In On my tongue, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, Paolo de Venecia Gile, Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen, and Emilie Gregersen debate queer touch, boundaries, and communication. The piece, which premiered in Copenhagen, is showing from 27-29 March at UFER_STUDIOS.
We enter the smoky hall in Heizhaus. Two performers each lay intertwined on the floor. They caress each other. Tenderly. Despite the cold brick wall and the red concrete floor, a sense of intimacy and closeness arises. At the same time, I’m reminded of party night endings, outfits still on, holding onto the body of the other person until you fall asleep. One hand guides the other. One body moves, pushes, binds the other one tighter. Entities of different body parts crawl through the space. I hear a quiet whispering and follow the intense stares. Tongues cluck in rhythm with the repetitive movements. Caressing turns into kneading of arms, neck, face.
Do you trust me?
Yes.
I mean
For the most part.Boundaries are negotiated, verbally and physically. At first, the communication seems awkward. Perhaps because this negotiation process is rarely taken for granted. “This feels familiar.”
The desire for closeness spreads, even closer than skin on skin, to a desire to discover the insides of the other. With eyes, fingers, mouths. “This feels inappropriate.” Tension is negotiated and a push-and-pull occurs. Like magnets, the dancers find themselves drawn to one another, placing their own weight in the hands of the other, pulling the other person towards them and sidestepping a tight embrace.
This feels like
Feels like…Slowly, in a polyphonic choir of voices that reminds me of Gregorian monks, a song resonates. The happening becomes a ritual with an almost church-like tone. A queer prayer that makes me smile. The ritual expands from us to the back wall and ends in multiple, simultaneous orgasms.
Feels like falling
Like chewing gum, the individual performers break loose from the wall for exciting solo performances. Staccato movements interrupt the juiciness. Even the facial expressions of the dancers is impressively choreographed, relating pleasure, joy, repulsion, attraction, and fascination together with the movement. Is it not precisely this flow of emotions that constitutes intimacy?
The first movement in unison is a body roll, which the dancers perform in a cluster. The background music has now morphed into a distinct beat, as cold and raw as the walls. My memories of party nights have returned. At first, we only see the performers’ backs. I miss their expressive faces. A partner dance of sorts unfolds in a tight embrace, its direction changing in accordance with the different impulses from the individual dancers.
At the end, everyone is together on the floor. Three performers explore the fourth performer’s mouth with their fingers, taking out the tongue. Before the mouth can be explored by other mouths, blackout.English translation by Melissa Maldonado
On my tongue, by Emilie Gregersen, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, Paolo de Venecia Gile and Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen was performed from 27-29 March 2025 at Heizhaus at Uferstudios.
