Performed throughout Boston and Cambridge
​Every Holiday Season

With friends The Bang Group, Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion has been pleased to present Funny Uncle Cabaret & Nut/Cracked at the Boston Center for the Arts, The Dance Complex, and more for the past few holidays.

With Funny Uncle Cabaret & Nut/Cracked, the holidays have never seemed less dysfunctional and more fun! ​

First Act: ​Funny Uncle Cabaret

PDM’s alternative family-inspired alternative Non-Nutcracker, Gumdrops & The Funny Uncle has toured nationally over the last 15 years, bringing stories and dances about adoptive, LGTBQ+ and all families that don't fit into a Currier and Ives snow scene. At the center of all this is Sienna, a niece waiting in the wings, and in Mexico, to join her family of choice stateside. Public Displays of Motion - fresh from a year long residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - will showcase excerpts from the show in cabaret-style, inhabiting this land of sweets and the real world, too.

What's a funny uncle?
In the gay world, it was a term of endearment (well, sometimes...) of that relative or acquaintance that was bit odd, eccentric. They could be gay- or they could just be an interruption of the habit of "straight" male-dom that passed for the norm. Edward Everett Norton and Paul Lynde were funny uncles; Alice on the Brady Bunch...and someone you know?

*Funny Uncle Cabaret handles LGBTQ themes maturely and is suitable for all ages. If questions, please contact press contact: Colleen Cecchi at colleen@dancecomplex.org.

Second Act: Nut/Cracked

"Nut/Cracked is a masterful mash-up of nostalgia, artistry, and fun.  [It] unpacks the traditional holiday Nutcracker through a post modern dance lens that will make you feel as if you have just eaten a big plate of your very favorite holiday sweets and, joyfully, not gained one pound.”
- The Huffington Post

​Second Act: Nut/Cracked is David Parker and THE BANG GROUP’s witty, subversive take on The Nutcracker.  Both neo-vaudeville and neo-burlesque, Nut/Cracked takes its inspiration from the entire canon of  dance: tap riffs mingle freely with ballet steps, disco, contemporary dance and toe-tapping.  Wrenching the context from silly to sublime, Nut/Cracked features stomping on bubble-wrap, consuming a Chinese take-out noodle en pointe and an ardent grand pas de deux combining thumbsucking and soaring ballet lifts.  Parker often pushes the classical until it bleeds into the vulgar and ridiculous, but the work retains a sense of beauty.  Nut/Cracked is anchored by Parker’s affection for Tchaikovsky’s score which ranges from versions recorded by Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller to the traditional orchestral suite.  Joining the Bang Group on stage will be young pre-professional dancers from the Ballet Arts Centre of Winchester and Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

About THE BANG GROUP:
THE BANG GROUP enters its sixteenth year of Nut/Cracked this season. The company performs throughout the US and often in Europe. David, a Bessie (NY dance award) recipient and named a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, has created over 50 works for Bang Group and companies world-wide. THE BANG GROUP was founded in 1995 by Jeffrey Kazin and David Parker. It is dedicated to Parker's love of rhythmic form and is known for its commitment to craftsmanship, creative liberty and aesthetic diversity.

The company has toured and performed in 24 of the United States and appears internationally at festivals and venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, The Netherlands, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Canada. It has enjoyed four seasons presented by New York Live Arts and six by its predecessor, Dance Theater Workshop, three by Danspace Project as well as several by DanceNow/NYC, Symphony Space, Harkness Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors and others. 

TBG has a second home in Boston, developed during 15 seasons in residence at Summer Stages Dance and through long-term partnerships with The Institute for Contemporary Art, Dance Complex and The Theater Offensive. Recently Parker and Kazin have launched DanceNow Boston/NYC a choreographic exchange serving artists in both cities. TBG is also company-in-residence at The Yard on Martha's Vineyard having appeared there for the last 8 seasons.

Cover Photo by Alland Torchand