Feud: Capote vs. The Swans

Episode Six - Hats, Gloves and Effete Homosexuals

Aired: February 28, 2024

FX logo with a gold geometric pattern and a pink background.
Promotional image of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, image of actors Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Tom Hollander

CHOREOGRAPHER

Network: FX

Director: Gus Van Sant

Executive Producers: Ryan Murphy, Alexis Martin Woodall, Jon Robin Baitz, Gus Van Sant

Screenwriter: Jon Robin Baitz

Choreographer: Michaeljon Slinger

The Long Extinct Jazz Jig: For Episode Six of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Michaeljon re-created the iconic “jitterbug” scene inspired by the famous Studio 54 photograph of Truman Capote and his longtime friend - and Swan - C.Z. Guest.

Working under Van Sant’s direction with Tom Hollander and Chloë Sevigny, Michaeljon crafted a moment that felt deliberately out of step with the pulsing disco era around them, isolating their movement as something awkward, intimate, and distinctly of another time.

A scene from Capote vs. The Swans, Truman Capote flips through a newspaper titled 'Daily News' with a headline about a dance event featuring Truman Capote and C. Z. Guest. The photo shows two people dancing at a studio event.
“Sometimes when I’m there I think about all the dead people who would have loved 54. People like Toulouse-Lautrec, or Baudelaire, or Oscar Wilde. Cole Porter would have loved it.”
— Tom Hollander as Truman Capote in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans

Michaeljon makes an appearance alongside Tom Hollander and Diane Lane in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Episode Eight - Phantasm Forgiveness.