The Dance of the Last Horse on Earth is a solo created and performed by Madison Palffy
It is part cathartic Midwestern drag, part fake guided meditation, and part Hollywood movie gone wrong. Horse asks if we can put on whiteness as a kind of drag to better investigate its violence and failures. It is a work of science fiction that looks like your middle school gym teacher having a midlife crisis. It asks the “so-obvious-it’s-dumb” question of: “what would it feel like to be the last horse on earth?”. I playfully invite in the impossible and attempt to attune myself to non-human intelligences.
Horse premiered as a part of ASSEMBLÉE (APRIL 15-16, 2017), a new performance event series: an opportunity for WIVES collective (Emma-Kate Guimond, Julia Thomas & Aisha Sasha John) to align with other performance-makers to promote hybrid forms of genre-defying live art. The Dance of the Last Horse on Earth has also been shown at the School for the Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA and The Iron Factory in Philadelphia, PA.
PRESS:
"Donning a cheap wig, red track suit reminiscent of gym teachers everywhere, and a hefty accent located just this side of Fargo, Madison Palffy’s The Dance of the Last Horse on Earth was a satirical punch in the face wrestling with decidedly darker themes. Palffy embodied an alter ego using techniques from motivational speakers to bolster her audience. But does she believe her own catchphrases? Dancing, rolling, and running in exhaustive circles, Madison seemed an enthusiastic participant in the rat race of life. Buzzing thickly underneath, however, was an inner self-questioning the chase, notably asking “Who am I?” In the end, as she turned the light onstage towards the viewer, we were left to reflect on these questions within ourselves."
-Courtney Colon https://philadelphiadance.org/dancejournal/2018/06/08/share-at-the-iron-factory-an-eclectic-collision-of-theatre-and-dance/