October 2015 | by Zornitsa Stoyanova
for thinkingdance.net
The Rocky Awards is an annual cabaret-style celebration from and for Philly’s dance community. “Rockies” (the awards) are informal—they signify love and appreciation for an artist’s work and they are passed from person to person year after year. The theme of this year’s show—A Funeral—referenced both the closing of the Philadelphia service organization Dance/UP and the Philadelphia Dancing for Justice* protest that ended the evening.
Melanie Cotton and The Women’s Revolutionary Vagime opened the show. Yes, vagime: “like regime and vagina put together,” Cotton explained later. She entered the stage leading a group of women marching and j-setting** in close formation. All were dressed in unbuttoned one-piece uniforms, exposing different colored bras—sexy and militant.
