Lady Camden of Season 14 of Drag Race shows off her dance prowess in this short video from Nowness directed by filmmaker Luke Willis. I Don’t Need a Reason is one of six collaborative short films, which Willis has directed to accompany specific episodes from the current season. This film is also the only film that shows Lady Camden untucked and out of drag as Rex Wheeler.
Willis said “It was important to not just showcase the gorgeous tutu created by Katty Scott for the runway of season 14 episode 12 of Drag Race, but to remove the nails, the lips, the hair, and shoes and reveal the artist behind Lady Camden“
Set in two iconic locations in San Francisco and choreographed by Myles Thatcher, a local queer artist with international acclaim, I Don’t Need a Reason celebrates the community that encouraged Wheeler to discover Lady Camden. The pas de deux that the Drag Race star performs with Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s Max van der Sterre is a visual allegory of the transportive power of drag; from raw to opulent, visceral to fantastical. Also, the soundtrack—Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”— shares the same fairytale magic that Lady Camden captures in her on-screen performances.
“Every artist could create a list of reasons why they are driven to create but none of those reasons could ever be enough to justify the force with which the calling to create comes to an artist,” says Willis. “As Lady Camden discovers, we don’t actually need a reason, we just love it and can’t live without it.
Labels: 2022, ballet, Drag Race, Lady Camden, Luke Willis, Max van der Sterre, Myles Thatcher, Nowness
