When the calabash breaks is a commonly used expression in African cultures. A precious flask, the broken calabash symbolizes a loss or a significant rupture. This creation, anchored in spiritual cosmologies and rituals from the African diaspora, uses improvisation as a transformative and political tool. Together, intense and energizing, the sound and movement create an experimental ritual performance.

Biographies

Tiran Willemse, a South African based in Zürich, is a dancer, choreographer, and researcher. He initially studied ballet in South Africa and Europe, then trained in dance at P.A.R.T.S in Brussels and in theatre at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB). His performance-based practice is grounded in a close attention to space, imagination, gesture, and sound, focusing on how these elements intersect with constructions of race, gender, and memory. Tiran has worked and collaborated with choreographers such as Trajal Harrell, Jérôme Bel, Wu-Tsang (Moved by Motion), Ligia Lewis, Meg Stuart, Andros Zins-Browne, Eszter Salamon, and Deborah Hay. His work has been presented at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, the MACRO Museum in Rome, Arsenic – Centre d’Art Scénique Contemporain in Lausanne, the Impulstanz Festival and Tanzquartier in Vienna, the Santarcangelo Festival, and Sophiensaele in Berlin, among others. In 2022, he was awarded the Swiss Performance Prize, and in 2023, he was an artist-in-residence at Gessnerallee in Zürich.

Nkisi, alias Melika Ngombe Kolongo, is a producer, live musician, DJ, and curator. Through sound, she explores invisible forces by blending African rhythms, radical European dance, and dark synths. Co-founder of NON Worldwide, she has established herself on NTS and in major festivals. Her album 7 Directions and the EP The Dark Orchestra reflect her polymorphic vision. Influenced by psychoacoustics and Bantu cosmology, she also develops transdisciplinary installations and performances such as Initiation or Sènsa .