This double bill is an examination of and confrontation with the Black diaspora. The performers converse with contemporary notions of blackness, whiteness and the surrealism of being required to fluctuate between the two. The South African dance artist, performer and author kemelo nozipho sehlapelo presents two works created as graduation pieces for her Masters degree in Choreography and Performance at Gießen which combine to form a resonant space.
Coconut focusses on the experience of diaspora and diasporic dances. Drawing from the performers’ diverse personal bodily archives, varied experiences of Afro-ness collide through dances, texts and songs to create a world of hybridity. In this hybridity, a type of Afro-surrealism emerges and the performance becomes an attempt to reconcile the past with the present.
_the new white aesthetic_ is dance performance that re-enacts imagery of canonical marble statues. Using the movement practice of ballet – understood as an ethnic dance of the Indo-European diaspora – in developing a practice of dilapidation or “butchered ballet”, the bodies traverse the space. Transitioning from image to image, they dance an erased polychromatic history, embodying the crumbling of empire and of the new white aesthetic.
Infos
Duration: 90 min.
Language: IsiZulu, English, German
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choreographer: kemelo nozipho sehlapelo
Performers (COCONUT): Tamira Kalmbach, kemelo nozipho sehlapelo. Performers (THE NEW WHITE AESTHETIC): Isidora Gazmuri, kemelo nozipho sehlapelo, Margareta Sinković, Santiago Mariño
Dramaturgical support/advice: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla
Costume design: Joelle Oliha
Lighting design: Tamira Kalmbach, Dana Maxim
Sound design: kemelo nozipho sehlapelo
A co-operation between Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Hessische Theaterakademie (HTA). The event takes place in the frame of Tanzfestival Rhein-Main. Tanzfestival Rhein-Main is an event of Tanzplattform Rhein-Main. Tanzplattform Rhein-Main, a project of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Hessian State Ballet, is made possible by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and is funded by the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture and the Foundation Alliance [Aventis Foundation, Crespo Foundation, Hans Erich und Marie Elfriede Dotter Foundation, Dr. Marschner Foundation, ODDO BHF Foundation, Foundation Polytechnic Society Frankfurt am Main].