A queer litany and contemplation of loss. A performative action, a ritual and adoration of one's own holiness. Love for oneself and devotion to the pleasure of trans-femininity, wiped out and silenced for centuries. Choreography of memories, emotions and traumas that lead to magical healing.

Valentine Tanz / Vala T. Foltyn – poetic choreographer, post_trans_witch, queer shaman, priestess of love, and activist.

A transdisciplinary artist, for whom art and life are an inseparable process. As a contemporary witch, she deals with magic, poetry and choreography - as she calls it - the strategies of subtle resistance: "My magic has become above all a political strategy and an artistic activity. I have ceased to distinguish between politics and art, my body and social body, home and public space, dance and performance, theatre and visual arts. Magic - or rather its choreography - is my thinking, my being in the world, my revolution, my celebration and victory. When I surrendered myself completely to intuition and emotions, I felt that this is where my true femininity opens up, and at the same time a deep healing process begins. It was in this process that I saw myself - a true woman, a witch, a priestess, a holy and divine woman, and a strong and independent Wolfess. The earth gave me comfort; it offered me limitless space to shed tears, where anger mixed with subtlety and poetry. I believe that witches and priestesses of love have always subverted power, introduced chaos into the existing reality, drilled holes in the mind of the patriarchy, and allured to love them those whom they wanted to rule over. My witch's power comes from my own source, from my vagina, from my viscera. When I began to understand this, I got engrossed in the practices of self-love, self-pleasure, self-bliss, self-adoration and I felt how affection and joy permeated my body and mind, and at the same time radiated across the world. I also knew that every act of intimacy to which I gave myself is a shameless act of corruption against the world of gods with whom I made love every night”.

photo E. Suchecka