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Emerging Change Festival:: blackmilk

Tiran Willemse

blackmilk

blackmilk

© Tiu Makonnen

blackmilk is the first part of the trompoppies trilogy by Tiran Willemse. Trompoppies is Afrikaans and describes drum majorettes in uniform. The performance examines one of the choreographic elements of the formation dances they perform: the precise hand gestures. Fusing trompoppies movements with the melodramatic gestures of white femme starlets and gestures associated with Black masculine rap stars the work explores the distance between images of African and Afro-American male-presenting bodies.

 

blackmilk intervenes into this limiting repertoire of representations using the means of performance and explores a variety of affective bodies in the gray zones of legible identities, opening them up to a complex sensitivity that the artist describes as "black male melancholia".

With superb sound, striking theatrical effects and a dance that oscillates between virtuosity and despair, this solo is a powerful and suspenseful work that raises questions about the relationship between art and its reception, the conventions of artistic appreciation and sovereignty.

 

*Note:

There are periods of loud music, though not painfully so; the bass is noticeable. The subwoofer is routed to all four speakers. Strobes and darkness are used.

Runtime: Sat, 14/11/2026 to Sun, 15/11/2026

Concept, artistic direction, performance: Tiran Willemse

Music: Manuel Riegler

Lighting design: Fudetani Ryoya, Demi Jakob, Max Windisch-Spoerk

Production: Kelly Tuke

Tour management: Benjamin Fischer

 

A production by tiran in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE, Gessnerallee Zurich, Tanzquartier Vienna and WPZimmer Antwerp.

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