Porträtperformance Ashley Temba

But people are not simple and unchanging, they are not monoliths! So how do I show the multiplicity that I am? How do I become the diversity I could be?


In his portrait performance, dancer and choreographer Ashley Temba searches for an image of himself — marked by cracks and fissures, shaped by external forces, characterized by diverse layers, and grown in his own time. The self of today is the result of countless decisions and conscious transformations. Despite all external attributions and attempts at fixation, it has always been in motion. Dance is the medium to express this transformation. Today, I am a choreography of my selves.


Ashley Temba was most recently seen as a dancer and performer in Flight of the Canaries (2023) by Bishop Black. In his art, he brings together numerous disciplines to achieve the directness and power he seeks. Now, he has taken a risk. Because here, in the Portrait Performance series developed at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, what matters is not what one has always done, what others expect, the prescribed role; what matters here is what is important to oneself. 


PORTRAIT is an invitation to artists to present themselves and their art. It is an invitation to the audience to encounter artists in a complexity never seen before.