Zwoisy Mears-Clarke:
Erste Schritte zu den Schwellen
Dance in public space
How do we leave the colonial space to which we have been accustomed for over five centuries? How can we cross the thresholds that lead from this space into different worlds? First, we need to get closer to those thresholds, step by step.
»Erste Schritte zu den Schwellen« (English translation: »First Steps Towards the Thresholds«) offers a new folk dance. The performance has its lineage in German mask traditions and, of course, finds its home in public space. Yet »Erste Schritte zu den Schwellen« doesn’t aim to drive away the winter but rather the local colonial structures.
In a slow procession, masked figures dance rhythmically, wearing bells between their shoulder blades while they describe their movements (as a creative, integrated audio description) and telling stories in German, Spanish, and English. Every figure is a transmuter and a seducer, looking forward to gathering and dancing with you!
Together, audience and performers traverse the space of local colonial and decolonial perspectives. But who knows what might happen after the procession—later, closer to the thresholds—besides sharing tea, sipping slowly, and wishing to linger?
Zwoisy Mears-Clarke is a choreographer of the encounter. Zwoisy uses the expanded potentiality of dance, audio description, poetry and storytelling to confront forms of systemic oppression, such as (neo)colonialism, racism, gender discrimination, and ableism, to open encounters that might otherwise seem unreachable. Zwoisy Mears-Clarke most recently appeared at the Schwankhalle with the dance performance »Geneigter«.
Credits
Concept / Community Organisation / Choreography / Performance / Audio Description / Text: Zwoisy Mears-Clarke
Co-Choreography / Performance / Audio Description / Text: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, Birte Opitz, Esther Siddiquie, Fia/Sophia Neises
Costume Design: Kristin Gerwien, Row Särkelä-Bassett
Mask Design: Camilo Pachón
Costume & Mask Assistance: Sara Alvarado, Wren Bisley, Lika, Conny Metzl
Music: Rishin Singh
Tea Design / Plant Research: Shelley Etkin
Dramaturgy for the Aesthetic Experience of Blind and Low Vision Audiences / Community Organisation: Fabian Lilian Korner
Dramaturgical Support for the Aesthetic Experience of Blind and Partially Sighted Audiences: Sabine Kuxdorf, Yasha Müller, Melanie Hambrecht, Andrea Eberl, Camilla Moitroux Fußhoeller
Dramaturgy for the Aesthetic Experience of Sighted Audiences / Black Dramaturgy: Yvonne Sembene
Consultation on Accessibility and Inclusion: Patrizia Kubanek
Consultation on the Perchten and Narren Traditions: Fastnachtsmuseum Narrenschopf Bad Dürrheim, Heimatmuseum Empfingen, Narrenzunft Rottweil, Maskeum Museum in Kirchseeon, Michael Fuchs
Conceptual Consultation: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, Diana Thielen, Joy Mariama Smith
Movement Research: Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, Birte Opitz, Diana Thielen, Raoni Muzho Saleh
Character Development Research: Doore Antrie, Birte Opitz, Diana Thielen, Esther Siddiquie, Obinna Ejike, Tatiana Mejia, Virgininia Krämer, Yin Cheng-Kokott, Zen Jefferson, Zinzi Buchanan
Production Management: Alexandra Schmidt
Production Assistance: Pascal Jung
A co-production of tanzhaus nrw and Schwankhalle Bremen. Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and the Herbert Funke Foundation.
Supported as part of the residency programme of PACT Zollverein (Essen), with funding from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The research was made possible by NPN-Stepping Out, #TakeHeart residency of the Fonds Darstellende Künste and PACT Zollverein.