Bringing their recent debut to Portland for two nights only, Seattle duo Jenny Peterson and Kaitlin McCarthy present a dance work of horror, humor and friendship to Performance Works NW (4625 SE 67th Ave.). Told through their distinctive aesthetic of the unhinged and uncanny, DRIVE WOLVES MAD tracks the aftermath of an inciting event and ambiguous line between victim and perpetrator. The musical score by Peterson riffs on predatory pop songs, altering and abstracting them as an act of reclamation. The duo’s journey seeks to transcend archetypes authored by men, finding their way to a place of survival and remediation, a way to exist in a context of their own creation.
Through the dance they move from a place of dissociation into states of empowerment, which sometimes looks like camaraderie, sometimes wild physical abandon and sometimes a complete release of the societal obligation to be a palatable, consumable feminine entity.
Featuring original costume design by McCarthy, this physical and vulnerable dance work culminates a decade of development in the duo’s most ambitious and risky performance to date.
Tickets for the Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19, 7:30 pm performances available at tickettailor.com/events/pwnw/1365141. Tickets $15-$25, sliding scale.
