Normalizing the male touch
Choreographer Norbert De La Cruz Choreographer brings male duet piece to TITAS’ Command Performance RICH LOPEZ | Staff writerrich@dallasvoice.com Choreographer Norbert De La Cruz III didn’t realize his commissioned piece would be a dream come true for him.
On Saturday, April 23, he will present Two Places at Once at TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND’s Command Performance Gala. The piece is among more than a dozen works being performed, but this will be his premiere performance in many ways. “This random dream was offered to me,” De La Cruz said by phone from his New York base. “I’ve also never made my queer dance appearance onstage, and this could be a great way to do that.” The special quality of the piece is its cast of two male dancers in a duet.
While the piece explores the relationship between two men, De La Cruz says it has multiple meanings. “[TITAS Executive Director] Charles Santos came to ask me to create a work for TITAS, but we never confirmed that it would be a queer-forward piece,” De La Cruz said. “It can be read this way certainly, but I also want to give the audience the freedom to interpret what this means to them.” In some ways, De La Cruz wants to destabilize both the model of a dance duet on stage and the impressions of masculinity such a duet sometimes offers — or doesn’t offer. “I wanted this weight sharing to be equal between the dancers, with lush and supportive lifts,” he said. “Whether it’s romantic, brotherly or a negotiation, there’s this vulnerability men don’t express in public, and this normalizes the male touch.” Two Places at Once features Bruce Wood Dance’s Cole Vernon and Xavier Mack of Dallas Black Dance Theater, two dancers who have never worked together before.
