Audio Gen X'er captures her generation in dance (story audio) Photos Performers in Rosy Simas Dance Projects. Rosy Simas Andy Warhol-style. Minneapolis choreographer Rosy Simas. Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Gen X'er captures her generation in dance
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
April 1, 2004

Performers in Rosy Simas Dance Projects. Simas' new dance piece is called "If Andy Warhol Were My Dad: 20 Scenes of Generation X." It examines the forces that shaped Generation X and the impact of Andy Warhol on the Gen X mindset. (Photos courtesy of Rosy Simas Dance Projects)

People born between 1965 and 1975 are known as Generation X. In the past, they've been described as aimless, cynical "slackers." Members of Generation X are now in their thirties and many are starting families, but to some extent, the stereotype still lingers. One "Gen X" choreographer in Minneapolis has created a dance piece she hopes will help her generation reclaim its identity.

Minneapolis, Minn. — 36-year-old Rosy Simas didn't become a card carrying member of Generation X until the last few years. It wasn't a case of condescending labels spurring her to come to the defense of her generation. It was Simas' growing awareness of a similarity with other thirty-somethings.

"I feel that I have a commonality with many people my age, and over the years I've been trying to figure out what that is," she says.

	Rosy Simas Andy Warhol-style.

Simas saw how her generation valued creativity and alternative lifestyles. After careful reading and research, Simas learned it was a population issue. Generation X is relatively small, especially when compared with baby boomers. She says our supply and demand society is drawn to numbers, which is why Gen X members have either been passed over or squeezed out of opportunities. Simas believes more than other generations, Generation X has had to carve its own existence, which is why its outlook toward work is so different.

"People who are a little older than us, in a more sort of competitive environment where there's so many of them, sort of more live to have a job," she says. "And we sort have a job to live."

The Generation X ethos infuses Simas' new dance production, "If Andy Warhol Were My Dad: 20 Scenes of Generation X." She and nine other dancers are performing it tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at the Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis. What's the Andy Warhol connection? Simas says Warhol's generation parented Generation X. She contends his artistic output, his wild sense of color and fascination with pop culture informs the Gen X mindset.

"You know I had had a subscription to Interview magazine for years, didn't really even make the connection," she says. "Started looking at all the things that he had created, that I had actually been influenced by but just didn't realize that he had anything to do with."

	Minneapolis choreographer Rosy Simas.

Simas says her piece is almost equal parts dance, music and original video. It's how she usually works but in this case it's also a nod to the Gen X desire for multiple levels of stimulation. Some of the dance scenes, as Simas refers to them, allude to the forces and events that shaped the Gen X outlook, from the Reagan era and the nuclear arms race to aids. Other scenes are pulled from her own life. The music she grew up with runs through the entire show. One scene was inspired by an Andy Warhol quote, in which he said he would rather be a tap dancer than a painter.

"And that piece actually deals with the idea of trying on different shoes, and what I mean by that is trying on different roles," she says. "And as a Gen X'er, I think that we did a lot of that."

Simas says the statement she's trying to make in "If Andy Warhol were my Dad," is that Generation X matters, and it wants to matter.

"Just because we weren't around when there was rioting in the street," she says. "Just because we didn't see JFK die. Just because we didn't burn our bras in the street or whatever, doesn't mean that we don't have a sense of community, doesn't mean that we don't have a sense of what it means to fight for what you believe in. We have experienced those things and we do have values and we do care about the future."

Simas is hoping a lot of Gen X'ers come to the show, so they can feel special, for a change.

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