A Strong Desire, 2018-2019

A Strong Desire (2018) 

A Strong Desire is a translation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria into a dance. The DSM text represents a psychiatric diagnosis that allows access to trans health care like hormone therapy and surgery. It also represents the medicalization of Trans identity, acting as a barometer against which Trans experience is judged. Starting from the text Lou found the shapes and lines of Labanotation, a choreographic notation system, in the spaces between each word. These shapes were then scored and read, resulting in a set of movement directions. Leelee then took these directions and translated them into dance. 

A Strong Desire: Syntactic Movement (2019) 

In Relations of Responsibility, Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University Curated by cheyanne turions. 

This iteration of A Strong Desire took twelve poses from the original score and used that as starting points to explore kinespheric drawings against the gallery wall. The drawings remain on display for the duration of the exhibition. By exploring all possible movements within a series of fixed poses I attempt to find moments of resistance and freedom within the rigid constraints of both the diagnostic criteria and the dance notation.