Dance Ambassador Ophelia Onyeukwu

Impressions of the dance in August Festival 2025

An experience report

My visit to four pieces of the international dance festival ‘Tanz im August’ in Berlin showed me how different modern dance performances can be. Each one touched me in its own way.

"Dambudzo" by Nora Chipaumire

I have no words for the energy that ‘Dambudzo’ brought with it...This dance performance with sound installation has massively expanded my dance and performance horizon. Through the power of the dancers and the volume of the music, the stunning energy in the room became more and more intense within two hours.

The audience was able to move freely in the rooms of the Alte Münze, and so were the dancers. They changed space and place, were once together, sometimes distributed between the people watching. We as an audience were initially inferior to intense sensory overload, but ‘Dambudzo’ made sensory overload the norm. The dancers filled the rooms with indescribably powerful choreographies, polyphonic chants, sound installations and interactions with people watching us. The distance between the performers and us was close; Often there was direct eye contact and an honest smile, which emerged from both sides. But at the same time, the performers seemed so unapproachable. They shared a story about tradition, (neo-)colonialism and racism. ‘Dambudzo’ means ‘anger’ in Shona. Trouble with the past and the present.

The piece focused on tradition, culture and true humanity. The stories of the bodies told through movements were simply real. Be it the clay-on-the-wall throwing, the choreographed dancing as a whole group or the seamless connection of dance and singing. I have no words for the energy that ‘Dambudzo’ brought with it...you just have to experience it up close.

"Tournament" by Adam Lindner, Ethan Braun and the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop

The performance in the radial system included dance and live music by violins and cellos. The combination of the two art directions was very successful. The tones adapted to the dancers' movements and the movements to the tones. It was a perfect harmony, even if dissonances were played from time to time. The closeness between the musicians and the dancers was once close and then again absent. I was particularly touched by the individual duos of each dance and music, because they were their own harmony for themselves and yet at the same time in complete harmony between all. Towards the end of the performance, the musicians took off their instruments and changed their costumes. Only electronic music sounded. The new costumes were colorful. Now all performers looked the same. All moved together to the consistently fast tones. Although they all resembled each other through the costumes, both groups of performers did not mix. The end was a closing movement. Planned and yet surprising.

While watching, I was touched by the close connection between live music and dance. But also the respective art directions fascinated me. In dance, the individual choreographed movements, in music the individual predetermined pieces for each instrument. As an audience you got into a trance, through the sounds and the fast movements.

‘Suan’ by Nguyen + Transitory

The third dance piece ‘Suân’ was an enormous contrast to ‘Dambudzo’. The dance quality of ‘Suân’ differed fundamentally. Here the five dancers moved: calmly, in similarly lasting delicate movements. The focus was on the sensitivity of the hands and their great importance when dancing.

The five dancers performed together or solo for live music. The audience sat in the form of an arena, which made the stage and the dance more approachable. I liked that very much. The costumes were traditional robes, while the dance interwoven Thai tradition and modernity.

Two intimate moments, once between two women and then between two men touched me very much. They were also in the delicate quality of the dance piece, but with more plot. The relationship of the respective couples was story-telling.

Another highlight for dance ambassador Jasmin and me was the end, where the dancers invited us as an audience to dance. So the piece left the message: Let’s dance together!

‘Jungle’ (Korea National Contemporary Dance Company/ Kim Sungyong)

The contemporary dance piece by Korean choreographer and dancer Kim Sungyong was based on his philosophy that ‘dance is a language that cannot be described in words’. That's what I felt after seeing his piece.

The piece was full of energy carried through the constantly moving bodies. The one hour of performance felt timeless. As an audience one could hardly escape the pull of the piece. The play told of existence, exclusion, commonality, societies and simply life.

The sixteen dancers moved through the performance with a continuous force and tension to their fingertips. Some movements were so accurate and reminiscent of ballet steps, other movements were improvisational and fluid. Often the dancers were in close relationship with each other, but there was no contact and yet there was a close connection with each other.

The Haus der Berliner Festspiele gave them a large stage on which fog inserts and impressive lighting effects were possible, which made the piece a whole.

I am still very impressed by the performance and take a lot out of it for myself.

My impression:

I was able to learn a lot from all four pieces of the ‘Dance in August Festival’. Not only new dance movements, but also new ways of thinking about social issues. I find it a wonderful opportunity to see dance pieces from different parts of the world through the festival. And ultimately, it shows me that dance is a language that we all share and that unites us. With dance, all artists of the four pieces expressed their feelings, experiences and thoughts.