Joana Tischkau: Ich nehm dir alles weg

Dance/Theatre: Ich nehm dir alles weg - Ein Schlagerballett

Fri 14. & Sat 15.02., 19.30h, TQW Halle G, Austrian Premiere

What do Pina Bausch and the ZDF Hit Parade have in common, especially in terms of their nation-building character? Inspired by the subtitle "Schlagerballett" ("hit ballet") of an early work by Bausch and her company, which could perhaps be described as one of Germany’s most successful exports of high culture, choreographer and performer Joana Tischkau sets out in search of ways to queer the German national narrative. In the tradition of Black German pop stars such as Roberto Blanco, Randolph Rose, Marie Nejar, and Tina Daute, the performers dance and sing their way to an aesthetic "Germanness" that makes sense regardless of Whiteness and heteronormativity.

In this piece, Joana Tischkau – who is one of the co-initiators of Österreichisches Museum für Schwarze Unterhaltung und Black Music, which was established in Vienna in 2022 – opens yet another box from the archive of the Black German-speaking entertainment industry to examine the bizarre matrix of nation, showbiz, and white supremacy.

Artist Talk following the performance on Sat 15.02., Eike Wittrock (theatre and dance scholar, dramaturg) in conversation with Joana Tischkau and Elisabeth Clarke (choreographer and pedagogue, former ensemble member Tanztheater Wuppertal). In German.