LAVENDER
COUNTRY
THE BALLET
Dekkers has choreographed and/or directed over a dozen new works for Post:Ballet, including evening-length productions such Lavender Country. Lavender Country is the first openly queer country music band. Formed by singer and lead guitarist Patrick Haggerty in 1972, the band’s debut album, eponymously named Lavender Country, is the first known gay-themed album in the in history of country music. Patrick Haggerty most recently performed with Lavender Country in Sonoma, California in 2019. Based in Seattle, the band’s members originally included Patrick Haggerty along with keyboardist Michael Carr, singer and fiddler Eve Morris and guitarist Robert Hammerstrom. Dekker notes that Patrick Haggerty is iconic in his own right and, “was talking about trans rights in the 1960s and 70s.” While the world of 1973 wasn’t quite ready for Lavender Country, the band’s debut album was rereleased in 2014, including songs like Gay Bar Blues and Stand on Your Man.
Music is very important to Dekkers. He says, “The last couple of years, I can count on one hand how many pieces we’ve done with existing music. We almost always commission new scores and work closely with the composers throughout the process.” The singer songwriter instrumentalist Star Amerasu has performed on stage with Post: Ballet. In the past two years, Star Amerasu has released two EPs described in the San Francisco Chronicle as “sometimes-witchy electronic music.” Star’s music takes us on a journey through her personal lens—moving through the world as a black queer trans woman. The collaboration between Star Amerasu and Post:Ballet emerges as Incandescent Body. The cabaret-style performance captures the redemptive power that can be unleashed in tragedy—even in life’s darkest hours, art ultimately transforms grief that is raw and vulnerable into radiant beauty.
Star Amerasu
Incandescent
Body
Post:Ballet