There she stands, confidently, like a goddess of technological junk, surrounded by endless mountains of rubbish, plastic, stench and rare earth minerals. An angry appeal to the world to take responsibility for the consequences of capitalism, colonialism and environmental destruction in Africa.

Q5 is inspired by the energy, feeling and expressiveness of Waacking; also known as Whacking or Punking. A dance form that emerged in the 1970s as an expression of oppression in the Latin and African-American LGBTQI+ underground clubs of Los Angeles. Through the sounds and movement language of Waacking, the 5 performers in the film dive into the 5th dimension. They explore different colors, portals, perspectives and worlds within worlds. All in search of the essence: The Quintessentials! The original theater performance and tour of '21 was canceled due to Covid and transformed into a 5-episode Waacking movie series that festively closes Cinedans FEST '24!

Mimeisthai is an experimental screendance that responds to Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘mimetic faculty’, which is, the ability to perceive and/or reproduce similarity. This generic skill is possessed by all living things and finds expression on various levels, from the biological to the behavioral; such as in reproduction or camouflage, to the myriad ways that creatures communicate.

In Mimeisthai movements are shared, copied and repeated between performers both on and off-screen, and then amplified across multiple frames. Through duplication, repetition, and layering multiple exposures, this work explores the mimetic faculty of dance and digital video.