When You Move Like That

Ilona Kannewurf tells the story of a young woman whose dream is to become a dancer. As the daughter of an African mother and a European father, she grew up in the eastern Swiss province in the field of tension between two cultures. Not least because of her origins, the path to becoming a professional artist proves to be long and rocky.

The narrator of "When You Move Like That" is five years old when she first appears in a mini-playback show in a shopping center. Later, as a teenager, she took part in dance battles in the hip-hop club. In her training in classical and contemporary stage dance, it is not easy for her to enter the professional dance business. The young woman struggles for recognition and her desire to combine dance and life.

In the play, different worlds collide: growing up between two cultures in the provinces. The different realities of life for young people growing up in the same Switzerland. And different dance worlds, which always also mean social reality. The play uses theatre and dance to describe the journey of a young woman who learns to assert herself against resistance. It appeals to the potential of every human being to realize themselves and actively shape the world.