Engages,
Iris Elgar Maude King’s Love Soirée
Dates: Tuesday 13 February, 7pm - 9pm
On the eve of the equally beloved and dreaded holiday, Valentine’s Day, Maude King (Iris Elgar’s drag alter ego) is inviting some dear friends over to attend a love soirée. Free to attend, guests are welcome to come and go as they please throughout the evening. Take a seat and craft your own love letter, sip some complimentary drinks, and gaze at the display of love letters curated by Maude King. Pushing the conventions of what a love letter can be is most certainly encouraged. Maude King will be engaging with guests throughout the evening – look to them for useful/useless advice – and an array of materials will be available to use. Silly and sincere, ‘Maude King’s Love Soirée’ is a one-night-only event to commemorate Valentine’s Day in a low-stakes, communal manner.
Due to limited seating, guests are encouraged to offer their seats to others who are yet to craft a marvellous love letter, once they’ve finished their own, of course.
Iris Elgar is a dancer and choreographer, living and working on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people. They completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2022. Within their practice, they are fond of character creation and worldbuilding, keen to explore the relationship between audience and performer. They often incorporate introspection, queerness, specificity, and absurdity into their work. They are curious about the convergence of dance with other art forms, notably textile art, costuming, and performance art. Iris engages with choreography and performance, alongside workshops, residencies, and secondments. They have had the pleasure of performing in works including ‘Splinter Group’ (Lucy Guerin, 2022), ‘Rise’ (Brianna Kell and Daniel Riley, 2020), ‘Again, and’ (Iris Elgar and Valentina Emerald, 2023), ‘Frank and Tomaat Test the Grounds’ (Iris Elgar and Valentina Emerald, 2022), ‘Celestial’ (Zoë Bastin, 2023) and ‘AMPLIFY’ (Valentina Emerald, 2024). Maude King is their drag alter ego, inspired by male impersonators of the 19th and 20th century, and is a vessel for exploring conventions of masculinity, affection, and performance