A statement by the organizers about the show is here, contact us here, see more about the artists on this year’s tour here, and see when we’re coming to your town here.
HEELS ON WHEELS FAQ
Y’all tour? Where have you been?
In 2010 we went to Baltimore, Richmond, Durham, Asheville, Duke U., Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin and Southwestern U.
In 2011 we went to Montreal, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Bloomington, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Ypsilanti, Detroit and Philadelphia.
How do you travel?
In a van! We want to bring about a post-petroleum, post-plastic world, so we drive around for our tours in Damien’s giant Chevy G20 conversion van called The Dream which seats seven people and all our stuff comfortably all while getting a peak-oil-achieving 14mpg.
What’s femme?
That’s a great question, and one that no one can really assert — but perhaps we can shed some light. A femme is someone who embraces parts of themselves that are feminine. We don’t think that any one is “all” femme or that any type of femme is “the” ideal or normal or regular ‘femme’. We also think femme has anything to do with being a woman — we know LOTS of genderqueer, masculine and other femmes — and we don’t think femmes have to do anything that is traditionally feminine or womanized. Some femmes play that way, some don’t. To us, femme is about wielding gender-based power and about being in our bodies in ways that are authentic and relate to feminine cultures, identities and/or ways of being in presentation, spirit, or action. About being challenging, using artifice and bare fact; about femininity and construction. Femme is feminist in that femmes make more ways to be feminine in the world. Femme is grounded in resilience in that denotes ways of being which are often denigrated as instead safe and as necessary.
Hey ladies! Are you all women?
Hey darlin hold up: Heels on Wheels is a collection of people of all genders. Some of us identity as ladies, others of us as genderqueer, others of us as masculine. Femme is a gender for some people, but not for all of us. Femme is definitely more than “women” and as such there are folks of all genders in our show and in our audiences.
How are you paid? Is this your full-time job?
We are independent artists, and that means we depend on our community to come to our shows. We don’t have big grants or institutional support. We LOVE community shows and want to be with our people, sharing our work.
We also all work other jobs: as teaching artists, students, musicians, communications workers, community organizers,…
What does your tour do? You’re…burlesque dancers or something, right?
Heels on Wheels is a performance art tour in a cabaret style. We choose to highlight theatre work and multimedia performance-based works in our featured performers, as we see that there are fierce venues and platforms already in existence for literary and burlesque based performances. We love readings and burlesque — thats just not what we specifically do. We make space for more types of artistic presentation by feminine spectrum folks, and we think that’s really important.
How can an audience be a good audience?
Participate! Engage with us! Don;t say Hey Ladies! Be ready for anything to happen on stage! Talk about it with your friends afterwards! Cheer! Buy Merch [it buys us dinner]!
What was your favorite show you ever did?
It’s REALLY hard to say, but the show at the Old Miami in Detroit was one of our favorite. The Cupcake Collective DJed with us, we danced all night, the audience was amazing and Detroit is fuking awesome. I don’t know, though. A different HOW performer might have a different reply.
Who is single in the tour?
Depends on who’s asking.
