SEX TAPE
"SEX TAPE’s strange tension between friendship and erotic love, replacing the lover with a same-sex friend, was also its genius. Revlock’s work dares the audience to imagine alternate possibilities for love, care, nurturing, and touch. And it poses a mighty challenge to the interpersonal disconnect of the digital era, especially the so-called gamification of dating and romantic relationships." - Broad Street Review
In 2018 I had the realization that I was seeking care (in the form of physical contact) from male lovers although many of my primary care-givers were female friends. So I asked a man if I could record an intimate embrace and then I took that spontaneous choreography to my friend Michele who I'd known for over 10 years and asked her if she'd be willing to recreate it with me. This experiment was an effort to complicate notions of what friendship can look and feel like, repatterning my own search for care. Years later I found this article in The Atlantic which you might enjoy too: What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life?
This work exists both as a live performance, with a duration of 35-55 minutes and as a video (clip above) which runs 20 minutes.
Performers: Michele Tantoco & Gabrielle Revlock
Cinematographer & Editor: Shawn Kornhauser
Film Production Advisor: Dave Ratzlow
Reviews
"This is a beautiful piece of choreography where each movement means something." - LouReviews, 10/1/20
"This is a work that does seemingly little onstage, but a lot on the psyche." - Bodies Never Lie, 1/14/20
"Revlock refused to flatten or neatly arrange the work for a viewer. Confronted by a performance oriented resolutely inwards, I found my vision sidelined and my sensitivity heightened: watching Revlock run her fingers through Tantoco’s hair, I felt an echoed tingle on my own scalp. My breathing gradually synchronized with theirs. Eventually, my attention expanded to take in the slight shifts and swallows of the audience members around me. The tender attentiveness circulating between Revlock and Tantoco had seeped into the rest of us as well." - ThINKingDance, 1/13/20
"Much of the duet is on knees, the posture a peculiar blend of childlike innocence and something more suggestive. A gauzy sweetness hangs over the duet, conjuring the early days of a relationship, when you could happily laze in an ever-shifting cuddle for days. When you offer not only your heart and your body, but the most precious commodities in our modern lives—your time, your attention, your presence." - ThINKingDance, 3/7/19
"I claimed that the word this piece evokes is “intimacy”, and that word (alongside others like “care, touch, and friendship” which were provided by Revlock herself) is at the core of what makes SEX TAPE an engaging and profound performance experience." - The Dance Journal, 2/18/19
"SEX TAPE’s strange tension between friendship and erotic love, replacing the lover with a same-sex friend, was also its genius. Revlock’s work dares the audience to imagine alternate possibilities for love, care, nurturing, and touch. And it poses a mighty challenge to the interpersonal disconnect of the digital era, especially the so-called gamification of dating and romantic relationships. SEX TAPE shows people pausing to be fully present with others, even in this age of hyperconnected distraction." -Broad Street Review, 2/18/19