Zwoisy Mears-Clarke
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 – other than sharing and drinking tea and wishing to stay there a while?
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.
Duration: ca. 30 min.
Note: The audio description and touch tour are integrated into the performance; no registration is required to access it.
A pick-up service from Düsseldorf Main Station (at DB Information) to the performance venue, during the performance, and back to the main station is available for blind and low-vision guests. If you would like to use this service, please send a brief email to kontakt.ersteschwellen@outlook.com. A detailed route description is also available below as a PDF and as MP3 files.
For visitors with mobility impairments, a route description and a map with information on wheelchair-friendly and mobility aid-friendly paths are also available below.
Wegbeschreibung Jägerhofallee PDF
Wegbeschreibung vom DB Infopunkt zum Pavillon
Wegbeschreibung vom Pavillon zu den Toiletten im Theatermuseum
Wegbeschreibung Rückweg von den Toiletten im Theatermuseum zum Pavillon
Wegbeschreibung Rückweg vom Pavillon zum DB Infopunkt
Karte Jägerhofallee PDF
Barrierefreiheit Jägerhofallee PDF
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 Sarkela Bassett; Mask design: Camilo Pachón; Costume and Mask Assistance: Sara Alvarado, Wren Bisley, Lika, Conny Metzl; Music: Rishin Singh; Tea design, Plant Research: Shelley Etkin; Dramaturgy for the aesthetic experience of the blind and visually impaired audience, Community Organization: Fabian Lilian Korner; Dramaturgical support for the aesthetic experience of blind and low-vision audiences: Sabine Kuxdorf, Melanie Hambrecht, Andrea Eberl, Camilla Moitroux Fußhoeller; Dramaturgy for the aesthetic experience of sighted audiences, Black Dramaturgy: Yvonne Sembene; Consultation on Accessability 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 Optiz, Diana Thielen, Raoni Muzho Saleh; Character Development Research: DOore Antrie, Birte Opitz, Diana Thielen, Esther Siddiquie, Obinna Ejike, Tatiana Mejia, Virginnia Krämer, Yin Cheng-Kokott, Zen Jefferson, Zinzi Buchanan; Production Management: Alexandra Schmidt; Production Assistence: 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. Erste Schritte zu den Schwellen takes place as part of Dancing in Public, funded by the Kunststiftung NRW.
In cooperation with the Theatermuseum Düsseldorf.
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.
