Ein Schlagerballett

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 Germany's most successful export 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. After “Last Night a DJ Took My Life” (Schauspielhaus Zürich), Joana Tischkau pulls out another box from the archive of the Austrian and German Museum for Black Entertainment and Black Music, which opened in Wien in 2022 to unpack the unlikely yet plausible matrix of Austria, showbiz, and White supremacy.

ARTISTIC DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY Joana Tischkau PERFORMANCE & CHOREOGRAPHY Dayron Domínguez Piedra, Sidney Kwadjo Frenz, Ellias Hampe, Moses Leo, Deborah Macauley, Carlos Daniel Valladores Carvajal, Sophie Yukiko, Anne-Kathrin Hartmann SOUND Frieder Blume SOUND ASSISTANCE Kairo Fumilayo Edward COSTUME Nadine Bakota STAGE Carlo Siegfried LIGHTNING DESIGN & TECHNICAL DIRECTION Hendrik Borowski COLLABORATION DIRECTION Anta Helene Recke PRODUCER Lisa Gehring ASSISTANCE PRODUCTION Lianne Mol ASSISTANCE STAGE DESIGN Marie Göhler OUTSIDE EYE & INPUT Dr. Mariama Diagne PICTURES Lennart Brede