Posts tagged CoRE

Point 84: We Are CoRE

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by Kenny Hughes

Photos by Kendra Jane B.

January 18, 2001 was the night where my performance art journey began and in many ways it’s what brought me to where I am today. My piercer at the time (and little did I know, soon to be mentor of a failed apprenticeship) asked me if I wanted to head to Houston to see some body suspensions. I’d already been doing research on the subject for many years via the internet and various publications, but never had the pleasure of witnessing a suspension in person. To say that 19 year old me was thrilled about going is a bit of an understatement. Entering the renowned #’s Night Club that night for the first time would leave me forever changed.

It wasn’t long after entering that I began to recognize faces that I had been stalking on BME over the last several years. These people may as well have been celebrities to me at the time, and actually just like today, I was too much of a weirdo to introduce myself. Soon there was some guy in a lizard suit on stage playing with fire and walking on glass… but it was no suit. This was my first time seeing the Lizard Man in person. We didn’t chat that night, but later he would help me and other members of the troupe with fire manipulation. Then there were the Jager Tour visits; that’s another story though. With a bit of a lengthy wait between sets, which would become a bit of an unfortunate trademark, I was a witness to the birth of CoRE. This was also my introduction to performance art in person.

The performers slowly came out and took their respective places. There were four separate suspension points for this mobile that represent the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. I was enthralled by the tedious job of rigging the suspendees to their rigs. Nothing at all compared to the breathtaking rigging that can be seen today; it was nothing short of captivating. Soon we could hear the all too familiar gut-wrenching noise of the chain hoist over the music, but this only meant one thing it was time to take flight.

The suspensions that night were vertical (Suicide), horizontal face-down (Superman), horizontal face-up (Coma), and knees. I found each one more exciting than the previous. The swinging, the stretching of the skin, and the blood, all mixed with the performance; the makeup, and the music all held my attention until the last person was cut down.

I got so much more out of that night than I ever thought possible. I just expected to go see some guys hang from  hooks, but  unknown to me at the time, the performance aspect brought it all to another level. Until you witness it yourself (in person) for the first time, you will never comprehend the gamut of emotions that can run through you as you are a part of such an event. It can bring laughter and extreme happiness and then make you cry for no damn reason like you never have before. For the following decade of my life I had the extreme pleasure of making observers feel this way with some of the best people I’ll ever have in my life.

A few months later, the same friend took me to Taurian to visit with the director of CoRE and, at the time, the Vice President of the APP, the incomparable Steve Joyner. Steve had already had a big influence on me, and that only grew in the years after as I had the pleasure of working directly with him. This man has done more for the piercing industry than what seems possible for a single person and he will never be equalled. If there was some otherworldly super hero for piercers it would be him. Even though we may have our differences from time to time, it is an honor to call him a friend and colleague. This visit is also the first time I met the skinny, dreamy, dread-locked Byriah Dailey. Byriah was the owner of Taurian, the head engineer for CoRE, and would many years later become my mentor in body jewelry manufacturing and piercing. He is still to this day my favorite person on this planet and the best piercer I know. If I owed my career to any one person, it would be this man.

After some discussions of future piercings and other things we grabbed some fliers for an upcoming CoRE show and were on our way. It was after that second show that I contacted Steve again and discussed what I had to do to become part of the troupe. I was quickly invited to come to their meetings and see how we all got along. It wasn’t long before I was doing my first suspensions both privately and for performances.

Soon CoRE was travelling across the country and at times other continents to perform for the world. From small art galleries in Paris to performing in front of well over a hundred thousand people at music festivals and yes, there was that one night at the Playboy Mansion. One of my personal favorite shows was one where we were battling fire breathing robots. This also happened to be the occasion where a reporter asked Kali, everyone’s favorite S&M body piercer turned Christian revivalist, if he was crazy, to which he replied, “yes, and I have the papers to prove it.”

All of this became the jump start to my piercing career. I’ve had people from the other side of the world contact me and tell me how I’ve helped them accomplish things in their lives that they never thought possible. It was always my intention and still is to this day to show the world how beautiful you can be. By pushing our own boundaries in life and art, we inspire others to explore their own. With enormous amounts of blood, Houston, Texas sweat, and tears this is what performance art is to me.

We are CoRE.

Mannequins dressed in CoRE ritual costumes and paraphernalia on display at this year’s BPA exhibit.
Photo by Matte Erickson

Point 84: CoRE-Constructs of Ritual Evolution

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The following is a blog post on the International Suspension Alliance website entitled “We Are CoRE” dated 9/13/2010:

““I try to remove bricks off the wall of society. In my lifetime, I will probably remove one brick from that wall, and that’s the whole point of this.” –Steve Joyner

Trying to write about Constructs of Ritual Evolution, or CoRE as you might know them, may be one of the most challenging subjects I have taken on. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that what they are doing on stage is more about what you personally take away from it than anything else. It’s emotion; it is about making you think. The beautiful pictures here can’t begin to do justice to watching the real thing and no amount of words could tell you what you would experience seeing it in person. I’m just here to tell you who they are and what they do. As for the rest… well, you would just have to see them yourself to figure that one out.

With an anniversary right around the corner, CoRE is coming up on ten years of performing, educating, and evolving into what it is today. What they are may be the trickiest question to answer. Are they performance art or suspension, actors or educators? The simple answer is all of the above. For as much as they put into entertaining the crowds on stage, just as much is put into their work with the suspension community. With links on their website to educational resources and their classes that range from cross contamination and aftercare to suspension safety, saying that education is an important part of what they do would be a drastic understatement. They take time to attend suspension conventions worldwide, traveling everywhere from Dallas to Israel to share what they know and with the classes he has taught through the Association of Professional Piercers and Professional Piercing Information Systems, CoRE’s founder and director Steve Joyner is a familiar face among both the suspension and piercing communities. Even the live show is a chance for them to teach through their actions on stage. Steve worded it best when he said that whether or not you consider yourself an educator, every time you step on stage, the people in that audience are taking with them what you have done.

CoRE founder Steve Joyner conducting a tour of the BPA exhibit at the APP Conference in 2018.
Photo by Matte Erickson

As for what to expect from CoRE’s live show, it tells us stories that could be taken differently by each person in the audience. Like any good work of art, it is made to reach you on a very personal level. They have worked to bring us something far greater than just people hanging from hooks, what they do on stage is nothing short of breathtaking. Having a cast of performers that range from elegant belly dancers and contortionists to bold and daring fire-breathers and suspension artists, CoRE’s show encompasses a unique blend of rituals, suspensions, and stage performance. Their well coordinated use of light and sound to compliment the acts on stage adds yet another dimension as you watch the show. With a rehearsal schedule that could rival Cirque du Soleil’s, this certainly isn’t just a group fooling around on stage. Every act is carefully prepared, edited, and rehearsed with special attention to the safety and well being of all of those involved.

I am so excited to see what the next ten years has in store for this remarkable group of people. I know we will continue to see many more shows coming up for CoRE in the future and if you have the chance to see them live be sure not to miss out on the opportunity to witness a spectacular performance by this one-of-a-kind theatrical group. You can keep up with upcoming dates, news, and educational events on their website We Are CoRE.

Thank you so much to everyone in CoRE for what you have given to all of us, both inside the suspension community and out. A special thank you to Patricia and Steve for being such a huge help in writing this article.

https://www.facebook.com/wearecore/