Dance Flash: Tits And Sass At Project BUST

We all have boobs! Moobs, cahongas, tatas, boulders, melons. You name it, and we latch on like a hungry baby. Choreographer Malinda LaVelle places breasts centerstage this week with her movement exploration of all things womanly and chest-related in Project BUST.

Through The Garage‘s Resident Artist Workshop (RAW), LaVelle spent her time, from the initial idea to the full blown exploration, delving into the world of feminine dips and curves.

LaVelle says that “the piece started out with only four dancers as a small five-minute showing for Ben Levy‘s Salon, and RAW enabled me to expand dramatically upon this to create a full-length (almost an hour-long) work. The process always seemed to come really easily and clearly to all of us since we were dealing with such a tangible and loud subject. We [the artists and I] had a lot of conversations about our boobs that revealed vulnerability, softness, stubbornness, and often anger. The things I saw and heard from each of the dancers inspired me to create a roller coaster of a piece.”

Now, my rack hates roller coasters. Something about the sheer force of being swooshed around in a cart at glaringly high speeds, up, around, and upside down, with a giant bar strapped across my upper torso, makes me think these crazy gravity-defying metal rockets weren’t conceived by any sane woman.

Even today, Christina Hendricks still can’t find a designer with the skills needed to dress her womanly form, and Keep-a-Breast is all over the news for trying to spread breast cancer awareness to teens. But breasts, as covered as we keep them, are still at the tips of everyone’s tongues. And a metaphorical roller coaster, well, I can handle that one. No duct tape required.

LaVelle continues, saying, “The world is clearly obsessed with boobs, so I took that obvious obsession and blew it up. I was interested in looking at all of the stereotypes associated with our tatas and then used that content to not necessarily make a statement, but rather to relish in our boob culture. As a group we discovered a lot of humor while working with our girls, but at the same time we found profound sadness when approaching subjects such as puberty or self-consciousness.”

LaVelle, who was tapped a few years ago to create work through the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, is also a dancer with The Foundry. She hopes to continue exploring her (and other people’s) breasts.

At least, creatively.