A visceral duet of sweat and survival. No protection, just bare desire.
Fernando Troya | A Pelo Productions
Location: De Sloot, Grote Zaal
Dates:
- GENRE: Dance, Mime, Performance Art
- THEME: Fringe Award Winner 2024, History Re-told, Queer Stories
- LANGUAGE: Language No Problem
- This performance may contain nudity
- Specific accessibility description, check our festival page for more info, Toilet for wheelchair users: yes, Wheelchair accessible: yes
duration of the performance: 1 h
A Pelo [a ˈpe.lo] – adv. phrase 1. Carried out without protection or preparation, without much thought. 2. Naked; without disguise. 3. Colloq. without a saddle, bareback. 4. Fig. To face something unarmed, often on impulse.
In this raw physical duet that serves as a prequel to We play so hard it hurts, Fernando Troya takes you through a darker time in his past. A time of oversexualization, often leaving him feeling ugly and condemned. The piece shows how queer desire becomes the conflict and the body its battlefield. Unapologetically intimate: it wants to be seen, felt, and endured.
Two bodies trapped. As one tries to escape, the other becomes the jailer. What if the only way out is through each other?
A Pelo is not here to please you.
It’s here to own you.
Edging you with sweat and exposure – until nothing is left but skin, breath, and exhaustion.
Biography
Fernando Troya (1989) is a performing artist and the director of A Pelo Productions. He is currently supported by ICK Amsterdam. Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands though born in Madrid, Spain. He graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Dance in Madrid (2008) and did a BA in Dance at María de Ávila conservatory (2022). Though his practice as a maker expands to the realm of physical theater and performance.
In 2024 Fernando produced and presented We play so hard it hurts at Amsterdam Fringe with support of ICK Amsterdam, AFK, Norma Fonds, Free Willie and Club Church among others. And won the International Bursary Award, which is currently allowing the production to tour nationally and internationally.
He has also produced independent projects, such as the series Reminiscente, a 2.5 years research on Plato’s Theory of Form, and the painter Francisco de Goya; Essential Rights, awarded the BNG Bank Dansprijs in the Netherlands; and Withering, a solo performed and awarded in different festivals around the world.
credits
Maker Fernando Troya
Performance Fernando Troya & Hugo Cabral Mendes @hugocabralmendes
Photographer: Ferran Sanchez Castillo @ferran.sanchez.photo
Assistant Quentin Roger (to be confirmed)
Music by Marko Ivic
Light design Yuka Hisamatsu & Fernando Troya
Scenography to be confirmed
Business coach Martijn Schipper
Marketing Joren Lefebvre
Special thanks to Ignacio Sanz, and partners ICK Dans Amsterdam, Free Willie, Club Church and Amsterdam Fringe Festival (especially to Willem van Rossum and Farnoosh Farnia)
