Tanzfabrik
Berlin
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Uferstudio 1 / Winterbar Stage Stage
Stage
Photo: Tony Stewart

Emerging Change

Performance by Makisig Akin, Adrian Marie Blount aka GodXXX Noirphiles
In the frame of The Last Open Spaces?

Tickets   here

How far did your work go? Who did it reach? This is an embodied love letter to adrienne maree brown, the author of Emergent Strategies. Dance as an affirmation; Emerging Change is a dance event teaser curated by Makisig Akin and Nara Virgens which delves into the deep core of our fantasies, dreams and vulnerable truths that we embrace as secrets. A silent dream. The event reveals in the limelight the urgency of the curiosity that arises in us when we feel inspired. The choreographers respond with questions; How is dance connected to love, grief and joy. Is the body a home of your emotions? What does our communal body of emotion look like? Emerging Change will be presented at Tanzfabrik in Uferstudios, Berlin, Germany on the 23th of February 2022 as part of Open Spaces including the work of two queer BiPOC Berlin local choreographers as activists, performers and facilitators.

Makisig Akin

Give me your heart. No, the real one. 

The work is developed in the midst of grieving the loss we have been experiencing born from the pandemic and this forced distance we had and the extreme closeness that put a crack into the structures we thought were working but were not. How do we sever ties to the things we have loved and continue to love? Something or someone that was at some point in our lives an integral part of who we are. In our modern society, we think of breaking up as a process that has a particular need to focus on the individual process of untangling, where the only focus is to recover from this pain of grief that it created. But what about the idea of breaking softly, with care and with a particular attention to the preciousness of what has occured here and honoring that?

Adrian Blount aka GodXXXNoirphiles

Power Tower Pishiboro

The abridged creation myth of the San religion so goes that Pishiboro was bitten by a puff adder and died. When he died the world was created and his hair became the clouds that would create the life giving source of rain. Pishiboro resurrected himself and created human kind, and upon observing humanity realized they were incomplete. Thus he gave them hair to complete his creation. Through the use of Afrofuturism, drag, sound exploration, visual media and spacial installation, we will explore how we can collectively create a portal to guide us into transformative action by examining the great link of identity, power and opulence: Black People’s Hair.

Artist Talk after the two performances

Makisig Akin

Makisig Akin is a queer, transgender Filipino born choreographer, dance artist, facilitator, and activist. They were raised in the Philippines and are currently based in Berlin, Germany. Their work focuses on the recognition of intersectional identities, reconnecting with their ancestry, and decentralizing Western ideologies in dance making. They hold an MFA in Dance from UCLA. Their training includes Filipino Traditional Dance, Contact Improvisation, Kung Fu, Improvisation, walking meditation, Authentic Movement, Bouldering/Climbing, and Contemporary Dance. They examine how survival strategies can be translated into a communal physical practice, which they then use as a catalyst to a creative healing process. Akin´s work has recently been supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste and DISTANZEN. 

Adrian Marie Blount aka GodXXX Noirphiles

GodXXX Noirphiles (Adrian Marie Blount)- Parent to Chance Aijuka/ Non Binary Femme Boi/Founder/Organizer/ Curator/DJ- Is based in Berlin by way of San Diego, CA. After attending San Francisco State to obtain their BA in theatre, they performed in New York, traveled across the country with a touring theatre troupe, then moved to Rhode Island to perform with various Brown University programs including the Center for Slavery and Justice, Brown/ Trinity and Trinity Repertory theatre. Since being in Berlin, Adrian has taught anti-racist and collective healing workshops with various organizations such as Dice Festival and Conference and AfriVenir, dj’d internationally, performed at München Kammerspiele, Volksbühne, Gorki, Sophiensaele, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and English Theatre Berlin (and others) and is the founder and lead organizer of the drag collective House of Living Colors for exclusively queer and trans BIPoC.
Duration: 90 minutes

Admission free
Tickets   here
Co-curator: Nara Virgens | Co-curator & featured artist:  Makisig Akin |  Featured artist: Adrian Blount aka GodXXXNoirphiles

Give me your Heart. no, the real one.
Choreography & concept: Makisig Akin | Performance: Makisig Akin, Ana Libório | Songs: Harana by Parokya ni Edgar,  I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston.
Source of concept, inspiration, text: Adela Cabrera Rey, Lenny Mendoza Strobel, Adrienne Marie Brown, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Bell Hooks, Staci K. Haines, Francis Weller, Agnė Auželytė, Sarra Bouars, Maria F. Scaroni, Henrique Antao and Anya Cloud. 

Power Tower Pishiboro 
Concept, costume, set concept & design, sound design: Adrian Blount | Alex Hall: Videographer for Femi and Lexi’s hair bios | Featured artists: Femi Oyewole and Lexi Dark | Animation: Xixi Diana | Latex: Lupae. 
Inspirations & credits: Solange ‘Don’t Touch My Hair,’ Sun Ra ‘Nuclear War,’ Parliament Funkadelic “Swing Down Sweet Chariot,” drum solo sample by Nat Townsley: Drum Solo-2003 for Drummerworld, Kanye West “Power,” Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower and Kindred, Afrofuturism by Ytasha Womack, Creation Myth from Saan People of South Africa region | Hair Power Tower inspired by Nikola Tesla Wardenclyffe Tower.