Mariposa, a Queer Tragedy inspired by Puccini’s Madame Butterfly by Carlos Pons Guerra (‘The Pedro Almodovar of dance’) and the DeNada Dance Theatre is about to embark on a UK National Tour. 

Its an operatic dance drama, that transports Puccini’s Orientalist libretto to post-revolution Cuba, to a dockland world of faded showgirls, hopeful rent boys, troubled sailors and divine queer spirits. Engulfed in a tropical storm of repressed desires, the production is a passionate and deeply moving exploration of what we are ready to sacrifice in order to be loved and accepted.

Carlos Pons Guerra is one of the UK’s leading voices in contemporary queer dance. With a truly distinctive style, theatricality and aesthetic, his work explores gender, cultural and sexual identity. It often stems from his personal experience and his desire to put LGBTQ+ narratives on the dance stage, stylishly staged in ways that evoke his Hispanic/Latinx cultural heritage. Premiered in 2021, Mariposa revisits the problematic gender and colonialist aspects of Madame Butterfly and asks how iconic operas like this can remain relevant today.

Mariposa is set to an original score by three-time winner of the Spanish MAX Awards for the Performing Arts, Luis Miguel Cobo, which takes its inspiration from Caribbean sounds as well as Puccini. The libretto is by French-Indian writer Karthika Nair, costume and set designs are by 2023 Olivier Award Nominee Ryan Dawson Laight and lighting is by Guerra’s long-time collaborator Barnaby Booth.

An exceptional cast includes Dan Baines (BalletBoyz) as the sailor, Holly Saw (Mathew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands) as Kate and Elle Taylor-Francis (Northern Ballet and Leipzig Ballet)

Tour opens: The Dukes, Lancaster on Tuesday 
8 October London premiere: The Place, Tuesday 25 to
Wednesday 26 February
https://www.denada-dance.com