blackmilk at Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre

blackmilk is an intense and tension-filled solo performance from dancer and choreographer Tiran Willemse, arriving at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre as part of Transform 25. Expect a night of movement that is as questioning as it is captivating.

Across the piece, Willemse blends different styles of movement – from the precise choreography of drum majorettes in uniform, to the melodramatic posturing of white femme starlets, to the stylised movements associated with masculine Black rap stars. Each sequence examines stereotypes of race, gender and identity, exposing both their rigidity and their fragility.

At its core, blackmilk is about complication. Through a close focus on hand gestures, Willemse unpicks the shorthand we use to read body language, opening those signs up to a more complex, more human sensitivity. He describes the work as exploring “black male melancholia” – a term that signals both the sadness of constrained identity and the potential of movement to resist it.

This solo forms the first part of Willemse’s trompoppies trilogy. “Trompoppies” is Afrikaans for drum majorettes, whose disciplined formations and uniforms provide both inspiration and a counterpoint to the freer, messier explorations of the trilogy. Co-produced by leading European venues including Sophiensaele, Tanzquartier Wien, Gessnerallee and WP Zimmer, the work has international scope while speaking with a deeply personal voice.

Co-presented in Leeds by Transform and the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, blackmilk exemplifies the festival’s mission: to showcase urgent, boundary-pushing performance that asks us to look differently at the world around us.

Intense, provocative and visually arresting, blackmilk doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it invites the audience to search for meaning in the questions it raises.