Review

"Birkhan's "Butterflies, Sex & Hypochondria" is a body-centered spectacle which draws its strength from transforming sensual perceptions into persuasive images. It is a strong piece, charged on the surface and substantial in the depth. One of those amazing choreographies surfacing in the off-scene that make you think wow, this should run in a theatre with hundreds of seats for a whole season. Until you soberly realize that it would not work, as established art sanctuaries are unapt for these kinds of delicacies..."

Read more of this review by Petr Karlovsky of Butterflies, Sex & Hypochondria's version for In Girum...#1 on Modern Dance Reviews.

performance in Dock 11, Berlin, August 2007

working diary

It is the butterfly in me that wants to be seen, so I go to the dance studio and later on stage to repeat my strange leg dance. If I stay in this cocoon throughout the whole performance I will probably get into a trancelike state, an ecstasy of near suffocation. But that is not the purpose of this dance. And although Sade’s protagonists would probably have enjoyed watching such, I decided not to suffer too much. Just enough to tickle a kind of thrill for the coming scenes. I let the dress fall down. Now I can see the audience and they see my white face and Marie Antoinette wig. We move from abstract to fictional character. Cultural connotations are enhanced. I want to give the audience material to grip on. They can sink their teeth into my flesh if they want to. “What a sweet but untouchable woman. What a desirable but angry female.” But if this new character doesn’t like their bite it will shake them lose and change tactics. Once the dress has fallen down and ass and pussy are covered she becomes shifty and all the humour is gone.

I have arranged the atmosphere on stage in a way that when I become still or stop moving I can slip into the frame of a painting by one of the old Dutch masters and drag some of their colours and lighting out and with me. I can leave these patches of memory to warm the heart of my audience.

The most difficult is the extended crawling on all fours. How to do that? The condition for this event, of course, is to wear the dress in folds on the back. Like that you can all get a nice look at my ass while I reach a certain high peak of decadency in my doing and in contemporary art of the 21st century. This overused crawling, that actually nobody is doing, and if then not with the due dedication is of such delicacy, is of such promising double-tonguedness, that I have to practice it probably till the end of my live.

performance in Bains::Connective, Bruxelles, September 2007
in collaboration with cellist Silvia Platzer

working diary

Making this dress was a whole fucking lot of work. But I enjoy sewing, especially at night with the lights low. Then I can become a night-butterfly and give into the magnetism of something powerful. In my case - the jumping needle. The faster, the better. For sewing you need strong nerves and every mistake ends in a big fat swearword. The nastier, the better. And while the needle is pounding up and down, you can think of Marquis de Sade’s philosophical excursions. Especially if you make a dress like I did. It is a dress inspired by Baroque and Rococo female clothing styles, with a wide décolleté, slim waist and should only be worn without panties.

It is the dress of all dresses, an artefact, costume, that I first put over my head and then pull down over my naked body. But I don’t like to think of it as a symbol, I like to handle it with a sense of pragmatism and use it just to show what it is supposed to be hidden. Thanks to this dress I will be more naked or differently naked than just naked.

If I dance while stretching my arms over the head and holding this dress almost airtight to build a cocoon around my upper body, you can just see twisting legs, ass and pussy.

more pictures of Butterflies, Sex & Hypochondria on Petr Karlosky's internet site Modern Dance Reviews and soon an article.

performance in Dock 11, Berlin, August 2007

flyer - In Girum...#1 - Dock 11, Berlin, August 2007

press picture - der Tagesspiegel 09-08-2007

press picture

press picture - Bains::Connectique, Bruxelles, September 2007


press picture - Dock 11, Berlin, August 2007




press picture - Autresens, Mazères-sur-Salat, July 2007

Working versions of an earlier stage of Butterflies, Sex & Hypochondria - were presented in VCA, Brussels and DWA, Amsterdam in 2004 - then the project evolved into the dance + projected text performance Den kreisrunden Todengwalzer tanzen.