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Carlos Pons Guerra includes Tom Spanbauer along with the other great artists as an important interdisciplinary influence.  “... I hope my many sources of inspiration, the worlds I like to inhabit artistically-–in this case, Jean Genet, Almódovar, Tom Spanbauer, ballet archetypes-–are also there, too.”

15 Sep 2016|

“Mariposa: A trans, Caribbean re-imagining of Madame Butterfly,” by Gareth Johnson for Gay Star News


Carlos Pons Guerra’s new work in development for DeNada Dance Theatre is Mariposa – a transgender, Caribbean reimagining of Madame Butterfly.


Pons Guerra’s piece transports Puccini’s iconic orientalist libretto to a distant Cuban port in the 1950s – creating a tale of sacrifice, transgenderism and hope between a Caribbean rent boy and an American sailor.


An exciting cast will head this new work: courtesy of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Laszlo Major will play the role of Butterfly; former Scottish Ballet and Houston Ballet dancer Owen Thorne will be his Pinkerton, DeNada’s Marivi Da Silva will feature as Kate, his wife, and former Phoenix Dance Theatre dancer Phil Sanger will be Goro, the brothel owner, in what promises to be a riotous and passionately tragic new work by the company, with costume designs by Ryan Laight and lighting by Barnaby Booth.


Ahead of the London preview of Mariposa, we spoke with Carlos Pons Guerra for a behind-the-scenes look at the production:

Gareth JohnsonHispanic/Latin machismo, sexuality and religion are themes that seem to run through much of your work. How does Mariposa connect with previous pieces that you’ve created?

Carlos Pons GuerraMariposa continues my investigation of how we can design our gender, and of how our sexuality and gender can have huge consequences on how we are viewed and treated. The relationship between Butterfly and Pinkerton is a sexually aggressive, destructive but ultimately loving one, and I think with that it continues to express the power politics in relationships that I am interested in. The cultural and artistic pastiche is also there, and I hope my many sources of inspiration, the worlds I like to inhabit artistically—in this case, Jean Genet, Almódovar, Tom Spanbauer, ballet archetypes-–are also there too. I use Hispanic machismo, and homosexual/trans themes in this and my other works because they are the place I come from, the culture and family I belong to. But ultimately what I try to do is create work that everybody can relate to. I am tired of, as a gay man, being asked to constantly relate to heterosexual archetypes. We are expected to see ourselves in Romeo and Juliet, and if you create a work about two men, it is classified as queer work and supposed to be for a queer audience. Why? Do we think Romeo and Juliet is a straight work, only for straight audiences? During one of the work-in-progress sharings, a heterosexual female audience member, without knowing my libretto, commented on a brothel scene where Butterfly is visited and degraded by several male sex-pests. For her, the scene spoke about the many relationships you have in life, and how they can erode you until you are left on the ground, the imprint they leave in you. I was very happy that she didn’t see a comment solely on gay life there, but rather she thought of her own relationships with men and how they had chiseled her. That’s the kind of reflection I want from my audience, and because of who I am and where I come from, I do that through themes of Hispanic machismo and homosexuality.


To read the entire interview, go to Gay Star News.