The Dazzle Dancers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dazzle Dancers is a performance group founded in 1993 in New York City's Tompkins Square Park during Wigstock by artist Mike Albo aka Dazzle Dazzle. The male and female dancers appear in spare costumes or nude at festivals and night clubs and the Hipster scene. With everchanging memberships, ideas and styles the group describes itself "....more than a movement than an institution". Their goal is "spreading a message of love and sexual freedom".

The group is loosely organized, "unified by our commitment to dazzle in this often dreary world". Their performances in various night clubs and theaters retain the spicy immediacy of street theater. The dazzle dancers are a collaborative effort, sharing the credit for their performances with the multitudes who have contributed their talents to this project.

The DD's follow a tradition of radical queer underground performers such a the The Cockettes in the 1970's or pop icons like the Solid Gold dancers. Their nudity and costumes question any kind of traditional gender roles and sexuality. They take the meaning of gender fuck from its homosexual context and translate it to a broader audience and meaning. "We battle the forces of blandness, fear, and isolation so common in our clenched culture of coffee franchises, fear marketing, and money worship. All of this is accomplished through the powerful forces of dance, glitter, and fun."

The Dazzle Dancers have performed nationally at many late-night clubs, Coney Island Amusement Park, Wigstock, the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, and onstage with the band Blondie to a crowd of 20,000 people at the Millennium New Year's Eve Celebration in Miami, Florida. In October 2001, they danced through the streets of downtown New York, only weeks after the September 11 attacks, to try to lift the city's spirits once more.

In 2006 the Dazzle Dancers are a central theme in a feature movie, the romantic gay comedy Adam & Steve. Steve is a Dazzle Dancer who falls in love with the main protagonist of the movie. The actual DD's perform at the beginning of the movie together with two of the movie's actors.

The group has recently expanded its member list, including a more diverse company of "baby dazzles" from interesting walks of life.