Projects — Leoni Marie Huebner Photography

» Of Homage and Resistance «
The research and exhibition project deals with the Ukrainian genderfluid dancer
and artist Alexander Sacharoff, who is considered a pioneer of modern dance.

Production of the Habibi Kiosk of the Münchner Kammerspiele. In cooperation
with DANCE 2023 festival and Munich Dance Histories.

Like many of his contemporaries, Alexander Sacharoff shared a great enthusiasm
for Greek antiquity. This was especially visible in his choreographies, which were based
on vase paintings of this epoch. Thus, his dance did not consist of flowing movements,
but of a sequence of progressive poses.
The dance direction of voguing is also based on images; in this case, images of
fashion magazine titles such as Vogue. Here, too, the dance originally arose from the
juxtaposition of poses.

Both dance genres are an expression of queer life realities, homage, and resistance.

In Sacharoff's case, the reference is not only homage, but also legitimation for his art,
an art beyond the academically recognized. In a way, he used the reference as a legitimation
to be allowed on a larger stage at all. In voguing, the reference is a way to immerse
oneself in a world of fashion and glamour, a world that remains closed to the vast majority
of people in the ballroom community.
So both are not just about paying homage to these reference cultures. The homage is a self-
empowering reinterpretation and thus also becomes a protest.

Together, voguer Santi Revlon and I have developed a choreography and images based on sketches
by Alexander Sacharoff that take up Sacharoff's poses and transport them into the world of voguing.
Big stage meets subculture, Greek antiquity meets pop culture and fashion.What particularly moved us during the process was how well these two so different worlds could
be dovetailed in the end.In addition to the dance study, I accompanied the research and preparation phases with Santi Revlon
documentarily and conducted an interview with him.