Joseph Toonga ⇊
BORN TO PROTEST

This dance on asphalt is about the aggressions that Black bodies are subjected to. With a group of captivating dancers and the empowering energy of hip hop, emerging choreographer Joseph Toonga asks how prejudice can be overcome.

Joseph Toonga’s first outdoor production for his company Just Us Dance Theatre is part of a hip-hop dance theatre trilogy. It was created to give a stage to black excellence and to demonstrate against racism. The performance requires nothing more than music and a little space. It lives entirely from its excessive energy and as an urban intervention during the festival it will invade different locations in the centre and on the outskirts: Stubengasse, Aegidiimarkt, Aasee-Park and Hamannplatz in Coerde.

With an all-female ensemble of five, BORN TO PROTEST tells of fragility, vulnerability and the struggle to constantly prove oneself. Driven by hip-hop beats with voice-over, the company dances and takes a stand against prejudice and exclusion based on colour and background. It is about the attacks that BIPoC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) bodies still face everywhere. About stigmas that need to be confronted. About inequality that must be fought.