Male Duets
The duets seen here span two decades, several genres, and many different styles and moods. As evidenced in these excerpts, the ways in which two men can relate to each other are both complex and infinite.
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Bereishit Dance Company
BOW, 2016
In this Korean company’s work, two dancers recreate the act of making and firing a bow, turning these actions into a meditative confrontation.
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MADBOOTS DANCE
BEAU., 2015
This extended duet features the company’s co-founders, Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz, in a much more complex view of masculinity than was possible in the era of Pillow founder Ted Shawn.
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The Wondertwins
Broadway to Hip-Hop, 2014
Identical twins Billy and Bobby McClain are veterans of Boston’s first professional street dance crew, The Funk Affects, seen here in their Pillow debut.
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Tere O'Connor Dance
Cover Boy, 2013
The impetus for Cover Boy was the closeted gay experience, and one critic noted the “struggle, clandestine encounters, effort, bravura, sensuality, and watchfulness” embedded in the multi-layered movement.
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Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion
Pavement, 2013
Even though these two dancers are not alone onstage, their finely attuned movements command the audience’s attention.
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Brian Brooks Moving Company
Motor, 2013
This nonstop virtuosic duet features the choreographer himself in a mesmerizing sequence that, as one observer noted, looks like “they could go on forever.”
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Ballet Boyz
Yumba vs. Nonino, 2008
Veterans of London’s Royal Ballet, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt created this humorous take on tango dancing for themselves.
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Battleworks Dance Company
Strange Humors, 2003
Now best known as the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Robert Battle created this duet while he was still a member of the Parsons Dance Company.
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Salia nï Seydou
Figninto, 2002
Both hailing from Burkina Faso, these dancer/choreographers draw upon their African roots, while intending their work to be viewed in a contemporary vein.
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Company Jant-Bi
Le coq est mort (The Rooster is Dead), 2000
This work grew out of a workshop directed by German choreographer Susanne Linke, exploring man’s alienation from his own physicality and the sources of life – nature, earth, and water.
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Feld Ballets/NY
Yo Shakespeare, 1996
Previewing a dance that would later premiere in New York City, these dancers were said to “bring the rush of urban life into the theater.”
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Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance
Mechanical Organ, 1996
This performance was part of a retrospective program entitled The Magic of Alwin Nikolais, presented three years after this influential choreographer’s death.