Dance production by Lindsay Kemp, beased on the book ‘Our Lady Of The Flowers’ by Jean Genet (1943). Due to its sexual content the book was sold as high class erotica, but Genet never intended it as such. It would take until the book had been revised and reprinted by Gallimard in 1951 that ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’ received the critical accolades it richly deserved – even if Jean-Paul Sartre described it as “the epic of masturbation”.
According to Kemp, his next door neigbour gave him a copy of the book. Kemp devoured it in one sitting and immediately planned a show. It debuted soon afterwards in Edinburgh. Flowers transferred to London, then New York, Australia, and back to London for a six-month run at the Roundhouse. This is where Kate Bush saw the performance. She was so impressed, that she signed up for dance and movement lessons with Lindsay Kemp.
References
- ‘I first danced Salome in school, naked but for some toilet paper’. The Guardian, retrieved 24 August 2017.
- Lindsay Kemp’s ‘Flowers’: a legendary dance production inspired by Jean Genet’s novel. Dangerous minds website, retrieved 24 August 2017.