Nelisiwe Xaba:
Fremde Tänze

Nelisiwe Xaba is based in Johannesburg and is one of the most important choreographers from South Africa. In her works, she often deals with the European image of 'African Dance'. In the spring of 2014 Xaba, was invited to the Julius-Hans-Spiegel-Zentrum at the Freiburg Theater, amidst the Black Forest in Southern Germany. During her residency, Nelisiwe Xaba created a dance evening based on the programs of female dancers such as Mary Wigman and Sent M’Ahesa. These pioneers of Modern Dance in the 1910s and 1920s often presented a series of short pieces accompanied by music. In one evening, they journeyed between distant places and times, or rather their imagination of them: a “Temple Dance” was followed by an “Indian Dance”, an “Arabesque” or a “Siamese Dance”. In her evening of ‘foreign dances’, Xaba rotates the perspective and exoticizes the Black Forest.

TICKETS The purchase of a ticket for Schönheitsabend or Fremde Tänze allows the reduced admission of 3€ to the archive works and films at the box office.

BY AND WITH Nelisiwe Xaba

A production of Julius-Hans-Spiegel-Zentrum/Theater Freiburg. Supported by TANZFONDS ERBE – an initiative of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and Goethe Institut.