ALMODOVAR DYSTOPIA, the work I am creating with my spunky company The Gang Bangers, is part Latinx-flavored queer “asstravaganza,” and part an outrageous political statement against the body-negative and repressed nature of the world we live in. Featuring video, movement, spoken word and gourmet cooking, the piece celebrates all things corporeal through my trademark chaotic and joyful storytelling style.
Using my personal Queer-Puerto-Rican-Cha-Cha-Heels-Shaman identity as a point of departure, I guide my collaborators through an exploration of gender diversity and representation. The performers conjure exaggerated personae from their personal backgrounds, laying bare the challenges, anxieties, and neuroses entailed in the process of dance-making. We are creating a melodramatic world evocative of Pedro Almodóvar’s most outrageous characters, on a collision course of glamour and decadence.
SELECTED PRESS:
Letting It All Hang Out; Almodóvar Dystopia Review
Is that Jennifer Lopez imitating Charo or just the projection of a buff naked Latino - with a lion’s mane for hair - vamping in front of a mirror like a teenage girl bobbing about as if she were Mariah Carey - hand gestures and all - mouthing the words to everybody’s favourite anthem from Dream Girls ? Actually, it’s Antonio Ramos striking poses in a green screen room at Dixon Place for the appropriately titled ALMODÓVAR DYSTOPIA. Early Almodóvar, mind you; not the tender artist he has matured into.There is nothing tender about this nude drag show of a cabaret act disguised as dance theatre, and I mean that in the best way possible. Have you ever wondered how the physical manifestation of “A hot tranny mess” would look? The answer is this.
—Juan Michael Porter II
The Huffington Post
MORE PRESS:
Dystopia at Dixon Place
I couldn’t tell you what Almodovar Dystopia is about, but I don’t think that’s the point. The show isn’t designed for a pointfor-point retelling of a story, but about the experience. And the
experience of Almodovar Dystopia is intense. It is a bawdy, camp-filled queer bilingual burlesque send-up of Almodovar-ian tropes. And everyone is naked.
—Aurin Squire
New York Theater Review
Antonio Ramos’ Almodóvarian Vision
For those who love dance, the films of Pedro Almodóvar, and the human body, I suggest “Almodóvar Dystopia,” Antonio Ramos’ choreographic, multi-media vision, playing at Dixon Place through September 30.
The bearded, ebullient Ramos described his piece as “a general view of Almodóvar’s work, and it’s more about his process. Some of his films I have drawn upon are ‘All About My Mother,’ ‘Volver,’ ‘Talk to Her,’ ‘High Heels,’ and, of course, ‘Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!’ I think Almodóvar and I may share creative processes, improvising and putting layer after layer over our original concepts. As a choreographer, sometimes I make my dancers learn a piece of choreography all by themselves, and then I put this dancer with the others and it all comes together. READ MORE
—David Noh
Gay City News
Video Required, Clothing Optional
Dancers, naked like Ramos, slowly then quickly populate the stage, with Spanish soliloquies or not, until six varieties of human are dancing, running and mingling around the stage. Oddly, Ramos'
Spanish is clear(ish) even to non-speakers, but the extended initial ramble by Alvaro Gonzalez Dupuy, not so much. Whether Dupuy's speech echoes Almodóvar or fills in some blanks, he does prepare us for the nudity that quickly becomes no big deal. READ MORE
—Quinn Batson
Offoffoff
Shows by Bausch and Inspired by Almodóvar Revel in Physical Mayhem
If you can’t get a ticket to see Pina, you might consider checking out Antonio Ramos & the Gangbangers, whose Almodóvar Dystopia has set up shop at Dixon Place through the end of the month. The Spanish filmmaker used a scene from Bausch’s 1998 Masurca Fogo in his 2002 Talk to Her. Ramos, a Puerto Rican dancer-choreographer with no inhibitions and a clutch of handsome colleagues game to play a whole evening naked, takes inspiration from Almodóvar: A program note thanks him “for showing us the intrinsic essence of being human is messy and fun.” READ MORE
—Elizabeth Zimmer
The Village Voice
CONTRIBUTORS:
Dancers: Alvaro Gonzalez Dupuy, Luke Miller, Angie Pittman, Sarah White-Ayon, Darrin Wright, Awilda Lora.
Choreography: Antonio Ramos
Music: Admanda
Costumes: Claire Fleury
Visuals: Alex Romania
Set: Sam Gassman