John Kelly: Underneath the Skin

Created and performed by John Kelly, this new dance-theater solo draws from the life of the societal and sexual maverick, Samuel Steward (1909-1993). A novelist, poet, and scholar, Steward abandoned his post as a staid university professor to reinvent himself as a writer of gay erotic fiction (aka Phil Andros), and as one of the 20th century’s most accomplished and influential tattoo artists (aka Philip Sparrow). He had trysts with Valentino, Lord Alfred Douglas, and Roy Fitzgerald (aka Rock Hudson); attracted the friendships of Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, and Andre Gide; and having meticulously recorded every sexual encounter he ever had, he became an unofficial collaborator at the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research in the 1950s.

In this NYU Skirball commission, Kelly combines Steward’s drawings, letters, photographs, and manuscripts, with video projections and digital animations of Steward’s tattoo designs and erotic illustrations into a kaleidoscopic salute to a queer rebel.

Appropriate for ages 18+