Dance/Performance
An event of the Black Story Month Bremen
In the Performance »Azúcar,« the Hamburg-based artist Antonya Silva relates the Afro-Cuban dances and practices of the Regla de Ocha or the Santerìa religion to the experience of Cuban exiles. The title of this autobiographically inspired exploration of the Afro-Cuban culture and diaspora, the exclamation »Azúcar!« was coined by the Cuban salsa star Celia Cruz. In her songs and at Cuban parties, it stands for an expression of joy, while at the same time referring to the diasporic dimension of Afro-Cuban culture, which evolved through the slave trade and the cultivation of goods such as sugar. Based on interviews with Cuban exiles, Antonya Silva and the dancer and choreographer Yorgenis Danger Garcia develop an immersive ritual that traces the Afro-Cuban experience in Germany between exclusion, self-empowerment and exoticization.
ANTONYA SILVA works interdisciplinary with a focus on performance, dance and installation. In 2021 she finished her Master in Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg. She showed her final project 23040 Hours at Kampnagel in 2021, as well as at the Fluctoplasma Festival in October 2022. In her artistic work, she pursues the search for postcolonial narratives and brings Black perspectives in Germany to the center of attention. Most recently, she collaborated with Mabel Preach in ESCAPE THE ROOM, FIGHT THE POWER (2020), Aphro SPACE PHUNK (2023) and AM ENDE DER REVOLUTION (2023).
YORGENIS DANGER GARCIA completed his training as a folklore and contemporary dancer at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) in Havana. In 2004 he graduated with honors as the best dancer in his class as a dance pedagogue at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana. After finishing his studies he started teaching at ISA and worked with the Compania de Danza Folclorica de Cienfuegos as a solo dancer and choreographer. Since 2008 he lives in Germany and teaches with a focus on contemporary dance and folklore / Afro-Cuban dance. In Bremen he is active in the dance and culture association Casa Cultural and teaches Afro-Cuban dances internationally.
Concept, artistic direction: Antonya Silva
Choreography: Yoyo Danger García
Performance: Yasiela Gómez Rodriguez, Yurney Hugo Blanco Cabrera
Stage design: Sarah Seini
Costume design: Meret Zürcher
Sound design: Kris Jakob
Music Composition: Carlos Andrés Rico
Production management: Flora Janzen
Dramaturgical consulting: Regina Rossi, Janis Jirotka
Co-production: Kampnagel International Summer Festival and Körber Foundation. Funded by the Körber Foundation as part of »Exil Heute-Produktionsresidenzen Für Künstler*innen« by Kampnagel and Körber Foundation as well as the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
Guest performance with the kind support of the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation.