BUTCH BALLET to Have World Premiere at Outside In Theatre in Los Angeles
Performances will run June 26-30.
Who gets to dance, and why? BUTCH BALLET, a new movement theatre work created by award-winning writer and director gina young, puts butch lesbians, trans men, and nonbinary mascs center stage in a series of private moments and pedestrian dances exploring tenderness and queer joy. Premiering at Outside In Theatre (June 26-30), this project is a co-production between SORORITY and Outside In Theatre.
The piece is not a traditional ballet. A series of interwoven scenes using ballet elements like pas de deux and pas de quatre, the work features an ensemble cast lovingly dubbed the "Corps de Butch," (as opposed to the traditional "corps de ballet.") The near-wordless vignettes take place in spaces where butches would normally be the minority, perhaps even feeling unsafe-a locker room, a hiking trail, a ballet barre-instead getting to be among themselves as the majority, showing each other love and care.
By centering butches, the work asks: who gets to be seen as beautiful, and who gets to dance? Despite existing in a moment where over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced across the United States (source: the ACLU), BUTCH BALLET does not center violence and fear. It creates and gives space to see queer and trans bodies in tenderness, in softness, and in unison.
BUTCH BALLET will run June 26 through June 30, 2026 at 8:00 PM and 3:00 PM on June 28, at Outside In Theatre, located at 5317 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042.
BUTCH BALLET's performers, drawn from Los Angeles' dance, theatre, and drag king communities, embody a wide spectrum of identities, including butch women, masc lesbians, transmasculine and nonbinary masc identities. The work embraces "butch" as an expansive and evolving notion, resisting rigid definitions and celebrating its expression in multiple forms.The design team brings together artists working across sound, movement, and design to build an intimate, responsive world around the performers, and features composer Ames Bessada (Black Mirror), movement architect Codi Gentle (Loved Ones), and X. Hill (New York Times Critic's Pick The Carolyn Bryant Project). Featuring: Maze Felix, Anna Moceri, María Jurado, Rae Eubanks, and Denise Jones
gina young's body of work has explored butch/femme dynamics and relationships for almost two decades. In 2006 her music video for the song BUTCH/FEMME, created with her performance art pop duo TEAM GINA, went viral on YouTube with over a quarter of a million hits. In 2013 her play Femmes: A Tragedy reimagined Clare Booth Luce's The Women-in a production with all femme lesbians and queer femmes, and no butches. BUTCH BALLET, ironically, now turns the lens on butches and mascs.
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