Cabaret (IE) and House of Circus- Cabaret Night(NL). Also, as a performer she has worked with many artists: TRASH performance group (NL), Ivo Dimchev (BG), Renan Martins (DE/BR), Martin Talaga (CZ/SK), Elizabeth Ward (USA/AT) and Ulduz Ahmadzadeh (AT/IR) and so on.
She was also awarded a DanceWeb 2024 scholarship and recently premiered her latest work, And it gets better, at Studio Brut (AT).
https://www.helena-araujo.com/mygentlewildsquirts
photo: Helena Bfaria