Andy Warhol's DRELLA ( I Love You, Faye Driscoll)
A movement-based drag performance essay inspired by Andy Warhol’s alter ego “Drella” — a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella. Beyond the focus on Warhol's legacy, DRELLA addresses Kelly's concerns with identity, sexuality and self-worth. In this Vogue-Ballet, Kelly creates a surreal world; a gender-bending, race-shifting, multi-medium “Artsploitation” in response to today’s consumer culture, and celebrity worship.
WATCH TRAILER
PRESS
Raja Feather Kelly’s voguing of Drella distills this history into a potent force of performance art that critiques and undermines what Warhol’s — and, by extension, our society’s — preference for white meant yesterday and continues to mean today.
-HYPERALLERGIC
exultant and challenging work;
-DANGEROUS MINDS
A Very Pleasant Thursday Night Filled With Drag, Smashing Vogue, Cabaret And Ballet.
- GAYLETTER
"Baring Their Legs, The Six Dancers Perform Splits And High Kicks That Would Put The Perkiest Cheerleader To Shame."
-The Dance Enthusiast
This Show Is Gender-Bending —
And A Bit Mind-Bending, Too.
-Brooklyn Paper
DRELLA was created in part at the Bates Dance Festival's 2013 Emerging Choreographer Program and funded in part by The Foundation For Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant Fund.
Concept And Direction
Raja Feather Kelly
Original Music
Tito Ramsey
Lighting Design
Zephan Ellenbogen
Photography
Andy Toad
Filmography
Laura Snow
Communications And Design François Leloup-Collet
Performance
Raja Feather Kelly
Amy Gernux
Yvonne Hernandez
Nik Owens
Rachel Pritzlaff
Rebecca Hite-Teicheira
Connor Voss
Benjamin Wolk
Anna Schon
Additional Performers
Jeremy Jae Neal
Yeman Brown
Bryan Strimpel
Lindsay Head
DRELLA was self-produced at the Invisible Dog Art Center December 12/13 2013 and its’ reprisal was co-produced June 4-6 2014.
