{"id":3040,"date":"2024-02-27T11:04:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T11:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newbalticdance.lt\/?post_type=mec-events&p=3040"},"modified":"2024-05-02T16:54:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T13:54:17","slug":"cherish-menzo-nyderlandai-belgija-jezebel","status":"publish","type":"mec-events","link":"https:\/\/newbalticdance.lt\/en\/renginiai\/cherish-menzo-nyderlandai-belgija-jezebel\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherish Menzo (The Netherlands, Belgium) \u2013 JEZEBEL"},"content":{"rendered":"Tickets<\/span><\/a><\/span>\n

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ATTENTION.<\/strong> Spectators arriving late will not be admitted to the performance.<\/p>\n

Duration:<\/strong> 55 min.<\/span><\/p>\n

JEZEBEL is a dance performance inspired by the \u2018Video Vixen\u2019: female models who appeared in hip hop video clips in the late \u201990s and early 2000s.<\/span><\/p>\n

Images in the mass media \u2013 and in music videos particularly \u2013 often projected the female in a hyper-sensualized way. The repetitive images in hip hop videos reinforce stereotypes associated in particular with black \/ dark \/ coloured women. Video Vixens \u2013 also referred to as \u2018hip hop honeys\u2019 or \u2018video girls\u2019 \u2013 were the subject of severe criticism and often typified as the \u2018Jezebels\u2019 of the late 1990s and early 2000s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the pre-Youtube era \u2013 when MTV still meant Music Television \u2013 the Video Vixen model played a central role in video clips. In spite of the explicit lyrics (usually written by men) and the sensual, seductive and scantily clad appearance of the vixen, her performance had a great influence on the aesthetics of these clips. As well as on the popularity of the (male) artist.<\/span><\/p>\n

JEZEBEL refuses to be defined by others. She navigates the landscape of hip hop culture, looking for ways to reclaim her own image. Can JEZEBEL deconstruct the controversial stereotype associated with the black hip hop honey? How did this video girl redefine herself today?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInitially there was an urgency, a personal need to create something different, to give myself the possibility of proposing a representation of my body that was my own and, in that way, to escape the stereotypes that were imposed on me. During the creation of the work, I asked a broader question: what is contemporary dance?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a background in contemporary dance, but I don\u2019t subscribe intimately to the references of that environment. I grew up with MTV, so my references in terms of female representation are more on that side. I also realized that I was uncomfortable with the hyper-sexualized representations of black women\u2019s bodies in visual culture and in the media. A generalization such as \u2018the black woman\u2019 shouldn\u2019t exist, because there are many ways of being and becoming.<\/span><\/p>\n

My desire to escape the expected categories \u2013 \u201cshe’s going to do hip-hop for us, isn’t she?!\u201d \u2013 had led me to develop forms of resistance and to be torn by a very conflicting inner dialogue. With JEZEBEL, it was a matter of giving myself some space in which to be free, to seek and accept, in the process of creation, the movements that I was going to make\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Cheriz Menzo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cherish Menzo<\/b> (\u00b01988, The Netherlands) is a performing artist and choreographer, based in Amsterdam and Brussels. For her artistic work she is interested in the transformation of the body on stage and in the \u201cembodiment\u201d of different physical images. Images seem recognisable at first glance, but by highlighting their complexity and contradiction, Cherish questions the apparent norm and creates universes in which the black body stands central. She floats between the nostalgia of 90s and 00s hip-hop, industrial hip-hop, rap lyrics, sci-fi, manga and speculative futures. Using these elements as tools to give shape to \u2013 and materialise \u2013 uncanny, enigmatic forms and realities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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