The new piece by Constanza Macras continues a collaboration between DorkyPark and young dancers from Johannesburg, that began ten years ago as a scenic workshop in the dangerous suburb of Hillbrow. This encounter resulted in mututal enthusiasm, respect and admiration – and in Hillbrowfication, a futuristic show that laughingly danced around questions about the future ranging from depression to ambition. The global tour of this high-energy performance reached one of its highpoints in 2022 at the Gebläsehalle in Duisburg as part of the Ruhrtriennale.

For this reason, it only seems right that in The Visitors the Argentinian choreographer should pick up where she left off together with her South African team and present images of violence and horror but also of liberation from these through dance. In The Visitors 15 dancers express images of horror films to powerful musical beats. The project’s starting point is the popular genre of slasher movies, in which young people left alone at home by their parents are threatened and killed. The piece questions the construction of the other as a monster, the projections made onto Nigerian immigrants and the appalling consequences of the deeds committed by colonial interlopers, which continue to determine the structures of society and politics to this day. However, as in slasher movies, the horror in this dance performance is combatted creatively through humorous excess and absurd outcomes in non-linear contexts.

Produced by Constanza Macras | DorkyPark. Co-produced by Ruhrtriennale, Kampnagel, The Windybrow Arts Centre and Market Theatre.