Dead Bird Flying to Japan

Jesse Smith (the petite dame of the Dead Bird Movement) is taking her visceral and slightly crazy duet Thrashoholic to Japan this December.

The piece involves Smith, a drummer, some long light bulbs, violent dancing, and five shots of whiskey, consumed quickly.

From a review of Thrashoholic‘s premiere in August:

Panting, Smith hauls a table with an unopened bottle of Maker’s Mark and five shot glasses into the center of the stage. She lines up the glasses and pours five shots, drinking the first two quickly. The third goes down with more effort and coughing. She stares at the other two slack-jawed and panting, like an exhausted boxer. Smith holds her hand over her mouth to keep the fourth shot in. The fifth she swallows, then immediately vomits back up through her fingers. She looks pissed. The audience winces and leans forward at the same time.

The rest of the dance is slower, Smith executing difficult balance postures, struggling against her own drunkenness. She lifts one leg slowly, painfully in the air, her lips curled in a determined snarl, her eyes rolling back in her head. It’s an ode to effort, to self-limitation, to being one’s own worst enemy. She thrashes some more, then collapses. The drummer stops, walks onto the stage, and drags Smith out of the room. The audience claps and murmurs. A young, crusty-punk dude says to no one in particular: “That was hardcore.”

I have a feeling Jesse Smith is gonna be big in Japan.