MEN in charge

Photo by Kevin Leiver
MEN poster
MEN at Mac Hall
MEN in charge
MEN at Christmas
MEN in charge / Dance of the Puppets

MEN in charge

MEN in charge is a film that explores the creation and presentation of the live performance work, It began with watching. In doc(mock)umentary form, MEN in charge depicts how kloetzel&co. was able to create a brutally humorous take on gender and/in the U.S. political landscape as ‘alternative facts’ and outlandish acts take centre stage. Co-created with the cinematographer and director Linnea Swan, MEN in charge offers an entertaining and honest portrait of a sector enthralled with power. 

Since its release on January 20, 2021 (U.S. Inauguration Day), MEN in charge has received a Best Short Documentary Award from the DC AFTER DARK International Film Festival, a Best Documentary award from the Mabig Film Festival (Germany), a Best Female Short award from the Freedom Festival International (USA), a Best Experimental Film from the GO Independent International Film Festival (USA), as well as an Honorable Mention in the Documentary Short category at the New York IO Film Festival (USA).

MEN in charge has also been competitively selected for screenings at the Toronto International Women Film Festival, Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (Boulder, CO), the LA Independent Women Film Awards, Film Girl Film Festival (WI), Star City Film Festival (MN), the ARTS x SDGs Festival (NY), the Festival of Genders and Performances (Portugal), dance:made in canada festival (Toronto), Reading Film Fest (Reading, PA), FLOW Festival (FL), and the Moving Parts Film Festival (Los Angeles).

Two sneak previews of the film were presented by Wild Dogs international Screendance Festival and through ReLoCate’s The Experiment #4 series. Subscribe to the kloetzel&co. YouTube channel to see three episodic trailers for the film. 

The film is based on the work It began with watching that toured to over ten theatre spaces and alternative sites in Canada between 2016-20.

The Coming Silence

The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence
The Coming Silence

The Coming Silence

Are we exempt from the diorama? Who will be left to witness our appearance in the museum of the disappeared?

The Coming Silence aims a critical eye at the divisions humans create between themselves and the rest of the biotic world. Through a work that places very still or slow-moving performing bodies on display, The Coming Silence asks us to consider when or how humans might inhabit the display cases of natural history museums currently inhabited by ‘animals of interest’.

The Coming Silence encourages audiences to question humanity’s future in light of climate, ecological, and viral emergencies, thereby highlighting humanity’s ethical dilemmas in the Anthropocene. 

The Coming Silence developed as a work-in-progress in 2020 through Kloetzel’s work with dance majors at the University of Calgary; it is currently in development with the company for an evening-length exhibit.

The Gene Sharp Legacy Project

Gene Sharp Legacy Project
The Gene Sharp Legacy Project
The Gene Sharp Legacy Project
Gene Sharp project

The Gene Sharp Legacy Project

The Gene Sharp Legacy Project is part research project, part training, part temporal collision. Delving into the research by historian Gene Sharp on non-violent protest, this project by Melanie Kloetzel (kloetzel&co.) considers what past bodies can teach present and future bodies who move beyond despair or feigned ignorance and take to the streets in protest.

Premiere presented by ReLoCate, The Experiment #4 series. The work has toured to Vancouver’s Left of Main as part of Left of PuSh (co-produced by plastic orchid factory), to Edmonton’s Spazio Performativo (with co-production by Mile Zero Dance), and to Calgary’s Doolittle Studio Theatre, all with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Fairy Queen

The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen
The Fairy Queen

The Fairy Queen

Henry Purcell’s semi-opera, The Fairy Queen, was written for a caste system, where the landed gentry wanted, nay demanded, entertainment to fill their hours. So, how can such blithe baroque fare be relevant at this juncture? 

In 2020, three co-directors, Melanie Kloetzel, Peter Balkwill and Laura Hynes came together to engage in a research project to restructure The Fairy Queen for the contemporary period. Performed by students at the University of Calgary, this new version of The Fairy Queen also offered a vision of utopia (dystopia), but one predicated on the ideals of both consumption and the creation of waste that is ingrained in capitalist society today. Through a rewritten libretto, restructured musical arrangements and tongue-in-cheek choreography, The Fairy Queen examined the behaviours that support our inequitable system.

February 2020 at the University Theatre.