The ballet “Filling Station” holds a unique place in American dance history. Created in 1938 by an American choreographer with an American composer, it was an innovative work with a theme centered around the interactions of characters at a gas station. Although it was popular at the time, it is now rarely performed.
Artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy discovered a fragment of “Filling Station” through Paul Cadmus’s original costume design for the character Mac. This led Lutz-Kinoy to create his own version of the ballet, commissioned by the avant-garde art center the Kitchen. The debut performance will take place at an actual filling station in the West Village.
While Lutz-Kinoy has retained some characters from the original ballet, he has made significant changes to the scenario, music, and costumes. The choreography, originally by Lew Christensen, has been replaced with new work by Niall Jones and Raymond Pinto. Lutz-Kinoy considers the original “Filling Station” as his “ghost collaborators,” representing a historical precedent for queer expression in ballet.
The project is not only a performance but also an art-historical study. An exhibition at the Kitchen’s temporary space showcases archival materials from the history of “Filling Station” alongside photos, videos, and paintings by Lutz-Kinoy. The performance at Dia Beacon will feature a backdrop collaging these paintings.
The original “Filling Station” was created by Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan, an effort to establish ballet in the United States. Lutz-Kinoy’s project aims to reclaim Kirstein and his circle as trailblazers of queer aesthetics. In his version, Lutz-Kinoy has updated the characters and replaced some archetypes with more contemporary figures.
Jones, one of the choreographers, focused on the diverse cast and their different dance backgrounds, creating a unique and dynamic performance. Performing the ballet at an actual gas station adds to its transformative nature, blurring the boundaries between art and reality.
The gas station setting also carries weight due to recent events, such as the death of O’Shae Sibley in a homophobic attack at a gas station. The creative team involved in “Filling Station” is conscious of this tragedy and aims to respectfully honor it without exploiting it. They recognize the constant reality of queer, Black, and trans death and mourning and acknowledge that their project exists within those realities.
The creative team behind “Filling Station” is driven by the concepts of freedom and the duality of joy and horror. They strive to create a performance that resonates with these moments and engages with the world around them.
