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About
Dance Naked Productions
Hi.
Welcome to the last decade of Dance Naked Productions.
Here's a little history for ya.
I started this company in 2005, with the debut of my solo show GGG: Dominatrix for Dummies, but the first ensemble productions happened in 2008 with the debut of Inviting Desire (and in my mind marks the true birth of the company). The second video below gives you a glimpse into what that show was like.
If you are curious about GGG: Dominatrix for Dummies, there is currently no full length video (it's on my to-do list). But you can check out this trailer if you want to get a sense of it. This show is about training to be a dominatrix in NYC, but the heart of it is really about discovering ecstatic dance. (I know, it's a weird juxtaposition, but I think it works).
In 2018 we celebrated 10 years of making sex-positive theater with a gala at the historic Alberta Rose Theater, and I had my pal Sean Bowie put together this video retrospective.
(I gotta be honest, getting video of my productions has never been a high priority. I have a huge bias towards the primacy of the live experience. I am belligerent about the importance of BEING IN THE SAME ROOM. Watching the video feels so diminishing. So let me just say - I offer this video page BEGRUDGINGLY. I wanna see you AT the theater. I wanna hug you at the door. I wanna look into your eyes when I look out into the audience. I wanna breath the same air. But I know that's unrealistic for the vast majority of humanity, so I am allowing myself to be overruled!).
This next video is from the first 5 years of making ensemble shows. I stumbled on the idea of a group show after deciding I wanted to turn the sexual fantasies in Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden into monologues. I hired 7 actresses to help me. But the actresses I cast all ended up wanting to write their own material! (the power of what happens when sex meets creativity!) The first Inviting Desire: A Theatrical Aphrodisiac was largely original pieces (though there was a Leather Daddy scene from the mighty pen of Carol Queen).
The first Inviting Desire was so well received that is spawned three subsequent original productions. You'll get a taste for them all from this short video. They are full are original monologues, scenes and songs, all illuminating some aspect of human sexuality.
After 5 years of making group shows, I felt the call to return to the solo form, and I made Lust & Marriage, which I toured across Canada (and which you can rent on Vimeo). This show is a love story about polyamory, and it's somewhat autobiographical.
While I was on tour, I spent some time in Santa Cruz, and met the women responsible for a local production (and Santa Cruz legend) called What Is Erotic?
The idea behind this show was that anyone could audition. You didn't have to identify as an actor or performer, you just had to have an idea of some kind of sex positive performance piece you wanted to create. The director would help shape your piece and integrate all the performances into one cohesive evening of sex-positive theater. This community cabaret has been playing in Santa Cruz for over a decade, and I wanted to give the idea a try. I'd been wanting to include men (and other genders) for some time, and this provided a pathway to a diversity of experiences. So I created the Portland version.
I loved the format of helping regular people (and some seasoned performers) develop pieces that expressed aspects of their sexuality. So the following year, I decided to create a new show, but one that focused on the revelatory aspects of sharing sexual content. We called that show Revelations.
In 2018, the cultural and political climate inspired another group project, a show called Sex We Can! This show was a vision of the sexual future we wanted to create.
The following video is a compilation from these last three group shows.
I am currently working on a new solo show called How to Really, Really? Really! Love a Woman that explores the fertile subject of Goddess worship (ok, it's really all about eating pussy. Not gonna lie).
You can get a little sneak preview of that show here.
In 2014 I started a small festival of sex-positive theater called Come Inside. I bring shows to Portland that illuminate different aspects of sexuality. That festival turned into a bi-ennial event. Here's a sizzle reel from 2018.
Every once in a while, I'll tell a story on someone else's stage. I've told a couple of stories for Bawdy Storytelling (but sadly, there's no video!)
Here's a story I told for the Mystery Box, a sex-centric show based in Portland, Oregon. This a little bit of an origin story - how I became...me.
The following video is a song I wrote for the second Inviting Desire called Your Body is a Ouija Board. It's one I'm particularly proud of, so I'm sharing it here.
This last piece is called Erotic Watsu, that for some reason is a hit on youtube (well, a hit in the sense that is has more than 5k views). I'm telling you people - live theater does not translate well to video! But maybe I'm a star in Japan or something.
There's a little taste of what we get up to (down on?) here at Dance Naked Productions. But seriously, come to the theater. Everything is better LIVE.
(and I'm so looking forward to meeting you!)
XO
Eleanor
Eleanor O'Brien
Dance Naked Productions, artistic director
PS Like what you see? Join the inner circle over on Patreon!
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