Bio
Personal Info
Joana Tischkau works as an artist, choreographer, and director. In her artistic works, she exposes hegemonic visual regimes and deconstructs discourses around cultural appropriation, cultural reference systems, and authenticity. She lives and works in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin.
Career
Tischkau’s dance career started out in youth centers, hip-hop clubs, discos, stadiums, on carnival stages, in semi-professional contexts, and the dance school next door. She would only receive formal dance training later on, at Coventry University in the UK, where she completed her bachelor’s in dance and acting. During her MA in choreography and performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen, she developed a choreographic practice that interweaves the discursive fields of racism, feminism, popular culture, and Black German identity, while renegotiating them beyond conventional didactic approaches.
Works
The formats of her works are content-specific. Tischkau develops performances, musicals, dance theater evenings, works in public spaces, and participatory workshop formats.
They often start out by examining the European understanding of Blackness and Black culture in order to uncover moments in which supposedly authentic origins can no longer be clearly identified. In the process, they draw on postcolonial theories, feminist discourses, and pop-cultural phenomena to foreground the absurdity and arbitrariness of varying mechanisms of oppression.
Her productions have toured throughout Europe and have been invited to Tanzplattform Deutschland (Munich & Berlin), Impulse Festival NRW, Wiener Festwochen, Radikal Jung Festival in Munich, and Brecht Festival in Augsburg.
Grants and Awards
2024 She was honored with the the Tabori Prize, the highest award of the independent performing arts community.
2023 Playblack Radio by Jan Gehmlich and Joana Tischkau was selected as Radio Play of the Year and she participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program “Promoting Social Change Through the Arts,” funded by the U.S. Department of State.
2022 She received the #TakeHeart residency grant via the NEUSTART KULTUR program at Fonds Darstellende Künste.
2021 She received the Hessian Studio Grant (HAP) and the Ottilie Röderstein Scholarship of the Hessian Ministry for Science and Arts, which was awarded for the first time by Minister of State Angela Dorn.
2020 She received the #TakeHeart residency grant via the NEUSTART KULTUR program at Fonds Darstellende Künste.
2017 She was awarded the whatyouseeiswhhatyouget Flausen+ residency at Ballsaal Bonn.
2002–2010 She was runner-up in the Miss Niedersachsen competition, first in a “Fiery Food” competition at a Cologne currywurst stand, and in the audition for the Cologne American football team Cologne Centurions (NFL Europe).
2001 She was crowned Miss Göttingen.
2000 She won first place in a local Shake Your Ass contest in Göttingen.
Around 1993 She won the consolation prize in the children’s program Kinderquatsch mit Michael Schanze.
Teaching (selection)
2023–2024 Together with Mounira Zennia, she taught the seminar “Deutscher Rap ist kein Hip Hop – Von der Performativität Schwarzer Kultur im deutschsprachigen Raum” at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna.
2023 She taught the "Artistic Positions" workshop at the Berlin University of the Arts and the "Is this Appropriate – Where does the homage end and the parody begin?" workshop for the Choreography Year 2 & 3 program at the SNDO Academy of Theatre and Dance Amsterdam. She also co-authored a conversation piece with Josephine Apraku for the special issue "Undoing Mastery" at the Freie Universität Berlin.
2022 She was a speaker in the lecture series “Being on stage (off the record)” at the Hessian Theater Academy, hosted by the HfMdK Frankfurt. Together with Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, she gave the workshop “Is this appropriate” at the Dance Congress at the Staatstheater Mainz. She was also an academic assistant in research, art, and teaching in the directing program at the Thomas Bernhard Institute of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and held the MA seminar “Undoing Mastery —Perspektiven aus der künstlerischen Praxis” as a guest lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Lectures, Panels, Juries, Misc. (selection)
2024 She was a speaker at the Academy for Contemporary Theater Journalism of the Alliance of International Production Houses at HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin. She was also a juror at the 35th Federal Competition of German-speaking Drama School Students at the HfMDK Frankfurt and at the Hessische Theatertage at the Stadttheater Gießen. She gave an input presentation on the topic “Experiences and Strategies in the Implementation of Dance Projects in Cultural Institutions” for Diversity Arts Culture Berlin and curated the supporting program for the exhibition "The Culture" at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
2023 She took part in the panel discussion “Practices: Strategies and Tactics A Public Conversation” with Xavier LeRoy, then did studio visits at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at the Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen. She was also a speaker at the Academy for Contemporary Theater Journalism of the Alliance of International Production Houses at HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin. Since 2023, she has been a mentor at the Freie Waldorfschule Berlin-Südost and supports the initiative “Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage” as a speaker and workshop leader on Courage Day.
2022 She gave a lecture and participated in the panel discussion and lecture series “enterspaces” at Schauspielhaus Zürich, which was curated by Miriam Ibrahim and Brandy Butler. She also led the Fonds Darstellende Künste conversation lab “Auf Tuchfühlung” at Haus der Berliner Festspiele and took part in the panel “‘Queering Race’ Politics of Love #10” at Sophiensæle in Berlin.
Sponsors & Friends
- Funded by the
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Funded by the
Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt
- Texts (Website)
- Design & Coding (Website)
- Stage
- Costumes
- Sound & Composition
- Video
- Dramaturgy & Co-Direction
- Dramaturgy & Artistic Collaboration
- Artistic Production Management
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