COCONUT /
the new
white
aesthetic
Performance double bill by kemelo nozipho sehlapelo
With »COCONUT / the new white aesthetic,« the dancer, choreographer, and activist kemelo nozipho sehlapelo brings together two of their performances:
»COCONUT« is an exploration, examination and confrontation of and with diaspora and diasporic dances. The performers converse with contemporary notions of blackness, whiteness, and the surrealism of being required to fluctuate between the two.
»the new white aesthetic« is a dance performance that re-enacts imagery of canonical marble statues. The performers traverse the space – daring the audience to question their complicity in the manufacturing of the white gaze. Ballet – understood as an ethnic dance of the Indo-European diaspora – is »butchered,« as bodies take refuge in the category of sub-human. Transitioning from image to image, they dance an erased polychromatic history: a dance that gestures towards failure. Embodying the crumbling of the empire, and of the new white aesthetic.
kemelo nozipho sehlapelo
kemelo nozipho sehlapelo is south african. African. A medley of IsiZulu, Sesotho, and Ndebele. A medley of all the places and spaces they have touched. They/she, if we’re using the English language. Her name or other ways of referral, if not. Likes to play with this language and its inherent failure (writes). Likes to conjure ancestral and diasporic reckoning on european soil, and likes to access that knowledge through aliveness of body and spirit, on African soil (dances). Is based wherever their root chakra is, which for now, is in Frankfurt, Germany. [This will update regularly.]
kemdoesitagain.com ↗
Instagram @kemdoesitagain ↗
Credits
Choreography, Concept: kemelo nozipho sehlapelo
Performers (COCONUT): kemelo nozipho sehlapelo, Hlengiwe Sehlapelo
Performers (the new white aesthetic): Isidora Gazmuri, kemelo nozipho sehlapelo, Laura Schönlau, Santiago Mariño
Dramaturgical consultation: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla
Spiritual guidance: Jorge Alencar, Neto Machado
Costumes: Joelle Marie Oliha / kemelo nozipho sehlapelo
Lighting design: Dana Maxim, (Tamira Kalmbach)
Guest performance with the kind support of the Goethe-Institut