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Three people with their skin painted white pose like statues in a dimly lit room
Nadia Perlov

COCONUT /
the new
white
aesthetic

Performance double bill by kemelo nozipho sehlapelo

OUTNOW! 2026
Schwankhalle
22.5.
Fr
20:00
Venue: Schwankhalle

Duartion: 90 minutes

Solidarity price system:
€8 / €12 / €18 ( free choice)
Bremen Pass: €3

Culture semester ticket: free of charge

Advance sales online only. Remaining tickets available at the box office.

Alternatively, you can reserve tickets by phone or email:
+49 421 520 80 70 (Mon, Wed—Fri 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., also answering machine) or ticket@schwankhalle.de

Please note: Our ticket hotline is not operated on weekends or in the evenings. We therefore ask you to make your reservations in advance.

Reserved tickets must be picked up at the box office at least 30 minutes before the start of the performance—after that, the reservation will expire.
The box office can be reached by phone 1 hour before the start of the event at +49 421 520 80 70.

Duration
90 minutes, no intermission

Language
English, isiZulu

Venue
All public areas of the Schwankhalle are at ground level and accessible without steps.

There are three different restrooms: one wheelchair-accessible restroom, one restroom with three stalls, and one restroom with urinals and one stall.

Audience Area
The audience is invited to move freely around the room. Chairs and cushions are available for seating.
There is sufficient space in the hall for several wheelchairs.

Individual access requirements
Individual access requirements such as specific seats, early boarding, or an additional ticket for an accompanying person can be specified when purchasing or reserving tickets.

Further information on the accessibility of our premises can be found here: Accessibility. If you have any questions, please contact us at ticket@schwankhalle.de or 0421 520 80 70.

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