Androgynous

About

One hundred years ago, a young woman turned the nightclub into an avant-garde stage and her body into a symbol of sensual resistance. Anita Berber, who died at 29, is a legendary countercultural icon and perhaps the first nude stage performer in history. Her transgressive art, blending eroticism and gender fluidity, embodied the creative fever of 1920s Berlin, yet her work was nearly erased by the Nazi regime. What remains of her magnetic performances—often reduced to scandal—are press clippings and police reports. Director Lola Arias, working with pole dance artist and performer River Roux, creates a bold work at the crossroads of documentary theatre and choreography. Alongside Bishop Black, a performer and adult-film actor, and Dieter Rita Scholl, a non-binary septuagenarian, River retraces Anita’s life and revives the mesmerizing beauty of her dance. By invoking their own biographies, the three artists also confront taboos through their bodies, as the specter of censorship and erasure resurfaces.