Situation mit Doppelgänger

Julian Warner & Oliver Zahn

There was a storm of indignation when Miley Cyrus performed a high energy twerking routine at the Video Music Awards: was this a white woman stealing a piece of African American cultural identity? Was her appropriation of rhythmic shaking and deliberately sticking out her backside to a heavy bass beat intended as homage or caricature?
The appropriation and marketing of black and other minority dance forms has a long pop tradition stretching back to the time of the minstrel shows in the 19th century as the contradictions within symbols of slavery, industrialization and patriarchy were danced and sung – and in the process pop culture was born. The questions which such cultural appropriations raise have remained the same ever since: who do such dances belong to and who is allowed to dance them? When is imitation a subversive technique and when does it reinforce hegemonic discourse? And when does it do both these at the same time?
In ‘Situation mit Doppelgänger’ director Oliver Zahn – the latest star of the independent theater scene – and cultural scientist Julian Warner perform synchronized dances with very different connotations. They use minstrel, pop and traditional dances as the basis to investigate the process of appropriation in various forms. ‘Situation mit Doppelgänger’ is a performance essay about the potential of popularization and the construction of authenticity, identity and the prerogative of interpretation. An analytical but also playful experiment on thin ice – somewhere between an art history seminar and a grinning comedy.

The show on 19 June will be followed by an Artist Talk

ON

Duration 55’

Tickets can be purchased here

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