D.TAI TAI

CANDYLICIOUS: reflections on femininity (2019-2020)

Candylicious is a dystopian ode to the standards of feminine beauty. In the piece, I consider the ways to embrace the barrage of societal images of how to be desirable, approachable, and female.

Within that, I question how beauty is defined and actualized in an individual. During the performance, I engage in laborious balancing acts while covering myself with hair mousse and calamine lotion. A brown silhouette lingers in the background watching my every move. The tension between smooth and unfettered beauty is juxtaposed with the sharpness in the muscular acts of fitting the body into various positions and molds. The lightness and pink colored naiveté that I bring with me changes its shade and integrity as I try and fail in the various acts of labor.

As pop music of various languages play in the background, it cloyingly defines the world in which I perform and navigate. There is a reveal the end, alluding to a possible resolution through the various acts of hard work and courage.

However, even as the identity of the brown silhouette is revealed, it says no words of encouragement back. But the more I try to soothe herself with calamine and mousse, the more bound my spirit yearns for explosive and self indulgent movement. Through the pink beauty products around me, I ping pong between different movement qualities: still grittinesss and smooth strength. In the end the questions of how I change my appearance still remain: are my behaviors following internalized standards or are they acts of self expression?


Site (Local Projects, Queens, NY, Nimbus Dance, Jersey City, NJ, and Exponential Festival, Brooklyn, NY) responsive performances of various duration