„Acid - The Opera“ is the performative part of more extensive research that uses the enquiry into different types of existence outside or through capitalism as the vehicle for inspiration, creation and expression.
It is inspired by the word Acid and its various meanings. It is a work in which Charles A. Washington, as a solo performer with friends (@darynadance), absurdly embodies different historical and present-day characters to explore the impossibility of non-linear time and other types of reality.
Choreography Performance, music, costume and light design by:
Charles A. Washington
Production Management
Thomas Dumke
Acid the Opera
Post Ironic Moustache is a contemporary dance piece that combines performance and drama in a cinematographic stage environment. Thematically inspired by the writings of the British cultural scientist MarkFisher, in particular the unfinished work of Acid Communism, in which he starts to unravel the neoliberal narrative that reaches a turning point in the late 60s, as means to consider how a post-capitalist society could develop. "Post Ironic Moustache" wants to deal with post-capitalism through embodiment and scenically. It questions what can be learnt from the spirit of the late 60s and how collective decision-making as a method to work can metaphorically stand for our society. Collectivitive living and the atomised individual are themes of the piece and our working methodology.
Choreography and Concept: Charles Washington
Performance & choreographic assistance: Alba T. Alvarez, Lilia Ossiek, David Le Thai, Yuja Fujinami
Music: Charles Washington mit Kerstin Möller u​nd Bernhard Teichfischer
Stage Design: Anuschka Kilian-Buck & Federica Menegatti
Fashion Design: Wenke Sommer & Wiete Sommer
Light: Kristin Feldmann Producation
Managment: Kerstin Möllerz
Film Edit: Lilly Chill
Camara: Christopher Haubold
Co-producation HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste
Funded by Der Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen Dem Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz der Landeshauptstadt Dresden. Neu Start Kultur #TakeAction
Post Ironic Moustache
Spinner Light
Inspired by Kandinsky’s colour theories, Spinner Light questions how colours, as signals of interpersonal relationships, influence different emotions, what unconscious messages are exchanged with each other, how colour brings us satisfaction, like tension or other feelings. Spinner Light is a movement and colour ritual that aims to create a state of harmony among the audience and to generate a space for humanistic hope rooted in a connection of body and mind and collective interpersonal experiences in uncertain political times.
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Concept: Charles A. Washington
Film and Edit: Stefan Koutzev.
Choreography incorporation with the dancers:
Seraphine Detscher, Lilia Ossiek, David Le Thai, Charles Washington
Choreographic assistance: Alba Alvarez
Costume Design: Romy Rehxheuser
Light Design: Sebastian Schrader, Kristin Feldmann
Original Musical Score by Charles A. Washington
Creative producer, Project management: Kerstin Möller
Performing Maleness: Uncoding Me
Performing Maleness: Uncoding Me aims to engage in a breakdown of stereotypes of the masculine and feminine in our society, describing them performatively and exposing toxic maleness inherent in social structures. It also questions modes of existence and belonging in relation to gender and nationality. What role the overall societal understanding plays in an individual's "I", ultimately allowing for a critical examination of one's own identity? In this work, Charles Washington wants to question his own coming of age as an "I," his norms and values that have made him, as the protagonist of this play, who he is today. A white heterosexual man born in Scotland and living in Dresden. How does ethnic, social and cultural background determine who we are and how the individual sees himself? What else am I besides what is written on my passport? In this piece, choreographer and dancer Charles Washington will explore how this confrontation allows for a different form of male self-expression and how this can help our society reduce a diffuse fear of being female. This piece aims to take an explicit political stance and advocate for a more violence-reduced, feminist society.
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Choreography and Performance: Charles A. Washington
Costume: Wiete Sommer
Music composition: Charles A. Washington
Production and administration: Kerstin Möller
Lighting design: (Johann) Geohwan Ju
M ~ {Birnam Woods}
Is a work that is inspired by the collective neo-ritual practice of clubbing and the relationships that are created in these subcultures. Every club around the world is different in some way or form: the size or shape of the dance floor, the glasses the drinks are served in or the type of music the DJ’s plays every week, what influence does this have on the clubbers? what kind of subculture does this create? and are subcultures curated by event organisers through their careful design of the atmosphere and clientele of a club night?
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M ~{Birnam Woods} is a choreography that is informed by this and aims to generate its own weird and wonderful subculture that is self-generating and influenced by its own creation. It reveals two performers entwined in relationships that have been founded on this subculture where style, language, and community holds them together. In the darkness of the club where their perception has been warped by the intensity of the beat and the visual stimulation of colour and strobe lights. What has changed so deep inside them to perceive the world and each other in a way that grips them so deeply to do it all again the following week?
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M ~ {Birnam Wood} performed live at objekt klein a, in Dresden. During COVID-19 when all the clubs closed down around the world, Arte: United we stream streamed live from different clubs around Germany. Object Klein a did it with a twist and added performance. M ~ {Birnam Woods} could be realised in the environment it was imagined. Taken from the stage and placed into a club with live music from Sorse.
​Other live performance and set by: Moritz Simon, Geist Anna AdamsAnd STILL LIFE by Enrico Sutter performed by Go Plastic Company with music by Murat Önen
