Tambourines

Founder of the Zürich Dance Ensemble and winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Trajal Harrell combines contemporary dance, voguing and Japanese butoh dance with fashion and the visual arts. In his works, he reimagines the past, transcending time, geographical and cultural boundaries, whilst always paying particular attention to aesthetics and costume.

He was named Dancer of the Year by Tanz magazine in 2018, and his works have been performed at venues including the Centre Pompidou, the Palais de Tokyo, the Festival d’Avignon, MoMA, the Barbican and the São Paulo Biennial, amongst others.

A young woman has a son and everyone is wondering who the father is. However, Hester Prynne categorically refuses to reveal his identity. Such an offence and defiance could not go unpunished in 17th-century Puritan American society, and Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her chest at all times.

When Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850, there was no term for women who claimed freedom with respect to their bodies and their sexuality. Much less there was any form of support network to protect them. In his book, Hawthorne highlights the danger posed by “condemning sinners” and the public signalling of immorality.

The American choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell wonders what must have happened back then, when European settlers occupied territories and subjected their women to arbitrary rules. What if a woman with an illegitimate child had actually been condemned to wear a scarlet ‘A’ sewn onto her dress? Where would have she been met with contempt, and where might she have found some empathy?