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American Utopia dancer Chris Giarmo on bringing queerness to David Byrne's show. - Slate
Oct 18, 2020 2 mins, 20 secs

In Spike Lee’s film of David Byrne’s American Utopia, an ensemble of 16 musicians and vocalists fill the stage of Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, moving freely around one another, all wearing identical gray suits.

A downtown fixture who, like everyone in the cast, made his Broadway debut in American Utopia, Giarmo—along with his fellow dancer and vocalist Tendayi Kuumba—is onstage nearly every moment in the show, singing and performing Annie-B Parson’s unique choreography.

He’s a big part of making a show that’s quite serious-minded feel like a celebration as well?

For Kim, the act of putting on makeup was always just a tool—just a way for me to get from Chris to Kim.

But with American Utopia, from the beginning, I was wearing makeup and I knew it wasn’t drag.

And he was like, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know how important it was for me to see a queer person onstage with one of my music idols.

It’s really just a very basic act of me stepping into my queerness and owning it!

Representation is just so obviously important, and I know that.

A fun side benefit is that the makeup just looks great with that suit?

What’s it like wearing the suit.

Annie-B Parson, the choreographer, was aware that we’d all be wearing suits the whole entire time, right from the beginning?

I think if the look that you’re referring to is self-reflection and self-analysis, then yeah, I think that’s a look that most men should try to adopt?

This process seems like it was really collaborative.

For people who are used to either traditional Broadway choreography or traditional backup dancer choreography in a live music show, the dancing in American Utopia will feel really different.

The choreography is just as important as the lighting, which is just as important as the costume, which is just as important as the music, which is just as important as David’s words.

So much of the way we think of dance as a pop-culture phenomenon are these huge, big explosive moves, like So You Think You Can Dance, but there’s something to be said for these very specific, small movements.

I think we just collaborated in such a beautiful way?

Sometimes you’re narrators, sometimes you’re like a chorus, sometimes you’re like backup dancers.

So for us I feel like it was a different excitement to come to Broadway.

When I watched the film for the first time, I was just like, Oh my God, look at these weirdos.

I feel like we put in just the right amount of camp and just the right amount of wink to really hold space for that cheesy showiness that we love about Broadway.

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