In Untitled (Nostalgia, Act 3) the South-African born, Europe based choreographer Tiran Willemse invokes his own multiple histories of dance through a kaleidoscope of the 19th century ballet classic Giselle, the Kuduro from Angola, and the Nigerian genre Alanta. The ghost story of Giselle becomes the primary vehicle through which Willemse gives his past selves space to be as they are - ghosts, not dead, who have not left fully, though they may have been asked to. Both an exercise and an exorcism, Untitled (Nostalgia, Act 3) is an evocation of Black experience within European contexts, and a thinly veiled masquerade of its absurdities. As differently gendered bodies claim space for expression, their haunting simultaneously haunts cisnormativity.
What bubbles to the surface may be headless but it's not shy. The emerging dance is simultaneously a solo by Willemse and an ensemble performed with the unresolved tensions that move him. In limbo between presence and absence, these bodies -rendered invisible, suppressed, (as certain histories often are) invited, or not- have nevertheless come back to reclaim Willemse’s body. These multiple consciousnesses are given the room to rehearse both as and with Willemse, a repétition (rehearsal) with a difference.
After Saturday's performance, Andros Zins-Browne and Tiran Willemse will hold a follow-up discussion.
In Untitled (Nostalgia, Act 3) the South-African born, Europe based choreographer Tiran Willemse invokes his own multiple histories of dance through a kaleidoscope of the 19th century ballet classic Giselle, the Kuduro from Angola, and the Nigerian genre Alanta. The ghost story of Giselle becomes the primary vehicle through which Willemse gives his past selves space to be as they are - ghosts, not dead, who have not left fully, though they may have been asked to. Both an exercise and an exorcism, Untitled (Nostalgia, Act 3) is an evocation of Black experience within European contexts, and a thinly veiled masquerade of its absurdities. As differently gendered bodies claim space for expression, their haunting simultaneously haunts cisnormativity.
What bubbles to the surface may be headless but it's not shy. The emerging dance is simultaneously a solo by Willemse and an ensemble performed with the unresolved tensions that move him. In limbo between presence and absence, these bodies -rendered invisible, suppressed, (as certain histories often are) invited, or not- have nevertheless come back to reclaim Willemse’s body. These multiple consciousnesses are given the room to rehearse both as and with Willemse, a repétition (rehearsal) with a difference.
After Saturday's performance, Andros Zins-Browne and Tiran Willemse will hold a follow-up discussion.
| Concept, Artistic Direction & Performance | Tiran Willemse |
| Dramaturgy | Andros Zins-Browne |
| Music | Tobias Koch |
| Choreographic Advice | Laurent Chétouane |
| Light design | Fudetani Ryoya |
| Production | Paelden Tamnyen, Rabea Grand |
| Co-production | Gessnerallee Zürich, Arsenic – Contemporary Performing Arts Center, Lausanne |
| Supported by | Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Pro Helvetia, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Migros-Kulturprozent |
