Jody Kuehner will perform Cherdonna Shinatra, Patron Saint of Velocity—an early manifestation of a performance to premiere in June 2016 as part of Velocity’s 20th Anniversary season. This performance is part of a suite of queer, feminist dance performances by drag/dance bio-fem Cherdonna to be developed, in part, through Velocity’s Made in Seattle new dance development program.

Cherdonna’s “action painting” performance is an homage to the feminist performance tradition of the female body as canvas and political territory for social change, rebellion, and personal expansion. The performance combines vintage feminist ideals with present day queer drag vision.

Interwoven into the “action painting”, Cherdonna Living is a performance practice taking Cherdonna, as art project, off the stage and into mundane situations, activating one-on-one encounters at the intersection of the persona and the person of Cherdonna and her impromptu partners. Drag, born out of nightlife, elicits social confusion in daylight. Cherdonna, meeting and greeting Frye patrons, will utilize movement as communication and the awkward but beautiful tension between expression and social etiquette.
—Velocity Dance Center

About Cherdonna Shinatra

Jody Kuehner is a Seattle-based dance artist, director, drag queen Cherdonna Shinatra. 2015 Stranger Genius Award Nominee and 2010 Spotlight Award winner. Cherdonna Shinatra’s choreography has been presented by every major contemporary dance venue in Seattle and WA, including On The Boards, Velocity Dance Center, Bumbershoot, CityArtsFest, Northwest Film Forum, Century Ballroom, and Methow Arts; in New York at Joyce SoHo, Risk/Reward in Portland OR, New Grounds Festival in Tampa FL, and the Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance conference Ann Arbor, MI. She frequently works with Dayna Hanson, Pat Graney and Mark Haim including Assistant Director for Hanson’s Improvement Club, Gloria’s Cause and The Clay Duke; performances in Graney’s House of Mind and Haim’s This Land is Your Land. These projects enjoyed tours throughout the U.S. and in Paris, France. Kuehner also assisted Graney’s KTF Prison Project. From 2003–2009, Jody was a member of d9 Dance Collective performing works by Nugent & Matteson, Keith Johnson, Daniel Cheron, KT Niehoff, Amy O’Neal and others. From 2008–2013, as part of the The Cherdonna and Lou Show she produced five evening-length productions.

About Velocity Dance Center

Velocity is Seattle’s award-winning, premier art center dedicated to contemporary dance, fulfilling an un-duplicated role as the essential incubator and forward-thinking laboratory for new dance in the Pacific Northwest. Velocity is a “national nexus for dance” with artist-led classes and workshops every day, performances every week, three annual dance festivals, ongoing humanities programs that activate thoughtful conversations, and weekly community events. Home to hundreds of independent dance artists and renowned for producing innovative, cutting-edge work, Velocity has featured performances and master classes by art stars Tere O’Connor, Pat Graney, Reggie Watts, Miguel Guitierrez, Zoe Scofield, Anouk van Dijk, Danielle
Agami/Ate9, Amy O’Neal, Keith Hennessey and more.