blackmilk is the first part of a triology titled “trompoppies” created by Tiran Willemse. Trompoppies is Afrikaans and describes drum majorettes performing a formation dance in uniform. The performance examines one of the choreographic elements of these dances: the precise hand gestures.
By weaving the trompoppies disciplined movements with the melodramatic flourishes of white femme starlets and the dynamic gestures of black masculine rap icons, the performance navigates the chasm between portrayals of African and Afro-American male-presenting bodies. blackmilk challenges this narrow spectrum of representation through performativity.
Willemse probes the myriad affective bodies residing in the grey zones of legible identities, revealing a nuanced sensibility they term “black male melancholy.” In this charged performance, the artist, a virtuoso with a haunting, possessed gaze, subverts conventions and directs the spectator’s attention to the margins.
Tiran Willemse is a dancer, choreographer and researcher from South Africa based in Zurich and Berlin. Their performance–based practice is rooted in a careful attention to space, imagination, gesture and sound, focusing on how they relate to the ways in which construction of race and gender are performed, communicated and challenged. They worked and collaborated with Trajal Harrell, Meg Stuart, Jérôme Bel, Ligia Lewis, Eszter Salamon, Susanne Linke, Andros Zins-Browne and with Cullberg Ballet under Deborah Hay and Jefta van Dinther. Willemse was recently awarded the Performancepreis Schweiz 2023. Their work has been shown in e.g. Arsenic Lausanne, Impulstanz Vienna, Tanzquartier Wien, Gessnerallee Zurich, Sophiensaele Berlin, Palais de Tokyo Paris, and MCBA in Lausanne.