T.Will:
NEW TECHNIQUES II: RESIDENCY SHOWING

We would like to invite you to our second online showing, happening in the frame of the residency program NEW TECHNIQUES. T.Will will give insight into his research into the interrelation of race, gender and melancholia. On May 15, on our website we will release a DJ set by MCMLXXXV and a dance video shot at Sophiensæle in collaboration with Nkisi, Thyago Sainte, Kévin F. E. Bonono and Lucas Meyer-Leclère/LML Studio. On May 17th, T.Will and Nkisi will join the dance scholar Mariama Diagne (IKM - Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies, Vienna) for an artist talk on Zoom.

“Trompoppies” is an Afrikaans word for “Drum Majorettes” who perform formation dance in uniform. During his residency T.Will has looked at one of the main choreographic elements of these dances – the precise hand gestures. Through morphing Trompoppies movements with melodramatic gestures of white divas and heavy gesticulation linked to the image of black male rap-stars, the choreographer explores the performative dimension of race and gender. The practice invites a new kind of sensitivity and softness into cultural representations of black masculinity, opening them up to queer readings.

With the residency program NEW TECHNIQUES, Sophiensæle aims to support dance makers who have not yet benefited from structural support. Until the end of 2021, every half-year one choreographer will participate in the residency with their artistic team for one month. In November/December 2020 Rodrigo Garcia Alves and Liz Rosenfeld explored questions of dying and queer care; in March 2021 T.Will has been researching the construction of black melancholia; in November 2021 Angela Alves will work around the topic of pleasure and visualization. Sophiensæle is among nine Berlin production houses participating in Residency Funding Dance, the pilot project of the Berlin's Senate Department for Culture and Europe.