Essayperformance by Julian Warner & Oliver Zahn / HAUPTAKTION
In 2013 white pop starlet Miley Cyrus performed a so called twerk choreography at the Video Music Awards together with her Afro-American dancers. The rhythmic shaking and the pornographic exhibition of the butt to bassy music caused indignation. At the same time, the performance made twerking accessible to a mass audience.
The appropriation and commercialisation of black dances and dances of other minority groups has a long tradition in pop culture and goes far back until the Minstrel Shows of the 19th century. The questions these cultural appropriations are raising are the same since then: What meaning are the dances carrying? Are the dances belonging to someone and who is allowed to dance them?
Based on Minstrel, Pop and Folk Dances, Oliver Zahn and Julian Warner examine cultural appropriation in its different forms. SITUATION WITH DOPPELGÄNGER is a performative essay with and about dancing, the potential of popularisation and construction of authenticity.
By and with: Julian Warner, Oliver Zahn
A production by HAUPTAKTION with Theaterakademie August Everding and Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, in cooperation with Ballhaus Ost Berlin.
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