Paula Pau & Andras Meneses Sousa: PANDORA

Showgirls deliberately present themselves to an audience—glamorous, desirable, and in control. At the same time, this image is shaped by societal expectations and fantasies about what femininity should look like. The showgirl embodies the tension between self-perception through the gaze of others and the deliberate staging of herself as an object of observation. The dance performance by Paula Pau and Andras Meneses Sousa explores this ambivalent process of self-objectification through the figure of the showgirl. PANDORA is not only about external control, but also about the contradictory possibility of gaining power, visibility, and freedom of action precisely through this self-presentation. The showgirl is not only exposed to the gaze but also enters the cycle of desire and projection that creates her image—and destabilizes it. Drawing on the Greek myth of Pandora, the solo—in which the audience can move through the stage space alongside the dancer—unfolds a narrative in which femininity is constructed for the gaze of others: adorned, desired, and feared. The character of the trans showgirl is shaped by Paula Pau’s childhood memories of the kathoey cabaret scene in Bangkok. There, transfeminity appeared simultaneously as glamour, spectacle, and discipline: as a visible and celebrated presence, but also as an image shaped by the expectations of others.

The stage becomes a contemporary Pandora’s box: a charged space in which desire, fantasy, and fear are set in motion. Inspired by Thai cabaret, show dance, Chinese opera, and ritual practices from Paula Paus’s cultural background, the piece follows a body caught between perfection and rupture, image and presence—until the figure on display begins to look back.

Paula Pau and Andras Meneses Sousa collaborate on performances in the independent arts scene in North Rhine-Westphalia. Drawing on their diverse biographical backgrounds in Malaysia and Brazil, they explore queerness, migration, spirituality, and the question of how queer, trans, and migrant bodies are interpreted, projected, and socially situated on stage. Their collaboration combines personal experience, choreographic research, and theatrical form. This gives rise to works that draw on concrete realities of life and address questions of visibility, attribution, desire, belonging, and power dynamics. An early shared starting point was *Imminent Arrival*, which was presented in 2021 as part of *Now & Next* at tanzhaus nrw and subsequently further developed in *SPRUNGBRETT <> TANZRECHERCHE NRW*. Since then, Paula Pau and Andras Meneses Sousa have continued their collaborative practice in various research and production contexts, including at tanzhaus nrw and PACT Zollverein. It was in this context that Luto em Movimento was created—a dance piece featuring local dancers that Andras developed as part of Jornada da Dança in Salvador, Brazil, following a residency at the Teatro Castro Alves and with the support of Paula Pau. The piece explores collective grief in marginalized communities. With PANDORA, they continue this collaboration: Paula takes center stage as a performer, while Andras serves as director. PANDORA builds on this foundation and distills their shared practice into a work about projection, embodiment, and the audience.

Duration: 80 min.

Language: English and Chinese with German and English subtitles.

Accessibility
 

Accessibility Details: Audience Setup: Audience members move freely around the stage area, which has no fixed seating. Seating arrangements can be requested from the evening staff shortly before the performance begins for accessibility purposes and will then be provided.

Sensory Stimuli: Loud music and strobe lights.