Malachi Middleton struts forward with a long black lace durag trailing behind him, eyes intensely focused as he sways his hips and teeters his shoulders. His muscles tense and relax at once. “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” by Sylvester echoes throughout Pieter Performance Space.
The ensemble shifts in slow motion, following Middleton’s lead, as the energy meets somewhere between confrontation, sultriness, softness, strength, pride, pain, and love. It’s a balancing act that requires grace to reconnect with history with the entire body and soul. This feeling — this lightning in a bottle — is what makes up Black queer legacy in Bernard Brown’s “Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves.”
“Sissies, Something Perfect Between Ourselves” Choreography by Bernard Brown – Photo by Angel Origgi, courtesy of Bernard Brown bb/moves.
Brown’s latest dance project, which was presented on June 20, 2026 in collaboration with Pieter Performance Space and funded in part by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, honors the icons of Black queer culture in Los Angeles (and beyond). The work is made up of meshing tableaus that bleed into one another, reflecting on issues of representation, the AIDS epidemic, and pure joy. “Sissies,” which is also part-exhibition, isn’t meant to be watched, but instead embodied in community. Through sound curated by Defacto X and movement — which flows between modern, contemporary, vogue, and house — Brown proposes that a rebellion should defy boxes and categories. It should feel more like a party.
“Sissies” begins with performers Middleton, Montay Romero, Alejandro Perez, John “Spirit” Swampshire, Otis Donovan Herring, Achintya Bose, and Sherman “Bam” Wood circling the space, slowly finding a place to land. They’re all dressed only in underwear, a statement that asks the audience to see them as flesh and bone. Who they are is malleable. They can be anything they want and be with anyone they want. As they dance with one another, their sultry movement reveals both their beauty and confidence, blurring the line between masculinity and femininity. They discover a sense of pride in the word “sissy,” often used to diminish and discriminate against queer men.
“Sissies, Something Perfect Between Ourselves” Choreography by Bernard Brown – Photo by Jason Williams, courtesy of Bernard Brown bb/moves.
Brown beautifully infuses narrative into these abstract reflections on queerness. The most emotional one is subtle. Bose primarily sits away from the fold of dancers in the first moments of the piece. Slowly, he steps forward, following their steps and finding joy in it. Here, Brown tells the story of a young queer man finding his footing in the community. As Bose’s smile widens, the joy of the movement and queer spaces surfaces.
These joyful moments are juxtaposed with stories of struggle, specifically the AIDS epidemic. Audio of news reports shares how the illness strongly impacted Black and brown queer people. Together, the group falls atop one another. When one collapses, the others come to the rescue. In duets, they test the limits of this push-and-pull with lifts and turns that challenge them to stay in sync.
“Sissies, Something Perfect Between Ourselves” Choreography by Bernard Brown – Photo by Jason Williams, courtesy of Bernard Brown bb/moves.
The movement vocabulary caters to the performers’ strengths, resulting in a mix of styles like modern and vogue. This approach makes the moments of unison so much more rewarding, especially when Brown establishes the movement motif that becomes central to the work. They all hold an arm, wrists bent. With the other hand, they pull it to their chest, making it reverberate through their bodies before circling their heads with the bent wrist. This queer-coded gesture becomes a storytelling tool, allowing the dancers to find a throughline as they build new worlds on stage.
Romero is a standout performer, moving with so much control as he shifts from vogue to a balletic turn. While the others are still, he slowly catwalks, moving with precision as he lowers his body to the ground for a dip. The execution is magnetic, and his intention is strong. He upholds a persona as he moves, making his final pedestrian walk at the end of his solo feel pointed as he steps out of it.
“Sissies, Something Perfect Between Ourselves” Choreography by Bernard Brown – Photo by Jason Williams, courtesy of Bernard Brown bb/moves.
In a show dedicated to icons, Bernard makes space for people to add their own through the exhibition. Pieces are interactive, and in one, you can write the names of pivotal people in your own queer journey.
As queer people, we get to choose our family, especially as queer people of color. This act has become central to our spaces, from the dance floor to the runway. When blood family may not be there for our authentic selves, a chosen family is there to offer the love and support we yearn for. It could be as close as a friend or as distant as an icon, like Beyoncé.
In some of the final moments of the piece, the ensemble gathers together in a circle, dancing with house footwork. Everyone is smiling, turning these handful of steps into somewhat of a line dance. They rock back and forth with the rhythm, looking at one person over their shoulders and turning to the next person as they spin. Underneath “Sissies” is a story of resilience that may look like confrontation, sultriness, softness, strength, pride, pain, and love. But at the core of Black queerness is this beaming level of joy.
To learn more about Bernard Brown and bb/moves, please visit their website.
Written by Steven Vargas for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Sissies, Something Perfect Between Ourselves, Choreography by Bernard Brown – Photo by Angel Origgi, courtesy of Bernard Brown bb/moves.
