By John Owoo

(Berlin – Germany)

German-Ghanaian dancer Isabel Kwarteng-Acheampong thrilled a nearly full audience at Ufer Studios last week with a performance that combines movement language inspired by a dialogue between tradition and modern urgency. 

In a remarkable performance on the final day of Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025, she showcased gestures rooted in Ashanti dance styles, breaking into sharp, fragmented movements that seemed to express frustration with discrimination. 

These shifts are not random outbursts but carefully measured responses — a negotiation between restraint and release, as if the body itself is learning how to turn rage into resilience. In the stillness, a lone drummer layers the show with refreshing rhythms from Ashanti’s talking drums. 

Moments of stillness punctuate the performance, creating silence heavy with anticipation — a counterpoint to the bursts of rhythm and flow. This oscillation between calm and turbulence reflects the central theme: navigating the contradictions of living as a Black queer person in a society that constantly questions one’s existence.

What resonates most is not a story resolution, but the feeling of endurance. By embracing her Ashanti roots while also recognizing her German identity, she refuses to let one erase the other. Instead, she builds a bridge between them, showing that hybridity itself can be a powerful act of self-preservation.

The performance leaves the audience with the feeling of having experienced an intimate ritual — not closure, but an invitation to embrace complexity. In doing so, Kwarteng-Acheampong transforms personal struggle into collective reflection, emphasizing that resistance can be as much about care and continuity as it is about confrontation.

Kuyum Tanzplattform 2025 is being sponsored by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin, Ufer Studios, Theatre Haus Berlin, Kulturplakatierung Dinamix, Rausgegangen and Tip Berlin.

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