Take Off Your White Shoes and Dance The Reds

This was my dance interpretation of El Lizzitsky’s propaganda poster called “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge”

I envisioned the piece as a hip-hop style dance-off between the Tsarists and the Bolsheviks. With the constructivist forms represented as hip-hop contemporary moves and the more balletic forms representing the traditions of the Tsarists. The performance includes a variety of different visual references to symbols and images from the time.

The music uses sections of “God Save the Tsar” by Alexei Lvov and Vasily Zhukovsky performed by The Orthodox Singers Male Choir, Choirmaster: Georgiy Smirnov, against sections of “Bolshevik Leaves Home” by D. Vasiliev-Buglai and D. Bedniy,