"The roughhousing young puppies, the canine love duets, and the group sequences exploring the movement repertoire of dogs are all captivating.… Menacing jaws built out of stacked elbows, rows of sharp teeth built out of fingers - the virtuosity of invention is immense…. An ingenious playground, magnificent group scenes and a staggering amount of creativity."
- Tumasch Clalüna, Basellandschaftliche Zeitung

The dance production Doggy Style was born out of a fascination for dogs. The choreography transposes the athletic poetry of spontaneous canine movements onto human bodies and minds. Different scenes explore the uneasy relationship between dogs and their human companions-relationships which are fundamentally unequal, and yet can be both rewarding and sustainable.

Non-verbal communication plays a central role in Doggy Style. The evening-length production for four performers - all of them human-features an innovative mixture of dance and sign language, humanity and animality. The production has been designed to be accessible to both hearing and hearing-impaired audiences.

Watch the trailer at bit.do/M1SFF_doggy

Joshua Monten was born near New York City and studied literature and cultural anthropology at Duke University before beginning his dance studies. Joshua frequently choreographs for opera, community dance projects and theatre productions in inventive stagings where music, text, and dance become intricately entwined.

Relationship to Art and the Animal

Choreographer Joshua Monten has long been interested in dogs. He delights in their physical exuberance; he is fascinated by their always somewhat precarious domestication; he is jealous of the impunity with which they succeed in ignoring many of the rules which define human society. Doggy Style is based on detailed analyses of canine movement. Real dogs were invited to participate in the studio rehearsals, and the production team visited numerous dog parks to observe the humans and dogs that congregate there.

The long-term relationships between dogs and their human companions can be helpful for understanding entirely human relationships. Can a partner really sense what we're feeling? Who belongs to whom? The choreography concentrates on relationships which are based on obedience, dependency, inequality and trust.