LIVE NUDE DANCING, a collaboration between photographer Daniel Trese, choreographer Ryan Heffington and animator Johnny Woods. Commissioned by MOCAtv, the film is based on a piece from Heffington’s critically acclaimed show KTCHN and Inspired by the characters of Nolan Hendrickson’s paintings.
KTCHN bridged the gap between a dance-performance, a contemporary art installation, a fashion show and a killer dance party that explored celebrity culture, human loneliness, public versus private image and new elements of drag and queer culture. In LIVE NUDE DANCING, the leading character becomes consumed by newfound fame. He starts off arrogant, cocky and confident, seemingly knowing that he has the seductive qualities to become a star.
At the point of saturation, money slows down, and his exhausted need for attention and validation leads to a state of desperation that have his fans and the celebrity machine pull away from their desired super star. Left alone, naked and defeated, he is brought down to his knees scrambling for leftover cash, and ultimately becomes a victim of his own doing. Trese’s film functions as an extension of a specific scene from KTCHN based on Hendrickson’s painting LIVE RESORT WEAR, a flattened representation of human desperation and the attempts to conceal and defeat it when placed in the public eye.
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