Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) will organise a contemporary German dance production ‘In The Skin of The Other’ on Friday, 30 November 2018, at 7:00pm at the Experimental Theatre Hall, BSA.

This German Dance Production is staged as a part of the ongoing ‘Young Choreographers’ Platform 2018’ project initiated by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh.

The German-based Togolese choreographer Kossi Sebastien Aholou-Wokawui was invited for the first time to present a German Dance Production in Bangladesh. ‘In The Skin of The Other’ is choreographed by Kossi Sebastien Aholou-Wokawui, and presented on stage by the choreographer himself along with the noted German choreographer and dancer Tomas Bünger. The performance depicts a transcultural dance dialogue, a choreographic initiation into the culture of the other that attempts to understand life through dance.

Kossi Sebastian Aholou-Wakawui was born in Togo but is now based as a contemporary dance choreographer in Germany, thus he himself depicts a choreographic initiation into the culture of the other. Togo was once a German colony and Kossi invited the German dancer and choreographer Tomas Bünger into a research on their two different biographies by asking the question: How close can I come to a different person? Beside the historical weight and in a times of separation, distance and fear, they go the other way - into the skin of the other. They explore how it feels to be ‘in the skin of the other’, to enter into each other’s bodies’ gestures, memories and knowledge. With respect and as friends they try to understand life through dance. Facing the growing xenophobia in the world, the two dancers intend to do its reversal. Kossi Sebastian Aholou-Wakawui, who moved from Togo to the Bremen dance scene in 2014, and Bremen based German dancer and choreographer Tomas Bünger, who has been working in Bremen as well as internationally for decades, celebrate a humorous, liberating discovery of one’s own in the other and vice versa. Kossi will continue to perform this piece in Togo and Germany in 2019.

Choreographer and dancer: Kossi Sebastian Aholou-Wakawui

Co-dancer: Tomas Bünger

Interested audience could register at program2-dhaka@goethe.de or collect complementary entry pass from the reception desk of Goethe-Institut Bangladesh.