host

about

HOST is an all-male work that explores power, authority, control, isolation, and desire. Within these paths, the word ‘host’ emerges as both sexualized territory as well as a bodily struggle. ‘Host’ is a word that is especially layered in the queer community, where one word is so weighted by both history and its digital presence – host of a dinner party, host of a game show, host to an orgy, host to a virus…

U.S. Premiere: March 2016 at Miami Dade County Auditorium On.Stage Black Box
Choreography, Direction, and Co-Concept: Pioneer Winter
Music: ABI-L-ITY and the performers
Lighting Design and Technical Direction: Gary Lund
Projection Specialist and Technical Assistant: Jason 'Boogie' Peterman
Performers: Dario Gonzalez, Alex Ortiz, Alberto Pena, Jr., Patrick Rodriguez, Pioneer Winter

trailer

still images

Perhaps the most engaging aspect of HOST was the performers’ often unconventional physicality and the way each embodied movement [...] The performers’ physical eccentricities were paired with focused types of movement and vocalization to fully articulate each character type with some depth. Further, the movement did not feel artificial or forced, but rather as though each performer had internalized his character and was acting and moving from inside his role [...] [Winter] has said recently that he prefers not to use mimicry with dancers repeating set sequences. Instead, he has chosen to work more improvisationally, giving the performers loose instructions or physical challenges and allowing them to choose what that might look like. In the final product, each character has a way of moving that seems to belong only to him. Yet a high level of choreographic vision is evident in the way that all five characters, in the duo and trio, were integrated into a whole.
— Catherine Hollingsworth, Artburst