“I have such cancer,” said Brontes Parnell. “Double Sagittarius is also very meaninglessly optimistic.”
With so many projects going on at once, Parnell, who turns 40 in July, has no reason not to do so. He has produced music, movies, dance works and works for many years, but it was his 2021 book “100 Boyfriends” that raised his cultural awareness. With some memoirs, some novels, and some ethnographic studies, this book created an impressive, unlimited map of his sexual adventures and misfortunes in Northern California and was awarded this week. Won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. He remaps those experiences to his body, the place of his art, as evidenced by his stunning array of tattoos.
Born in Alabama and now living in the Bay Area, Parnell has little distinction between body, mind and spirit, and has a sense of unity that conveys his dance. Like his writing, his on-stage presence is very liberal and almost confrontational. And he may not be restrained, but it is always informed by rigor. He worked as a go-go dancer while studying contemporary dance with modern dance pioneer Anna Halprin and other Bay Area choreographers. In 2010, he founded the Brontes Parnell Dance Company.
During the pandemic, his dance practice took the backseat to writing a project. But now he’s back with his first night-length solo dance piece, “Invisible Trial” premiered at Performance Space New York this week In Manhattan. Based on a short story of Paranoid by Sylvia Plath, a 40-minute dance roughly follows the nervous receptionist of a mental health clinic working under the supervision of the God of Anxiety.
Described by Parnell as “a strong condensation of structure, sculpture and text,” this work features a soundscape of passages spoken with original music from a plus story. A minimalist set with ropes, bedding and a reception desk, the performance circulates from his tinsel-covered headpiece to office wear to full nudity.
Parnell turned to playwright Jeremy O. Harris for the help of dramaturgy. Parnell’s longtime collaborator, dancer and astrologer Larry Arlington, I choreographed.
“My role was to help Brontes embody his ideas and always give him as much love and care as possible,” Arlington said in a Zoom interview. “You see what he’s putting out and wonder how he makes all these different parts beautiful and magnificent. One person has so many dynamic sparks. How do you contain it? “
Parnell talked about his relationship with Plus, dance, and the artist’s eternal martyrdom in a quiet room in New York’s performance space. Here is an edited excerpt from the conversation.
How was it back to dance?
I spent on quarantine to complete a new science fiction novel and a new collection of poems, but forgot that dance was basically a language, like another way of writing. It’s time to put your body back on stage to remind you that you live inside your body. The overall point of performance is to rekindle the body. It is a very important spiritual practice.
Tell us about you and Sylvia Plath.
I started reading her like a sixth grader. I had this teacher who gave me her book, and they didn’t know what to give to this little gay boy, so they gave me Sylvia Plus. She has this poem called “Mushroom”. I don’t know, I had a rough childhood, and I just remember the last line that got stuck in me: “By morning / inherit the earth / our feet are at the door . “
What about the plus story “Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams”?
I think it’s whip-smart, beat-nik-like, and has a solid positive voice. It looks very autobiographical because she received ect, and the story tells the story after she finds her boss snooping through the clinic’s files. It ends in getting. It’s very tense, she sets herself as a kind of Christ figure, and her crown of thorns is that of an electric shock.
Are you a martyr?
Yes, but I’m really lazy.
You have all of this amazing body art, and much of your writing is about using your body as a memory. Do you feel like the martyrs are next to each other?
I’m doing that, so no one else needs to. I do dirty work and go report, you don’t have to worry about all of this. Someone told me about me in one review and I found it really interesting. “Brontes is doing all your medicine. Smoking cracks; [expletive] Your boyfriend, and your boyfriend’s boyfriend. Drink vodka — don’t have to. “
You have been trying to do this work for 10 years. What prevented it?
I never had time to solo or gave permission. This was what I always wanted to do right and with support. The San Francisco dance scene is okay, but I haven’t received much financial support from it.
Do you think you gave you that permission? Performance space? Success of “100 Boyfriends”?
It’s been a while since I actually danced because of the quarantine. Most of my performance art has come to do this humane thing I was offering free sex shows online to men in closed countries.
how was it?
It was great because men in homosexual countries are so grateful to you and your body. It gave me a new look at performance about the amount of your soul you are sharing.
How about “Johnny” wanting to be a dancer?
I have always liked the positive nervous tension. She is essentially always writing about anxiety. Here she writes about the futileness of being a salaryman with other dreams. Many of the books I wrote were made in parallel with some of the terrible work I had. This work has other bigger dreams in life, but I think it’s this strange parable for those who are tied to the earth 9 to 5.
What did the collaboration look like for this?
The dramaturgy with Jeremy was a series of late-night calls about the structure I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Along with Larry, I gave her certain parameters.
But I don’t want to put too much stress on my collaborators. I like to set coordinates, go there and deal with them with their voice behind my head. I’m a bit anti-authoritative, so you can tell me what to do, but not many. If you ask someone to choreograph and ask someone to become a dramaturge, you’re basically asking someone to exchange diapers and spanking.
Why is the new title “Invisible Trial”?
It’s about the idea that unexpected behavior happens around you and determines your behavior. For example, if you have a shadow campaign against you, do you actively stand up to it? Or do you continue your normal life and let the universe organize it? Every time you bring it out, do you have something to get the attention of people without clues? Now you are really in the limelight.
