In a world that is increasingly polarized, the landscape seems to be restricted to black and white. But what about the shades of grey, that wide range of colours reflected by the skins of a global majority, that’s nevertheless still labelled as a minority?

People thought her to originate from either Latin America, the US, North Africa or South East Asia. But dancer, performing artist and choreographer Moya Michael was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. Because of her mixed origins she was classified as a ‘Coloured’ person. About 20 years ago she moved to Brussels, but this label has always remained an important part of her identity, both as a person and as an artist.

In Coloured Swans Moya Michael questions how layers of imposed identities change how an artist moves, speaks, sings and what specific spaces their bodies visualize or capture. Moya invites artists from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds to join her in this quest. Together they will share their personal stories in order to confront and intertwine the complexity of their experiences into one overall creation. Each encounter leads to a solo created for and with the artist as one of the swans of Coloured Swans.

COLOURED SWAN 1: KHOISWAN 
Moya Michael / Tracey Rose
Together with visual and performance artist Tracey Rose, Moya Michael will explore the common visual images that reflect their ancestries, their histories and where they are today as women of colour and specifically as descendants of the Khoi people.

COLOURED SWAN 2: ELDORADO 
Moya Michael / David Hernandez
For the creation of the second solo, Moya will work with dancer, performer and choreographer David Hernandez. Points of departure reference David’s experiences as an American citizen and artist of Latino ancestry and the historic encounters between the Spanish colonialists and the indigenous peoples of Latin America and Mexico.