CHIMERA

by PILLARS Pole Dance Company

choreographed by Gina Alm & Cameron Boucher-Khan in collaboration with company dancers

premiered May 2026

duration: 50 min

dancers: Ben Lavon, Cam Boucher-Khan, Chelen Middlebrook, DeShawn Marshall, Gina Alm, Jesseca Scott

CHIMERA:

1. (In Greek Mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.

2. A thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve

PILLARS' debut performance, CHIMERA, borrows and blends language and aesthetics from experience in New York City str!p clubs as well as a multitude of dance genres (pole dance, contemporary, modern, ballet, and Latin ballroom) to create an evening length meditation on pole dance performance.

In CHIMERA, we construct and deconstruct the false dichotomy between fantasy and reality in str!p clubs and other settings where bodies are capital. The fantasy – the elevated image projected onto the dancer – is a fluid truth that weaves through each of our seemingly unique realities. Like many jobs, these realities include the often challenging physical and energetic work we perform and the sometimes horrifying places and contexts in which we perform it. In truth, each is a facet of the chimera monster – the patriarchy and the power dynamics it entails. Str!p clubs are fertile breeding grounds for the chimera, laying bare the gendered power dynamics that underpin our contemporary culture and reproducing them anyway.

Tonight as pole dancers we embody the monster, and we attempt to thrive among and inside of it.

With gratitude, Gina & Cam