Harald Beharie: Batty Bwoy

By reappropriating the Jamaican term “Batty Bwoy“ (literally: butt boy), a discriminatory slang term for a queer person, Norwegian-Jamaican dancer and choreographer Harald Beharie twists and transforms the myths of the black queer body. In an odyssey of droning prog-rock, his powerful and energising solo BATTY BWOY traces sedimented narratives of the queer body as a perverse and deviant figure – and attacks and embraces them in equal measure. With BATTY BWOY, he evokes an ambivalent being that unfolds on the threshold between the precarious body, liberated power, joy and ‘batty’ energy. Beharie received a nomination for the Norwegian Dance Critics Award for BATTY BWOY in 2022 and won the Hedda Prize for ‘Best Dance Performance’ in 2023; the production has been touring internationally with great success ever since.