Tiran Willemse
blackmilk
- 15.11 — 16.11 2025
- Performances
- Carpintarias de São Lázaro
- 5€
- ages 6+
- 1H10
“Black male melancholy” as an alternative to a culture of stereotyped imagery.
blackmilk, a solo by and with Tiran Willemse, merges the choreographed movements of trompoppies — Afrikaaner drum majorettes in uniform — with the melodramatic gestures of white femme starlets and the physical expressiveness of Black masculine rap icons. Drawing from this repertoire of mainstream bodily forms — at times rigid, exuberant, or sensual — blackmilk challenges representations of Black masculinities, confronting stereotypes and proposing ambiguous zones of identity.
Set to an intense soundscape of rap and pop, Willemse delves into the grey areas of identity — where bodies escape visible categories — and gives shape to a sensibility he terms “Black male melancholy”: a state of multiplicity and possibility, where strength and vulnerability, discipline and excess coexist.
blackmilk is the first part of a choreographic and political investigation into affect, discipline, performativity, and identity.
Credits
Concept, artistic direction & performance Tiran Willemse Light design Fudetani Ryoya Music Manuel Riegler Costume LML studio Berlin Production Paelden Tamnyen, Rabea Grand Touring/ Production Eva Cabañas Distribution Tristan Barani Co-production Sophiensaele Berlin, Tanzquartier Wien, Gessnerallee Zürich, WP Zimmer Antwerp Residency support Tanzhaus Zurich, Buda Kortrijk, Les Urbaines Lausanne, Impulstanz Vienna, Trauma Bar and Kino Berlin
Add to calendar
Zürich-based South African dancer and choreographer Tiran Willemse studied at P.A.R.T.S in Brussels and Bern University of the Arts (HKB). His performance-based practice explores the body’s physical and emotional depth using sonic and visual techniques to create somatic and psychological landscapes beyond the human condition. Tiran has worked and collaborated with choreographers like Trajal Harrell, Jérôme Bel, Wu-Tsang, Ligia Lewis, Meg Stuart, Andros Zins-Browne, Eszter Salamon and Deborah Hay. In 2022, he won the Prix Suisse de la Performance.